The Trials and Tribulations of Measuring Trust

Trust thought for today - is about the trials and tribulations of measuring trust (which I ducked in my report as it was too big a lift alongside everything else).

Lots of questionable purposes for trust measurement (and remember the thing about chasing trust for its own sake perhaps being counter-productive!?)

So it's worth getting clear - What are you doing it for? How does it relate to demonstration of trustworthiness? Should it in fact be about a shared understanding of trustworthiness instead of/ as well as trust? How open are you to different views of what trust and trustworthiness are? How are you intending to act on the findings? How trustworthy is the whole process and its desired outcomes? What is the evidence for the trustworthiness of the whole process and outcomes? And so many more!

Here, in case anyone is interested, are the OECD Guidelines on Measuring Trust. More focused on countries than companies, but helpful but dense nonetheless if you are looking at that area.

It also brings back all the brain-ache about definitions of trust (chapter 2, page 36). They have “A person’s belief that another person or institution will act consistently with their expectations of positive behaviour.” I have 'A belief in another's trustworthiness'.

I can give anyone an hour or two on why all these academic definitions here are unhelpful and why I came to the conclusion about mine (and why it is a bit different to theirs!). Steven Tiell following our chats on this and trust in the untrustworthy, thought you might like theirs if not seen!

Happy to chat with anyone looking at this in more detail!

Read the full article here: https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/oecd-guidelines-on-measuring-trust_9789264278219-en#page48