Did you know there are more research papers on defining trust than any other sociological concept?
That’s according to Rachel Botsman, a world-renowned trust expert, trust fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, and author of the bestseller Who Can You Trust?, which provides an exploration of how technology is transforming trust.
As the adage goes: “Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose.”
It’s also hard to define as its meaning has long been debated.
Botsman contends that most definitions of trust are too rational, describing trust focally as an assessment of risk while neglecting our human nature.
Instead, Botsman offers up this explanation: “Trust is quite literally a bridge between the known and the unknown, and that’s why my definition of trust is so simple: Trust is a confident relationship with the unknown.”
The problem is that we, as humans, don’t like the unknown. Facing the unknown makes us vulnerable, which opens us up to the risk of feeling shame – something we avoid at all costs.
But vulnerability is necessary to grow trust. It’s part of our passage to the other side.
“The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome,” writes Brené Brown in Dare to Lead.
Trust says despite the possibility of disappointment and loss, I’ll take the leap.
“Trust leap happens when we take a risk to do something new or in a fundamentally different way,” says Botsman.” They allow us to “show how trust is a conduit for new ideas to travel.”
Trust is the momentum that propels change.
Continue reading on the blog to learn how CSMs can be an agent of change, why trust matters, and seven tactics to employ today to start building trust with your customers.
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