Stephen M. R. Covey

When trust is low, speed goes down and cost goes up

From “The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything” by Stephen M. R. Covey Consider another example, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in the U.S. in response to the Enron, WorldCom, and other corporate scandals. While it appears that Sarbanes-Oxley may be having a positive effect in improving or at least sustaining trust …

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The One Thing That Changes Everything

There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world – one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love. On …

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Low trust slows everything

Low trust causes friction, whether it is caused by unethical behavior or by ethical but incompetent behavior (because even good intentions can never take the place of bad judgment). Low trust is the greatest cost in life and in organizations, including families. Low trust creates hidden agendas, politics, interpersonal conflict, interdepartmental rivalries, win-lose thinking, defensive …

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The 7 High-Trust Organizational Dividends

Now consider the dividends of high trust. Obviously the opposites of the 7 Low-Trust Organizational Taxes we’ve just discussed are dividends. To lower or eliminate redundancy, bureaucracy, disengagement, politics, turnover, churn, and fraud will certainly make a huge positive difference in the Trust Accounts and results in any organization. But there are additional high-trust dividends …

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The 7 Low-Trust Organizational Taxes

Redundancy Redundancy is unnecessary duplication. Of course, redundant mission-critical systems and data management are necessary. But a redundancy tax is paid in excessive organizational hierarchy, layers of management, and overlapping structures all designed to ensure control. For the most part, it grows out of the paradigm that unless people are tightly supervised, they can’t be …

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