Trusting More Than "Eight Feet"

One of Charles Schultz's Peanuts cartoons has Lucy saying to Linus that she doesn't trust anybody.  Linus replies, "You don't even trust me?"  "I trust you about as far as you can throw your blanket," says Lucy.  Linus then heaves his blanket, looks at Charlie Brown and says, "My sister trusts me eight feet."

Linus communicates what many of us feel about those with whom we do business.  We may buy their products and services but our trust in them is not very high--maybe only about "eight feet."   We don't easily dismiss the hundreds of billions in losses in our 401Ks, our homes, and jobs that has been experienced in our country because of others' greed, corruption, lying, misrepresentation, exaggerated financial reporting...and the list goes on and on.  "Eight feet"?  Why should we trust them at all?

And yet we want to believe, we want to trust, we want to have confidence in what companies tell us about their products, their services and about themselves.  How much do you trust the following representations made in the form of mission statements, logos or taglines?

• All the News That's Fit to Print (New York Times)
• Fair and Balanced (Fox News)
• Commitment Runs Deep (Devon Energy)
• Bettering the Human Condition (Hospital Corporation of America)
• We Make Home Possible (Freddie Mac)
• We Are Creating Value--We're Committed To Doing Even More (Fannie Mae)
• High Performance.  Delivered.  (Accenture)
• Spirit to Serve  (Marriott International)
• You're Going to Like the Way You Look.  I Guarantee It.  (Men's Warehouse)
• Always Do The Right Thing (The Scooter Store)

I must admit that I have a little of Lucy in me when I read some of the assertions above.  But what does it take for me, for you, for the public to really believe, rely upon and trust what a company says about itself?  Certainly not perfection.  We don't expect even the most trusted and ethical companies and firms to be free of errors, occasional lapses of judgement and some bad decisions.  That's part of being human.  What we would like to see in a company is the antithesis of what Jim Collins in his book, How The Mighty Fall, describes as five stages of decline:  hubris (excessive pride); undisciplined pursuit of more; denial of risk; grasping for salvation (drastic measures to save the company); capitulation to irrelevance or death (simply giving up).

We all have learned a few things about companies/firms coming out of the scandals of 2000 and the lies, misrepresentations, and exaggerated financial valuations of 2008.  Among my principal take-a-ways is that I now look for some semblance of humility by corporate officers, a disciplined and methodical approach to growth and profitability, and risk taking that is reasonable, measured, and communicated. 

After college, as I prepared to be an auditor for Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young), my Dad sent me off with one of his memorable aphorisms:  "A lie stands on one leg; truth on two."  I'm sure I laughed a bit at his advice rolled up in that statement, but now, years later, I realize my Dad had a doctorate in the elements of human trust.  We all need to mean what we say and live up to the trust statements we dare proclaim.

"Eight feet" is far too short for trust!

Ad astra, per aspera