If You Build Transparency, Trust Will Come

“The assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” 

That is the “Merriam-Webster” dictionary definition of the word trust, and what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

Over the past few years, has your trust in family and friends grown? How about trust in your business relationships? Now, for a loaded question — how about trust in institutions, government, and what you believe the future is going to look like?

We have all likely lost trust in these things at one time or another. With all the turmoil and changes we’ve experienced over the last couple of years, assigning and earning trust is more important than ever…but also more difficult than ever.

Who Gets Your Trust?

How we determine who or what earns our trust has profound consequences in our lives and our futures?

• Do we trust the people and things in which we have the same opinions and objectives because it is comfortable and easy?
• Do we trust what is closest to us because we know more about it and can more easily influence it?
• Do we withhold and neglect trust from the more distant and uncertain things in our lives?

None of these are the only path that should be taken. In truth, we need to assign a degree of trust to everything in our lives.

You may think trust is a thing we only dish out to those we agree with or are fond of, but trust doesn’t work that way. Our reliance on character doesn’t always mean the character in question has to be good. Our reliance on ability or strength could actually be a reliance on the lack thereof.

For example: It seems we can always trust a politician we dislike to do and say the things we disagree with. Sometimes this example is more of a certainty than trusting anything in our more immediate sphere.

The truth of someone or something is often an uncharted wilderness, but we all do our best with the information we have to map it out to survive and succeed in life.

The Key to Trust Is Transparency

So, how do we get better at assigning and earning the trust of others? The answer is simple:  transparency.

Transparency has no agenda. It is an unobstructed view of something. When we see something for what it truly is, we can rely on that truth to be accurate even if it is only for an instant in time.

The best thing we can all do as individuals or as organizations to increase trust is to adopt more transparency. This means not obfuscating or omitting anything for easy gains. It also means full disclosure even if it is difficult or unpleasant.

In the end, the truth always seems to have a way of revealing itself, so why fight it?

At ICS, we strive to be transparent in everything we do. We help make your insurance transparent for you. And, by building this transparency, we hope to earn your trust as a partner and to build your own trust in the future you dream of.

What are your thoughts? What questions do you have for us? We’d love to talk with you. Simply reach out!