William Shakespeare said “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
I agree with love all and do wrong to none, but can we afford to trust only a few in this hyperconnected world?
With the advent of social media, we as individuals, brands, and organizations must attract opportunity through our purpose, principles, and capabilities. You cannot forcefully “grab” attention for your message. Well, you can, but it is very costly from a marketing expense.
There are two-sides to TRUST. Being trustworthy and being trusting. Being trustworthy is always to the best of your abilities do what you say and being accountable to all your interactions and transactions.
The Wikipedia’s definition of “Trusting”:
One party (trustor) is willing to rely on the actions of another party (trustee); the situation is directed to the future. In addition, the trustor (voluntarily or forcedly) abandons control over the actions performed by the trustee.
If the Trustee has a track-record of accountability, this would make it easy and more efficient (faster speed and lower costs) to trust especially in a business interaction & transaction.
Where do you go today to find that open track-record or metric of accountability? The answer is the Relationship Capital (RC) metric.
Relationship Capital (RC) is an accounting of the interactions between “entities”, including people, businesses and products. Interactions include Commitments (actions) and Perceptions (thoughts and feelings). Entities earn RC by keeping Commitments and obtaining positive Perceptions. They receive a Relationship Capital Point (RCP) for each fulfilled Commitment, and an RCP, or a fraction thereof, for each positive Perception obtained. RCPs are deposited in an RC Account under the strict control of its owner entity.
The objectives of RC are to provide a common vocabulary for relationship interactions and to account for the interactions as they occur. Accordingly, RC uses a “standard-in-the-cloud” platform to enable entities to engage in interactions and capture RCPs in near real time. The platform is provided by RNIA, an independent body.
To begin growing again, we need to trust more relationships and we need to trust more efficiently and effectively in the emerging online social business marketplace.
“To Trust or Not to Trust…That is THE question.”
Thank you William Shakespeare!
-Rob Peters
