Trust has been trashed. Governments, institutions, and entire communities have eroded it for decades. The decline started in the late ’60s and has not slowed.

We are heading into an election in a few months.

Last time, both major parties barely scraped a primary vote in the 30’s. In my lifetime, that number has dropped from close to 50%.

People no longer trust the system.

I’ve been around long enough to remember when this rot set in. The Vietnam War was the turning point. The official reports were a little more than wishful thinking and deception. Every night, TV screens told a different story from what the official version of what was happening told us. It was the start of an endless conga line of lies, misdirection, and cover-ups that continue today in Europe and the middle east, as well as everywhere else it seems.

As the lies piled up, trust in institutions crumbled. For years, the erosion was slow. Then, in the mid-’90s, the internet arrived and kicked it into high gear.

Suddenly, we had access to opinions, ideas, and facts that had been previously unseen by all but a few. Today, we carry the internet in our pockets. The moral authority that institutions once held is gone. They may still have legal power, but their credibility is best likened to an old fashioned snake-oil salesman.

The world has shifted from ‘Ownership’ to ‘Performance.’

Consumer behaviour and expectations have changed far more quickly than the institutions that supposedly govern that behaviour. Ownership is way less important than previously. It is being replaced as we speak by ‘Utility’. Increasingly we seek to control the outcome far more than we seek to control the means by which that outcome is achieved.

We don’t want to own cars. We want transportation. We don’t need DVDs. We want instant access to movies, music, news, and so on.

Business models have shifted from ownership to pay-as-you-go. The advantage is the reduction and often removal of entry and exit costs. Without sunk costs, we are free to move when we become dissatisfied for any reason.

People now pay for results, not promises. Performance, not possession. That means institutions of all kinds, including businesses, must be transparent and accountable.

Trust, Accountability, and the Business of Outcomes

I’ve spent 25 years as a consultant, building trust by guaranteeing outcomes. I’m not McKinsey with a glossy reputation. I’m an old bloke who’s been there, done that, and has the results to prove it. Clients trust me because I make them a simple promise: if I don’t deliver, they don’t pay. That’s real accountability.

Banks, politicians, corporations, service providers, every institution of every type, should take note. People aren’t buying your stories anymore. They are buying results, and they have the wherewithal to check your claims against the outcome.

Even churches face this challenge. Selling faith has worked for centuries, but evidence of the afterlife only comes after you’re dead. That makes customer retention an act of faith only. That said, religious institutions are among the best marketers in history. If anyone can adapt, they can. However, to an agnostic like me, they have not shown anything like the agility required to retain followers as the capacity for critical thinking and fact checking increases.

The bottom line? Humans need something to believe in.

If institutions want trust back, they need to earn it, not just tell us they deserve it.

Related posts:

How will the banks ever recover our trust? The formula for trust, and how to lose it. The 7 critical elements of ‘trust’ How do you build ‘Institutional Integrity’?