Trust Is The Core Of Good Reputations

Stop Reputations Falling Apart

Dr. John Paling, the Founder and President of The Risk Communication Institute has devoted many years to helping organizations across the world to DEVELOP TRUST with their clients and stakeholders. He believes that constant attention to clear and sympathetic communications, coupled with delivering quality products and services are the best antidotes to avoiding a major loss of reputation with the attendant economic and societal damages. His experiences analyzing claims of poor performance – including major law suits over such issues as medical malpractice – offer tools that apply to dealing with reputational risks.

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The Essential Elements Of Trust

John teaches that trust is not a vague feel-good phenomenon that is difficult to define and hard to study.

On the contrary, he sees it as resulting from a combination of two powerful but subjective ingredients. This can readily be illustrated by taking a specific example from the medical field.

Dr. Paling’s textbook for doctors, “Helping Patients Understand Risks,” and his commissioned article for the British Medical Journal includes this illuminating graphic that can be immediately applied not only to what we know about trust in healthcare but also what to look for in good reputations.

Understanding How To Minimize Reputational Risks

In brief, if any communicator is viewed as neither competent nor caring, the result is invariably DISTRUST.

However even if the communicator is viewed only as very competent but does not demonstrate real caring, then on its own, that does not lead to trust but rather something like RESPECT.

Similarly, if a communicator is felt to be totally caring but is not viewed as reliably competent, then again the result is not TRUST but rather “AFFECTION” or some similar form of gratitude.

The KEY REVELATION is that the perception of TRUST for an individual or corporation requires high measures of BOTH COMPETENCE AND CARING.

Business Risk Cartoon

Risk Management Graphic
Risk Management Cartoon

In the case of doctors, when they are felt to be both highly competent AND highly caring, then they are likely to enjoy a radiant reputation.

On the other hand, when they do not clearly demonstrate these two characteristics, patients are likely to reject them vigorously.

The above scenario is easily understood for healthcare. However, the Risk Communication Institute believes that the same two elements (with small adjustments of definition) are involved in developing and keeping a good reputation. Thus on the diagram

Good Reputations Come from Caring Plus Performance

LOW CARING and LOW PERFORMANCE lead to dissatisfaction and a POOR REPUTATION:

While High Performance and Low Caring lead to technical acceptance but nothing more.

Similarly High Caring but Poor Performance leads to a measure of personal toleration but not a strong reputation.

It is only when there is a PERCEPTION of HIGH CARING and HIGH QUALITY OF PERFORMANCE that you get HIGH TRUST along with a HIGH REPUTATION.

Perceived Caring & Quality Performance Graph