The Organizational Trust Equation

The Five A's:

Aspirations
Identify what keeps people working and focus your organization's aspirations by looking up and out at the same time that you're meeting Monday-morning demands.

Abilities
Make sure your organization has the resources to execute its stated aspirations, and that your company is empowering employees to put life into their vision.

Actions
Don't let distractions, crises, or crusades slow down your organization's productive momentum.

Alignment
Be consistent in your aspirations, and consistent between your aspirations and your abilities, your aspirations and your actions, your abilities and your actions.

Articulation
Communicate with your peers, your reports, your company at large, as if you have an orchestra and you can use every instrument in turn, or in groups, or en masse, whatever your choice.

Versus One R:

Resistance
Identify in your company and overcome the four sources of resistance-fear, skepticism, frustration, and embedded we-they mindsets.

The Hertz Never-Lost System

Hertz and other similar systems use global positioning satellites. In the context of an organization, though, you won't need tools as much as you'll need people who have a good sense of the pulse of the organization and whether that pulse is in tune with what's going on outside. In some companies, the "never lost" system is made up solely of the people in the CEO's inner circle. At other organizations the system includes people on the board, people in similar industries, analysts, retires, and people far down in the organization. Some of the most effective members of a never-lost system are people who work directly with clients or customers. Some top managers call these people members of their "kitchen cabinets." Some call them "the other folks in the foxhole." Pick the words or phrases that suit you, so long as the meaning is clear.