The March Trust Matters Review

Stephen Shapiro writes about Ethos, Pathos and Logos: what Aristotle can teach you about sales. It all starts with trust. And, as an aside, Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle is still the best simple schema for writing an article, book or speech where you’re trying to convince someone of anything.

CEO Richard Fain of Royal Caribbean talks about his managing style, see if you can spot how it’s ultimately based on trust, and why it wouldn’t work if his subordinates didn’t trust him.

Andy Rudin discusses whether it’s possible to trust a salesperson on commission and if moving your salesforce to salaries will increase trust—and sales.

Professors Ko Kuwabara and Oliver Sheldon compare the long term effectiveness of building trust gradually vs leaping in with a big trusting gesture works. Is your usual strategy supported by research?

Peter Lacy, Managing Director of the Accenture Sustainability Services Group, and his co-authors lay out the case for trust and how to build it (pdf). How much does lack of trust cost you, and how much can trust earn you?

Psychologist Elisha Goldstein asks if we should trust ourselves or experts more, and relates the question to neuroscience.

Andrew Brandt, of the National Football Post, argues that NFL owners and players couldn’t reach a deal due to mutual mistrust, not because of the merits of the deal itself.

Marina Ashdale tackles the question of who gets more respect, men or women, by looking at the experience of transmen, women who have had gender change operations to become men. Two guesses what they report, but the first doesn’t count.

Thorfinn looks at the relation between government size and trust. I think he’s overdrawing his conclusions, but the data is fascinating and maybe I’m wrong.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop shows how to be brutally honest in a brutally honest memo about the “burning platform” Nokia is standing on. Honesty isn’t enough, but it’s the first step.

Gwen Sharp writes about whether game show audiences are trustworthy, and what the differences are between audiences from different countries. Fascinating cross cultural comparison of trust.

The Trust Matters Review highlights the best articles and posts on trust our research has turned up in the last month.

If you’d like to share a great article about trust, let us know, in the comments here or through the Trust Matters Review submission form.

For more links to outstanding articles on trust, see:

• Trust matters Review: February 2011
• Trust Matters Review: January 2011
• Trust Matters Review: December 2010