The Decision To Trust by Robert F. Hurley - Book review

The Decision to Trust

How Leaders Create High-Trust Organizations

By: Robert F. Hurley

Published: October 25, 2011
Hardcover: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1118072642
ISBN-13: 978-1118072646
Publisher: Jossey-Bass

"Trust is central to human existence. like all social animals, human beings have an instinctive need to cooperate and rely on each other in order to satisfy their most basic emotional, psychological, and material needs. without trust, we are not only less happy as individuals but also less productive in groups", writes professor at Fordham University and president of Hurley Associates, Robert F. Hurley in his comprehensive and thought provoking book The Decision to Trust: How Leaders Create High-Trust Organizations. The author describes despite the overall decline in trust found in today's society, it's critical for companies to develop trust within their organizations and its teams, to achieve peak performance.

Robert Hurley recognizes that the current loss of trust in institutions and business is an important phenomenon in our lives. At the same time, however, the author understands completely that without a high level of trust, organizations cannot achieve a high level of productivity and performance. Robert Hurley points out that without a high trust factor in a company, attracting and retaining top talent is very difficult to attain. If co-workers don't trust their managers or one another, very little will be achieved in the organization either. Robert Hurley considers trust to be at the very foundation of an organization's success. As a result, the author shares his dynamic framework for building and maintaining trust in any company, and achieving top performance.

Robert F. Hurley (photo left) understands the dynamic nature of trust relationships within an organizational culture. This dynamism is based on experience. If the employee is faced with deceit, the individual will lose trust in the deceitful person. Once lost, that trust is very difficult to regain and reestablish. On the other hand, if an employee is rewarded in a trusting relationship with managers and co-workers, the level of trust will be deepened and strengthened. For employees at the team level, or at the level of the entire organization, a culture of trust will achieve superior results over a climate of fear and mistrust.

Rober Hurley proposes the Decision To Trust Model (DTM) to enrich the trust level within organizations. The factors are as follows:

* Security
* Similarity
* Alignment of interests
* Benevolent concern
* Capability
* Predictability and integrity
* Communication

For me, tho power of the book is how Robert Hurley combines the theoretical framework for improving trust levels with the practical tools and techniques to establish more organizational and team trust. The author demonstrates how to pinpoint the areas where trust has broken down, and provides the process for repairing the damage, as well as building new bonds of trust between people. Robert Hurley strengthens his proposed Decision To Trust Model (DTM) with a step by step system for its implementation.

The author also offers two decades of research data, real world case studies, and examples of improved trust resulting in more engaged and productive employees. Robert Hurley demonstrates clearly that trusting organizational cultures operate on a higher degree of performance and are more profitable for the company.

I highly recommend the essential and engaging book The Decision to Trust: How Leaders Create High-Trust Organizations by Robert F. Hurley, to any business leaders, managers, or anyone involved in employee relations who are seeking a proven and effective system for creating, nurturing, and deepening trust levels within organizations. This book, and the processes it contains, will transform a company culture from one of fear and mistrust, to one where engaged employees perform at peak levels, and where profitability is much higher than ever before.