The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything (Paperback)

by Stephen M.R. Covey (Author), Stephen R. Covey (Foreword), Rebecca R. Merrill (Contributor)
Key Phrases: restoring trust when, ways that build trust, extending trust, Smart Trust, Talk Straight, Get Better (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Trust is so integral to our relationships that we often take it for granted, yet in an era marked by business scandals and a desire for accountability this book by leadership expert Covey is a welcome guide to nurturing trust in our professional and personal lives. Drawing on anecdotes and business cases from his years as CEO of the Covey Leadership Center (which was worth $160 million when he orchestrated its 1997 merger with Franklin Quest to form Franklin Covey), the author effectively reminds us that there's plenty of room for improvement on this virtue. Following a touching foreword by father Stephen R. Covey (author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and related books), the junior Covey outlines 13 behaviors of trust-inspiring leaders, such as demonstrating respect, creating transparency, righting wrongs, delivering results and practicing accountability. Covey's down-to-earth approach and disarming personal stories go a long way to establish rapport with his reader, though the book's length and occasional lack of focus sometimes obscure its good advice. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
Covey convincingly validates our experience at Dell -- that trust has a bottom-line impact on results and that when trust goes up, speed goes up while costs come down. This principle applies not only in our professional relationships with customers, business partners, and team members but also in our personal relationships, which makes this insightful book all the more valuable."

-- Kevin Rollins, President and CEO, Dell Inc.

"This book can change lives. Covey helps us understand how to nurture and inspire immediate trust in every encounter, which is the foundation for true and lasting success in life. A very interesting and enlightening read."

-- Larry King

"Covey brilliantly focuses on that overlooked bedrock of democratic capitalism -- trust. Like the air we breathe, we too often take this critical intangible for granted. As Covey makes clear, we do so at our ultimate competitive peril."

-- Steve Forbes, President and CEO, Forbes

"Want to be an irresistible positive force? Combine personal responsibility with compassion and respect for others. Want to know how to do this perfectly? Read The Speed of Trust."

-- Dr. Laura Schlessinger, internationally syndicated radio host and author of The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage

"Covey's book underscores the single most important factor -- the substrate -- that will determine the success (or failure) of any organization in the 21st century: TRUST. This is a powerful read: brave, imaginative, amazingly prescient, and backed up by empirical and analytical heft. A must-read for anyone in a position of responsibility, from a support group to a global corporation."

-- Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, USC, and author of On Becoming a Leader

"This much-needed book provides many practical examples of how greater trust produces better results, at less cost, sooner -- at work and in life. It's invaluable."

-- Spencer Johnson, M.D., author of Who Moved My Cheese? and coauthor of The One Minute Manager

"Stephen Covey's work changed the world. I'd bet the price of this exciting book and more that his son, Stephen M. R. Covey, will have at least as much impact. The Speed of Trust is an amazing book, starting with its novel and powerful title -- my greatest wonder was why it hadn't been written before. From the epigraph -- 'Speed happens when people truly trust each other' -- to the closing bell, this is a book worth savoring -- and implementing."

-- Tom Peters

"When I received this book and was asked to read it and offer my comments, my first impulse was, 'I don't have the time.' However, as I read the foreword, then the first few chapters, I could not put it down. It is exactly what business leaders need today. This book gets to the core roots of ethical behavior and integrity and how 'trusted' leaders and organizations do things better, faster, and at lower cost. Everyone should make the time to read this book."

-- Nolan D. Archibald, Chairman and CEO, The Black & Decker Corporation

"I am happier when I am trusted, and I bet you are too. Covey has done a masterful job teaching that trust is conditioned on our behavior and that we can consciously shift our behavior to deserve trust. This one realization can change your life. This is the best book by a Covey since 7 Habits."

-- Richard Carlson, Ph.D., author of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and Don't Get Scrooged

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (February 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416549005
• ISBN-13: 978-1416549000
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #509 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, True Insights but a lot of Padding, December 29, 2007

By	Dianne Roberts (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything (Hardcover)

First off this book has an important and true message about just how vital trust really is to getting anything done. The lack of trust in modern society, and its continuing decline is a major issue not just in business, but socially, politically and in the family. Thus this is a timely book and the 3 star rating is not meant to indicate that it is really wrong or poorly written in any manner.


The reason for the only 3 star rating is that there is a whole lot of padding. The author does a very insightful job of investigating the components of trust, and exploring and explaining the dynamics of how trust can be built (and destroyed) in families, in teams, and in institutions. These explanations make it worth buying the book and at least reading it's . . . table of contents. The only problem is that the book is easily twice as long as it needs to be. I really think there's nothing wrong with a short book, but the author and/or publishers must have been afraid that the sixty page or so treatise these could have been wouldn't have been taken seriously.

A good book you should read and implement, or perhaps read the first few pages of each chapter and skim at will when it starts to sound like it's just filling space on the page.

70 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Description of the Advantages of Forming Trust, the Psychology of Trust, and How to Build Trust, November 22, 2007

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything (Hardcover)

Trust can make things easier, and distrust can definitely make things much harder. You already know that. But do you know how to check out where you need to change in order to create more beneficial trust? The Speed of Trust can help those who need a template for such self-examination.

Mr. Stephen M. R. Covey is the son of Dr. Stephen R. Covey of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame. If you've read that famous book, you may remember young Stephen referred to by his father as the seven-year-old son who was asked to keep the yard "clean and green" and did neither at first. Dr. Covey writes the foreword for this book and refers to that example. Ms. Rebecca Merrill helped with the writing of Dr. Stephen R. Covey's book First Things First which was coauthored by Roger Merrill.

Trust is expressed by a paradigm that includes five waves of trust (self trust based on the principle of credibility, relationship trust based on the principle of proper behavior, organizational trust based on the principle of alignment, market trust based on the principle of reputation, and societal trust based on the principle of contribution). Most of the book is taken up with examining those five waves and their underlying principles. The core of the book comes, however, in the 13 behaviors that establish trust (talk straight, demonstrate respect, create transparency, right wrongs, show loyalty, get better, confront reality, clarify expectations, practice accountability, listen first, keep commitments, and extend trust). Each section of the book comes with ways to check on your performance and to create plans for improvement.

This book is by far the best development of the subject of creating and restoring trust that I have read. That makes the book an essential reference. I congratulate and appreciate the authors for tackling this important subject.

I would be remiss, however, in being a trustworthy reviewer if I didn't point out some weaknesses in the approach:

1. Some of the examples of trust and mistrust drawn from Mr. Covey's experiences aren't terribly satisfying to read. Perhaps the most jarring example is one of the early ones in the book that describes the distrust that the Franklin Quest people felt toward him after the company merged with Covey Leadership Center. Mr. Covey comes across as unbelievably naive for not having taken into account how the two cultures should mesh (if at all) in engineering the merger. That's a more fundamental lesson than the lack of trust point. In addition, he doesn't seem to realize that merely being the son of the company's founder would make many people who didn't know him skeptical of his qualifications and his talent. Having read about how naive Mr. Covey was in this situation undercut my confidence in his ability to address the subject of trust. But I did appreciate his willingness to share such a painful experience in his book.

2. Most of the examples that are cited that do not involve Mr. Covey's direct experience are very overused. They same examples have been used to prove excellence in many other dimensions. As a result, the book doesn't come alive as much as it might. The examples conjure up memories of other books and arguments rather than cleanly bringing across the authors' trust-related points.

3. The book's structure and style are pretty pedantic, but without the precision that an academic would bring to the subject. In most areas, the authors rely on your sense of what's right rather than giving you clear lines of what to do and what not to do. That's fine if you already have a well-defined sense of how trust is formed and re-established. But if you don't know the answers already because you haven't lived in that kind of an environment, the book will leave you with too little direction.

4. Ultimately, long sections of the book are very general and boring. The major exceptions are the examples drawn from Mr. Covey's own family. I found those examples to be fresh and interesting.

After you finish this book, I suggest that you think about those who have gained your trust and distrust. What did they do? Examining those personal examples will add a lot of depth to the general ideas presented here.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The importance of trust!, January 23, 2008

By	Sahra Badou "Bibliophile" (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything (Hardcover)

There is one thing that is common to every individual, organization, nation, and civilization throughout the world--one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, and the deepest love. On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. According to the author, that one thing is trust.

The author says that "The Five Waves of Trust" define the way we establish trust and make it actionable. Understanding these waves will enable you to speak and behave in ways that establish trust, allowing you to become a leader who gets results by inspiring trust in others.

First Wave: Self Trust. The key principle underlying this wave is credibility.
Second Wave: Relationship Trust. The key principle underlying this wave is consistent behavior.
Third Wave: Organizational Trust. The key principle underlying this wave, alignment, helps leaders create organizational trust.
Fourth Wave: Market Trust. The underlying principle behind this wave is reputation.
Fifth Wave: Societal Trust. The principle underlying this wave is contribution.

Here is a list of useful concepts I liked in the book:

Trust is the "hidden variable" in the formula for organizational success. The traditional business formula is: (Strategy x Execution = Results). But there is a hidden variable: (Strategy x Execution) x Trust = Results.

Trust always affects two outcomes: speed and cost. When trust goes down, speed goes down and cost goes up. Consider the time and cost of airport security after 9/11, or costs for Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance in response to Enron, WorldCom and other corporate scandals. When trust goes up, speed goes up and cost goes down. Warren Buffett completed the acquisition of McLane Distribution from Wal-Mart on the basis of a two-hour meeting. Because of high trust between the parties, the merger took less than a month.

In a high-trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing and people will still get your meaning. In a low-trust relationship, you can be very precise, and they'll still misinterpret you.

If we can't trust ourselves, we'll have a hard time trusting others.

Who do you trust? Why do you trust this person? Now consider an even more provocative question: Who trusts you?

To use the metaphor of the tree, integrity is the root. Even though it's underground and not even visible most of the time, it is absolutely vital to the nourishment, strength, stability and growth of the entire tree. We've all seen people with enormous capability, strong results, and good intent who go about what they're doing in a dishonest way. On the other hand, to have integrity only is to be a "nice guy," or a thoroughly honest person, who is basically useless. To most people, integrity means honesty--telling the truth and leaving the right impression.

Results matter to your credibility. They give you clout. Returning once again to the metaphor of the tree, results are the fruits--the tangible, measurable, end purpose and product of the roots, trunk and branches.

Sometimes, poor behavior turns out to be bad execution of good intent.

Communicate clearly so that you cannot be misunderstood. Declare your intent, so you leave no doubt about what you are thinking. Be honest and call things what they are. Don't manipulate people, distort facts, or leave false impressions.

Be real and genuine and tell the truth in a way that people can verify.

Make restitution instead of just apologizing. The opposite is to deny or justify wrongs because of ego and pride, and to cover up mistakes. Apologize quickly, take action to make restitution when possible, and demonstrate personal humility to achieve this behavior.

Give credit to others and speak about people as though they are present. Don't badmouth people behind their backs and don't disclose others' private information.

By establishing a track record, making the right things happen, being on time and on budget, and not making excuses for not delivering, you quickly restore lost trust on the competence side.

Continuously improve by learning, growing and renewing yourself. Others will develop confidence in your ability to succeed. The opposite is the eternal student--always learning, but never producing. Don't be afraid to make mistakes but learn from them.

Take the tough issues head-on. It is far better to address the real issues and lead courageously in discussions of uncomfortable topics.

Do both: hold yourself and others accountable.

Genuinely understand another person's thoughts and feelings, before trying to diagnose or advice. The opposite is to speak first and listen last, or not at all, and to pretend to listen while waiting for your own chance to speak. Use your eyes and your gut to listen as well as your ears, and don't presume you know what matters to others.

Keep all commitments the symbol of your honor.

Extending trust leverages it to create reciprocity. Do not extend false trust by giving people responsibility, but no authority or resources to complete a task. Extend conditionally to those who are earning your trust, but extend it abundantly to those who have earned it.

Doing good is no longer an addition to business; it is part of business itself.

Inspire trust by starting with yourself and your own credibility, and then consistently behave in trust building ways with other people.

Restoring trust within an organization may seem difficult; however, the fact that high-trust organizations outperform low-trust organizations by three times provides a strong incentive to make the effort. In the 1990s, Nike was criticized by activists for not being socially responsible, based on the conditions in some of the plants of their foreign manufacturing partners. However, Nike's behavior over the ensuing years resulted in 2005 with being listed as #13 on the "Best Corporate Citizens" list.