#1. Conflicts of Interest: There are multitudes of conflicts of interest that can undermine trust. Politicians giving contracts to friends or family instead of to the most qualified person or company. People giving positions of employment to friends or family, again in place of people more qualified. Politicians or public officials taking kickbacks on contracts. I would like to have input on this from you as to how conflicts of interest in Sub-Saharan Africa breakdown trust.

#2. Rising Litigation: In Western culture people may require a person they intend to marry sign a document to protect their money or other assets in the event of a divorce. Can you imagine wanting to marry a person you distrust? Legal contracts to protect themselves from others before engaging in business dealings has become automatic today. Bad behavior, theft, and greed have caused great harm to trust. How much more profitable could businesses be if people were trustworthy? How much more effective could NGO’s be if administrators did not steal resources?

#3. Low customer loyalty:  For many years in the West, business dealings and transactions were built on personal relationships. Today much business is conducted online and there is no relationship between the parties. There are many advantages to having a personal relationship between a business and its clients.  Is this a concern?

#4. Media coverage of scandals:  Being “attacked” (overwhelmed) with negative news coverage, whether accurate or exaggerated, often creates more negativity because it leaves the possibility in our minds. Many people would not think of others as untrustworthy until they hear that someone has acted in such a way. This makes them think that anyone might do this to them, and distrust abounds. Thoughts?

#5. Fast social networks: Information, critiques, and information, whether true or false travels fast on today’s social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Opinions that either build or destroy trust can travel around the world in a very short time.

#6. Technology: The biggest challenge we faced in Cameroon (which continues today) is technology. Although technology can provide many wonderful benefits for patients and healthcare professionals, it is all so fragile and can be lost in a moment with a power surge or power drop. The constant power outages and infrastructure failures put communications and personal computers at risk as well. What can be done to build trust in this area?

#7. Fear: Fear of the unknown is human and an obvious barrier to trust. We most easily trust the familiar. With rapid change happening all around us there is so much to understand. If we don’t understand something it is hard to trust it.” Fear will cause you to view things in such a twisted manner that you lose all healthy sense of perspective. Then you will doubt what you should trust and trust what you should doubt.” Lisa Bevere, author.

#8. Negative Experiences: If a person receives a text with someone offering a deal if you send money then is robbed, they will likely not trust such text messages again. If a woman is abused by a man, she will likely find it hard to trust a man again. What experiences have you had that have caused you to lose trust?

#9. Individualism: Africa is more known as a collectivist society, where people are loyal to a group, be it family or tribe. However I have had experience where one tribe did not want to share an abundant source of water with a neighboring tribe, is this a form of tribal individualism? Also I was told by a few people who had won the immigration lottery to go to the US but were afraid to tell anyone out of fear that they would try to stop them from going. They did not trust anyone. I would love to have some help in understanding this idea. What other areas do people not trust other people within their group?

#10. Diverse Thinking: While there is certainly value in the diversity of thoughts, ideas, and cultures, this is an area where we can return to the fear of the unknown. People trust the familiar. This is why organizations find that although diversity can lead to innovation, new ideas, creativity, and success in many ways, it can also be a barrier to trust. In this Integrity Group, there are people from different tribes and regions and denominations, can this be a barrier to trust? If so, what could be done to overcome that?

#11. Instant Gratification: In these days of the internet and certain electronics, people are learning to want everything quickly, without effort, discipline, or hard work. Email, digital photography, instant news and easy access to music and other digital media are becoming expectations. Trust, as we have seen takes work and time and for this reason it may not be achieved. Yet, there is no other way to sustained success but to be trusted.

#12. Focus on the Negative. Another difficulty in understanding trust is that much of the research concerning trust has traditionally be focused on how trust has been ruined rather than how trust can be built. Now is the time to solve the trust problem. What we need is a clear way to build trust. “There is hope, even for those who have broken trust.