Trust and Intellectual Capital

Trust is showing up all around my work in a very active and acknowledged way. People want and need trust. People build relationships. So, if your organization wants to be in partnership, collaboration, networks, or collective impact work with other organizations you’re going to have to work on your ability to trust others, to earn trust, and to foster trust.

Network capital is one aspect of intellectual capital. The term is simply means all of the relationships held by you and anyone else in your organization with people outside of the organization. This could be vendors, consultants, peers, donors, volunteers, or neighbors. Literally anyone that you know and who knows you. Most organizations start with a list of names and affiliations as a way to measure or scope their network capital. It’s perfectly useful and practical exercise. If you haven’t thought about it in a while, jot down the first 5 professional relationships that come to mind right now.

Now, jot down the 5 professional relationships where you feel the most trust.

How similar are the lists?

Why are they different?

Would more trust with any on the first list that didn’t show up on the second list be beneficial in any way?