Optimal Trust

Optimal Trust

The premise for Optimal Trust is that success in business is dependent on superior management - the key executives who develop and refine business models and drive the organization to achieve its goals. In previous generations, businesses could thrive on a narrow vision of its place in the world. Today superior management is dependent on an expanded awareness that successfully integrates and implements the traditional facets of business, such as supply and demand, markets, and cash-flow, with dimensions that include self, community and the global enterprise.

The Optimal Trust Program 

The economic upheaval in the world today has generated worldwide concerns and fears about our personal and global future. Throughout the turmoil there has been a growing popular demand for new approaches to business and for business education and consulting practices that can better address these issues. Indeed, what brings us together in this endeavor is the awareness of the impending change that is upon us – yet we do not seem to know how that change will manifest or what it will be. 

In our research to develop the Optimal Trust Program, we have discovered many consultants and programs that heretofore have been on the periphery of mainstream business and management education that claim to address these issues. Many of these programs are now being drawn to the mainstream as standard business education and executive training models are unable to address their clients’ present concerns.

However, we feel that a majority of these programs in their own way are dated.  These “alternative” programs, in one form or another, are about self-discovery -- variations on the themes exploring how to become better leaders and managers through compassion, creativity, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, etc.

The Optimal Trust Program is assumption is that our audience no longer needs programs on self-discovery. Our audience will consist of sophisticated individuals who have already explored the curricula of self. Such programs, at best, provide a few new insights. And as most business people report that once back in the “real-world” of business little, if anything, changes, as the culture in which they operate does not change so easily. The Optimal Trust Program will not emphasize self-discovery as a primary goal, although certain programs may focus on self-mastery within a broader business consciousness context.

Another recent development has been the call for programs highlighting business ethics. Our audience however is assumed to be made of people of the highest ethical and moral character. Our students are inherently moral people who have found themselves, as we all are, caught in a systemic situation that is unsustainable, if not unethical. The New World Forum Program will not be about teaching or lecturing on ethics.

Thirdly, we are not about business education because teaching business skills is best left to the traditional business schools. The presumption is that our audience already will be sophisticated business people, who have extensive practical experience in business.

Then the question arises: what is unique and meaningful to the Optimal Trust offering?

The Optimal Trust audience, by its nature, is self-selected. Our audience will be individuals who are highly-evolved, self-aware people - who have spent the time and energy to understand and develop who they are. Second, they are individuals who strive for and have demonstrated impeccable moral and ethical standards. Thirdly, these individuals are sophisticated, knowledgeable and experienced in the world of business. In summary, our underlying ethos should be one of profound respect for a deservedly accomplished and sophisticated audience.

Yet there is another all important factor at play. Everywhere we go we meet people who sense that we are at the edge of a global change – that we as a global community are coming together in ways never before seen in history, that the underlying economic assumptions that bind us together are fragile, and that there needs to be a new business consciousness to address these issues that confront us. While the changes appear imminent, no one truly knows what that change will be.

The Optimal Trust Program can offer our sophisticated audience the ideas and tools that will help enlightened business leaders create change. The Optimal Trust Program will become a catalyst for transformation. It will not preach or proselytize, but rather become the forum where innovative leaders will come together to discover and forge new systems, new cultures, new ideas that will alter forever change in how we conduct our business and our lives. We will draw on the breadth and depth of our East/West educational history as we look for the integration of values, theories, and practices that will have the global impact that we all seek.  

The underlying ethos: a deep respect for an audience of our peers. The Optimal Trust Forum Programs will be an invitation for forward-thinking individuals to join together into the inquiry and development of a new business consciousness -- using the resources that are unique to its curriculum and heritage.

What is the program’s background?

Optimal Trust is based on programs originally developed in conjunction with major institutions from the healthcare and financial industries. Initially, we worked with national medical centers developing marketing and patient acquisition programs. We then developed original programs for one of America's leading Wall Street firms, helping management confront the loss of the public’s trust in the financial sector. Subsequently, we worked with The Center of Ethics at St. Thomas University exploring the relationships between ethics and trust.

Mission Statement

To create self-financing, educational programs based on universal principles about Trust and Ethics that have pragmatic and impactful applications in the academic and non-academic world.

Core Value:
Implementing ethical strategies that support positive relationships within and between communities.
Addressing the loss of trust within all levels of society – government, institutional, and personal – through ethical standards and practices.

The Vision:
Exploring and developing innovative ways to articulate and implement ethical standards and practices in profit, non-profit, and governmental organizations.

 Sample Benefits to Organizations

Benefits for Profit Organizations:

• Increased revenue
• Customer relationships
• Operational efficiencies
• Shareholder value
• Improved Public Relations profile
• Improved internal management/employee/staff relations
• Reduced liabilities and compliance issues

 Additional benefits for Non-profits Organizations:

• Fund-raising
• Social Impact
• Client relations
• Mission Fulfillment
• Training and Management of Personnel

 For Government Agencies:

Competitive and Unique Advantages

There are several competitive advantages:

Positive modeling

• Most ethics and compliance training programs are based on what not to do. Optimal Trust programs focus on positive models – e.g. building trust. While the program will include compliance (negative information) as required by law, the positive modeling will be used to develop the overall success of an organization.

Universal Principles that lead to customization

• The Optimal Trust programs are based on universal principles. The concepts will be converted to lessons that are:
  • Easy to understand and learned
  • Use multimedia when necessary – multiple learning styles
  • Easy to implement and actionable strategies that impact organizations and the community.
  • Applicable to multiple business and non-profit sectors.

Tying results to organizational metrics

• To create models and programs that impact business metrics for the better.

Customization

The program content is created as templates (universals) that are customized to address individual business sectors. As mentioned above, we are in discussion with multiple business sectors, including healthcare, finance, non-profits, et al. These constructive discussions will help us customize the programs.fo specific industries. For example, talks with a major association in financial services will allow us to customize the programs for insurance agencies.

Delivery of Programming

We will modify how our materials to be delivered in a manner that is in keeping with how training is delivered currently to a specific industry or even client.

The basic program materials can be quickly reformatted for the different scenarios.

Business and Organizational Management Tools

The Optimal Trust programs are based on the premise that business and organizational management centered on ethical principles is eminently pragmatic. By linking levels of Optimal Trust to selective metrics, the impact of ethical organizational management can be measured and managed. The goal would be to provide tools that would make ethical practices and the trust it sustains the foundation of any organizations success.

Software Applications

At the center of the Optimal Trust program lies the Optimal Trust Grid. The Grid is a matrix that is used to survey levels of trust between stakeholders in an organization. It allows for the quantification of what is usually thought of as qualitative attributes (e.g. trust, faith, belief, etc.). This approach will allow us to develop software applications that would simplify the management of Ethical Trust programs within an organization.  Software applications will provide additional revenue generating opportunities.

Optimal Trust will offer programs and curriculum that offers actionable strategies that can be implemented and applied to for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. Revenue streams, include:

• In person training
• Live Webinar training
• Online training programs – per user fees / subscription models
• Live conferences
• Software fees – one time purchases / subscription models
• Academic courses – traditional curriculum models

Pricing

Initially, we will ask potential clients to tell us the typical pricing for the training programs that they now use. This open and transparent discussion will give us intelligent opening price points for our training programs in each industry.

Testimonials (feedback) from prior participants in The Power of Trust programs:

• “I found this session to be very instructive. Without trust we would not be managing our client relationships, they would be choosing a different practitioner.”

• “Assuming 5 is the highest score, I would rate it at the top. If we do not have the trust of our client, we are out of business. This is investment management and relationship 101.”

• “Another great class – this is really the CORE of what we do. I found this information to be very useful and plan to incorporate a lot of the conversations into my daily conversations with clients.”

• “EXACTLY this – is what I used 2x yesterday when I met with referrals – back to back – we set aside the INVESTMENTS and focused on the TRUST – getting to know one another…"

• “While talking with existing clients and prospects, I usually have a written agenda of things to do...one copy for the client/prospect and one for me. Mine will have a special note at the top with the word “Trust” on it so that I can remember to empathize.”

• “Presentation on Trust being the key issue to successful relationship building brings a different perspective that neatly ties up the difference between effective and ineffective practitioners and presenters.”

• “I really liked the Power of Trust Grid- there is a lot you can do with it… and believe I can mentally tick off the grid topics in conversation ;-) “

• “Loved- loved- loved it! I’ll give it a 5 and can’t wait for tomorrow’s class!”

• “Most valuable today was the encouragement to ask good questions that show genuine interest, yet allow you to know more about the client, better to build their trust. Plus, it allows you to steer the conversation the direction you might want to go.”

• “I thought it was helpful to have a discussion on what trust is and how to quantify it. That helped me to begin to think outside the box in how to gain the trusts of my clients. Very thought provoking.”

• “Most valuable is that we can place this essential topic into a constructive reference table and begin to address it with prospects and clients.”

• “Addressing trust issues based on client experiences… are as important to an advisor’s practice as showing up ready to go to work every day!”

• “I’ve been blessed to be on your short list of training groupies - for which I am eternally grateful, but that being said - I see a lot of concepts presented. This presentation on Trust being the key issue to successful relationship building, brings a different perspective that neatly ties up the difference between effective and ineffective practitioners and presenters.

• “This was SUPER… I hope that you renew the opportunity to bring this presentation to others! I’d give it a 5 with a bullet. “