Where does trust come from in a society? Who creates it? How is it maintained? These are questions I think about a lot, given how fast the world is changing. The world we wake up to tomorrow will look different from the world we’re used to seeing today. How will we know whether to trust it? And who are the stewards of trust?
In most societies, trust is fostered and maintained by a broad range of individuals and institutions. We trust journalists to provide accurate information, teachers to impart knowledge onto our kids, doctors and nurses to take care of us when we need medical support. We trust governments to represent our best interests, legal systems to administer justice, technology companies, among others, to safeguard our digital privacy and security. In a healthy society, these groups work together to create a sense of social cohesion, accountability, and, most important, reliability.
If you grew up in Canada, chances are you don’t think too hard about most of these things. When you’re waiting for the subway, you don’t think about the train conductor or the back-office workers at the transit authority; you simply expect (or hope!) it will show up on time. When you buy a bag of frozen peas at the grocery store, you don’t think about the farmers who grew them, or the factory workers who process them, or the food inspection agency inspector who visits that facility; you think about getting them home and into your freezer. When you get sick and need a prescription, you likely don’t think about the people dispensing your medication, where they got their training, or where those drugs came from; you just want to feel better.
Why is it that as Canadians we’re able to take these things for granted? One reason, I think, is policy and regulation. We’re lucky in this country to have clear policies around the things that matter most: the water we drink, the roads we drive on, the banks where we keep our money. You don’t need to read or fully understand policy to benefit from it every day.
Of course, policy on its own isn’t enough; it also needs to be maintained, verified, and enforced. For instance, when the Canadian Parliament passes a law like the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the work to ensure data privacy doesn’t end there. Organizations must develop their own privacy policies in accordance with the law, obtain consent to collect data, and implement strong security measures to protect the information they collect. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada maintains and upholds the law, investigating complaints and conducting audits. In the event of a violation, they might refer matters to the Federal Court, which can impose penalties and award damages.
Community, I believe, also goes a long way in creating and maintaining trust. The company we keep, whether it’s people or organizations, has a huge impact on how we think, how we make decisions, and who we decide to trust. In the same way that an individual is more likely to enrol in a course or eat at a restaurant if it was recommended by a friend, one organization is more likely to partner with another if they know it’s trusted and accepted by the wider community. This type of trust takes time to build, but it can be shattered in an instant. One bad recommendation, or one negative story reported on the local news, and you’re going to think twice about trusting that person or organization again.
To that final note, and this may be the most important part of trust-building — it has to work. If the train fails to show up on time, if the bag of peas is mouldy, if the elected official doesn’t keep their promise, trust quickly erodes. By the same measure, when it does work — when the water runs clean, when the website offers useful information, when the child comes home from school having learned something new — these daily acts of trust compound, making us more likely to keep trusting, and over time to even change our behaviour.
In business, and certainly in the work we’re doing at Interac, so much comes down to changing people’s behaviour. I believe this isn’t possible without first and foremost building a strong foundation of trust. Trust leads to comfort, comfort requires certainty, comfort and certainty lead to confidence, and confidence changes behaviour. Every time a new action or behaviour works, that trust is reinforced, until even the most novel solutions become so ubiquitous that you don’t even think about them anymore.
A decade ago, when Canada became one of the first countries to roll out contactless payments, it was in large part thanks to our well-established payment infrastructure, led by Interac, financial institutions, the government, and other players in the ecosystem. Even then, there were many who said they would never feel comfortable tapping their debit card on a point-of-sale (POS) terminal — until finally they did, and it worked, and they stopped thinking twice about it.
Today, we’re seeing a similar transition. How often do you leave the house without your wallet? Of course everyone is at a different point along the adoption curve, but while it used to seem inconceivable to leave home without cash or a bank card, now you can tap your phone to get on a bus, access your gym, and pay for your groceries. Again, this is all possible thanks to innovation and collaboration between technology partners, businesses, and the governing bodies and institutions who ensure solutions are secure, reliable, and trustworthy.
What once felt futuristic is increasingly part of everyday life. That doesn’t happen without a solid foundation of trust built over time. Trust is the tipping point. It’s the result of countless small, consistent actions taken by a wide array of individuals and institutions — the stewards of trust — from regulators who set the standards, to the engineers who design the systems, to the customer service representatives who address concerns. Trust isn’t just handed out; it’s earned through reliability and transparency, and it’s maintained by the ongoing commitment of everyone involved. When trust is at the centre, prosperity is the outcome.
