This October, I’ll be speaking at the ELP Annual Conference on the topic of trust. Trust is being eroded at different levels of our society and this is concerning. I’ll be addressing both the problem and some possible solutions.

ELP Annual Conference 2022 – Restoring Trust

Date: Thursday 6 October 2022
Location: ALLSAFE – Auditorium Weesp, Chocoladeweg 6, 1381 BA WEESP, Netherlands

Why do we need to restore trust?

Living from a foundation of trust is superior to distrust because it decreases transaction costs but more importantly, because of its intrinsic value: it increases the quality of life and it makes us more human. The pity is that distrust is easier and more widespread. Many people and organizations don’t accept disappointments or mistakes anymore. Everything has to be perfect and certain; if setbacks occur, more rules and controls are introduced to engineer them away and those that are guilty are identified and sentenced.

Living from trust requires a radical acceptance of imperfection and emergence. Trust means being at ease with the belief that life cannot be fully predicted or top-down organized and that many processes arise bottom-up.

The erosion of trust is a problem in:

• Politics and government. Political leadership has become more fragmented in many countries as a result of populism and autocratic leaders, elected or not. Citizens of some countries don’t trust the intentions or capabilities of their governments in dealing with the pandemic.
• Business. Citizens and consumers wonder if they can trust corporates to do the right thing. Social cohesion within organizations has become more fragile when everyone was working remotely.
• Society. Polarization is occurring more frequently, exacerbated by economic inequality, social media and Covid.

The main question for the participants at the ELP Annual Leadership Conference 2022 will be: Where do I see the erosion of trust in my personal or professional context, how can I respond, how can I in my role contribute to restoring trust?

Speakers

• Ben Verwaayen, non-executive, former CEO, bridging the gap between politics and business
• Hajar Yagkoubi, youth inclusion expert, former Youth Representative at the UN
• Oscar David, author, counselor, deputy professor TIAS
• Olivier Onghena-’t Hooft, Founder and Executive Chairman of The Global Inspiration & Noble Purpose Institute (GINPI)

What can you expect?

As always the ELP Conference will be a mix of keynotes, interviews on stage, small-group dialogues and networking with peers from a wide variety of organizations.

Registration fee for ELP Members: EUR 750 (ex VAT)

You can find all the information about the conference and buy your ticket at www.leadershipconference.eu