Defense and the National Interest
 
 

Trust

Without trust, people will not take the initiative, small problems will fester into crises to be bucked up the chain for solution, and decision cycle speed will slow to a crawl.  A culture with low levels of trust also produces enormous stresses on the people within it and can greatly increase the severity of battlefield traumas.  All of this suggests that trust is fundamental to any high performing organization.  This section looks at the roots of trust, what causes it to deteriorate, and how it can be restored.


"Aristotle’s Rhetoric as a Handbook of Leadership," Lecture to the US Military Academy by Dr. Jonathan Shay (Author's comment: The connection to trust?  The key word in the Rhetoric is pistis, which a lot of translators turn into a tormented piece of jargon, e.g., "the available means of persuasion," but to the man on the street in 4th C. Athens this word was simply the everyday word for "trust.")  Several other selections by Dr. Shay on trust are available at War, Chaos, and Business.

Achilles in Vietnam.  Dr. Shay's classic study of trust. (link points to the Amazon.com review)

Comments

346 Trust, Mistrust and the Crisis in Leadership, February 5, 2000

 

 

 

 

Books

CERTAIN TO WIN: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business, by Chet Richards. Boyd's real OODA loop and ancient strategies working for business today. More...
Advance Reviews;
Amazon and B&N

 

RAISING THE BAR, by Donald Vandergriff (U.S. Army, ret.) Published by the Center for Defense Information Press. Read the DNI review. Order from Amazon.

 

SCIENCE, STRATEGY AND WAR, by Col Frans Osinga, RNAF. Read the DNI Review.  Order from Amazon or B&N. New! Now in paperback directly from Routledge, $35.95.

 

NEITHER SHALL THE SWORD, by Chet Richards.  If you thought A Swift, Elusive Sword was too tame.  Read the Introduction and view the Briefing. Podcast review.  Available now on Amazon

 

BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram
Amazon & B&N.

 

BLUEPRINT FOR ACTION : A Future Worth Creating, by Thomas P. M. Barnett. Read the DNI review. Buy at Amazon and B&N

 

NOT A GOOD DAY TO DIE: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda, by Sean Naylor. Read the DNI Review; Amazon and B&N

 

THE WASTRELS OF DEFENSE: How Congress Sabotages U. S. Security by Winslow Wheeler.  You'll be disgusted, then just mad.
Read Comment #527.
Amazon and B&N

 

THE AFGHAN CAMPAIGN, by Steven Pressfield.  Read the DNI Review. Amazon and B&N.

 

The Virtues of War by Steven Pressfield
Read the DNI Review.
Amazon and B&N. Now in trade paperback.

 

The Sling and The Stone by Col T. X. Hammes, USMC
Amazon and B&N

 

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