Ep 26. Sim Sitkin: Duke's Coach K Professor on Building Trust

Sim Sitkin is the Michael W. Krzyzewski University Professor of Leadership, Founding Faculty Director of the Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics at the Fuqua School of Business, and Director of the Behavioral Science and Policy Center at Duke University. His research focuses on leadership and the influence of risk taking. His publications are featured in the most prestigious academic journals and intertwine his work on leadership with topics such as accountability, acquisition processes, and innovation. In today’s episode, Stew and Sim talk about trust, leadership, building our capacity to create positive change in the world, and Sim’s mega-HBR article The Stretch Goal Paradox. Stew and Sim explore how to remain open to new information by learning to appreciate different perspectives. Sim’s decades of research offers critical insight in a world fractured by social media bubbles, political partisanship, and distrust for institutions. He makes a very useful distinction between distrust and low trust. Many organizations fail to gain the public’s trust because they mistake one for the other; and all of us, in our professional and private lives, can easily fall prey to the same error. In the second half of the episode, Stew and Sim talk with callers who share their personal stories and Sim provides very helpful guidance with his expertise on leadership and Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.