Chapter Nine

Trust and Hierarchy in Blue Line Management

“Humans are deeply social beings. Most people prefer to be in company most of the time. … As social beings, we want to trust each other.”1

– Richard Layard, economist

As we have said, value destruction occurs when a company fails to allocate energy in ways that increase happiness for its customers compared to alternative uses of that energy. The way in which the business is run creates the presence or absence of trust, a key factor in whether value can be achieved. As we saw in the previous chapter, when people in an organization lack trust in one another, value destruction is inevitable. As they observe value-destroying behavior with no penalties for those responsible, the result is ...

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