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by ARKY CIANCUTTI
(Contemporary Books, 215 pages, $24.95)
Reviewed by Ellen Pack
Founder, Women.com
In 1994, Women.com was ready to
attempt the impossible: to build an Internet company serving women. Since
virtually no women were online at the time, all we had to do first was raise
the capital, build the market and prove the business model. Enter Arky
Ciancutti, a team-building coach who began working with us that pivotal year.
The valuable lesson Ciancutti taught
Women.com then—and that we still live by today—is that trust is
the most powerful tool an organization can use to achieve its vision and
serve the audience, employees, customers and shareholders.
In Ciancutti's model, "trust" is not
just a touchy-feely topic that MBAs (such as myself) might get a 30-minute
lecture on at business school. Instead, trust is a priceless commodity. Without
trust, simple fears, poor communication and many other natural human emotions
can be your biggest obstacles to achieving business success and will inevitably
land you in the dreaded "muck"—serving the hierarchy or other false icons
that keep you from your customer and from profitability.
But if you trade in trust, you can
leverage not just the visible structure of your organization, but what
Ciancutti describes as the "invisible emotional dynamics that are always in
play when people work together." Better communication, better product, better
bottom line.
Improving your communication skills >>
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