Trust Factor The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies

Why is “culture” so difficult to improve? What makes so many good employees check out? Neuroscientist Paul Zak shows that innate brain functions hold the answers. When you show that you trust a person, oxytocin surges through their brain and triggers a reciprocal act. This simple mechanism creates a perpetual trust-building cycle, and works to change stubborn workplace patterns.

Drawing on his original research, Zak teases out science-backed insights for building high-trust organizations. Trust Factor opens a window on how brain chemicals affect behavior, why trust gets squashed, and ways to consciously stimulate it by celebrating effort, sharing information, promoting ownership, investing in employee growth, and more proven strategies.

Packed with examples from The Container Store, Zappos, Herman Miller, Google, and dozens more, Trust Factor harnesses our neurochemistry to cultivate workplaces where trust, joy, and commitment compound naturally.

“If you’re intentional about building great culture, Trust Factor can help you get there. In his latest work, Zak offers compelling research, thought-provoking stories and actionable steps that can help close the gap present in most organizations. A great resource for anyone wanting to create a high performance people-centric organization where everyone thrives!” — Bob Chapman, author, Everybody Matters and CEO, Barry-Wehmiller Companies

“In this exciting new book, Paul Zak considers `all employees as [ultimately] volunteers’; and `trust’ as the critical ingredient in getting those `volunteers’ to work together. Uniting economics with neuroscience, Zak gives fascinating down-to-earth examples of how to practically apply these insights.” — George Akerlof, 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics

“Trust Factor is essential reading for every business leader and a must-read for anyone interested in the true secret of every successful business: a robust, healthy culture. Paul not only shows us why cultures of trust are critical, but more importantly, he provides a wealth of data and practical guidelines for how to build a thriving organization.” — Doug Rauch, former CEO of Trader Joe’s

“Combining his interest in human socialization with his biomedical research, Dr. Paul Zak and his team have examined a connection between how we're rewarded with positive feelings and emotions when we do things with people we trust. Lacing this together with Peter Drucker's timeless leadership wisdom presents an interesting opportunity for all of us to become better people, better partners, better leaders, and more effective contributors to society.”—Curt Pullen, Chairman of the Advisory Board, The Drucker Institute, and former Executive Vice President and President of North America, Herman Miller

“Trust is at the core of loyalty, advocacy and satisfaction—with employees, customers and other stakeholder groups. Understanding the principles Paul reveals and how to operationalize them will change the way we think about how we create, motivate and sustain high-performance organizations that deliver business results.”— Donna Peebles, former SVP, AIG

“With his scientific understanding of oxytocin, Zak provides a set of glasses for looking at how trust motivates people at work, even as he romps through inspiring stories from the cultures of successful organizations.” —David Nott, President, Reason Foundation

“Although trust is certainly a worthy aspiration, what if it could be more? What if your organization could better understand it, link it to engagement and performance, and build a culture that fostered it? What if your organization could use trust as competitive advantage? Trust Factor provides actionable advice—grounded in neuroscience—on how your organization can use trust to fuel higher levels of engagement and performance.”—Walter McFarland, coauthor of Choosing Change and Board Chair Emeritus of the Association for Talent Development