TrustDecisions: Understand, Decide, Act...

From the Board Room to our modern day asymmetric battlefield, Jeffrey Ritter’s Achieving Digital Trust will open eyes. It provides us with a reference model that management and software architects have been seeking. The survival of the Internet as we know it is currently at stake. This book provides a look into the transparency of «Trust Decisions» and how ensuring digital truth will shape our global governance for decades to come.

"How do you decide to trust digital information that is intangible and cannot be lifted, opened, or flipped through?

What questions do you need to ask to conclude that trust is justified in both digital information and the sources from which you acquire the information?

How do you make trust decisions about people, associations, tools, or their value when the infor- mation upon which you will rely is increasingly digital and intangible?

In a global culture in which digital trust is under attack and degrading, how can you build and engender old-fashioned human trust with your customers, business partners, associates, and employees?

Flooded with digital information, devices, and the capacity for others to question decisions, how can you make better decisions, choose the superior alternatives, and reduce the number of decisions that “just take the risk” because of data that is missing or not proven to be reliable?

Can achieving digital trust be proven to be good business and create new wealth in a global, 24/7/365 marketplace that demands increasing velocity while also increasing the risks of living digitally?" 

  Page 21 Achieving Digital Trust:  The New Rules for Business At The Speed of Light - Jeffrey Ritter

Are you reading this on your Macbook?  iPhone?  Or on one of the dozens of variations of devices using the Android Operating System?  Why?

Think about the origin of the words you are reading.  Are they manifested from the brain of a human who is typing the words on a keyboard?  Or could it be a computer creating this digital content purely from some form of artifical intelligence?

How would you judge the trustworthiness of this digital information, if you could verify that it was written by a person vs. a machine?

All of us make split second decisions on who and what we will trust.  By the way it looks.  By the way it moves.  By the way it smells.  By the way it sounds.

Now, make a slight shift in your mind set to the mechanism we define as "Advertising".

How do you as a human, accept and process an advertisment in a cognitive way?

cog·​ni·​tive | \ ˈkäg-nə-tiv
Definition of cognitive

1 : of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity (such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering) cognitive impairment

2 : based on or capable of being reduced to empirical factual knowledge

Why are advertisements necessary on the televsion you watch?  Do you every find yourself muting the advertisements?  Do you record all of your shows on the DVR so you can purposefully Fast Forward through the Ads?

At the same time, you may have a brand, company or person that you respect and trust.  You are loyal to that brand, company or person for several reasons.  Much of that has to do with "TrustDecisions".

When you read the words in a book by an author with their name printed on the cover, do you value and trust what they have written?  It depends on the author, right?  Who is that person and do you trust that what they have written is worth consideration.

We all have our own trusted sources of information.  Our Go-To authors.  Our news feeds.  Our verified intelligence.

Now visit this company on the Net:  Primer.ai

Now that you have reviewed the company Primer, and you see and think you understand their product solutions, the people behind the software solutions, the investors in the company, what do you think about next?

After all, a web site is just an Advertisement right?  Your Decision to Trust has all to do with words written, colors used, visual pictures and even sounds (think music).

Based upon what you have read and see, do you trust the products and services of Primer.ai?

Based upon what you have read and see or feel or hear, do you trust your Doctor, your Priest, your Lawyer, your Bank, your Airline, your Employer or your Digital VPN?

You see, most people do not even think long enough about the origins of trust or the origin of their own trust in something or someone.  Unless you are in the business of research, questioning or creating hypotheses on an hourly basis.

Unless these can also mean the life or death of another person and/or the factual truth of something not present to the naked eye, your hearing or your taste or smell.

hy·​poth·​e·​sis | \ hī-ˈpä-thə-səs
\
plural hypotheses\ hī-​ˈpä-​thə-​ˌsēz
\
Definition of hypothesis

1a : an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument
b : an interpretation of a practical situation or condition taken as the ground for action

2 : a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences

3 : the antecedent clause of a conditional statement

When you encounter the conscience world before you, whether it be Face-to-Face with another human, with written words by an author, by the spoken words of an advertisement or news broadcaster, think more deeply about this.

• "Every transaction creating wealth first requires an affirmative decision to trust.
• Building trust creates new wealth. Sustaining trust creates recurring wealth.
• Achieving trust superior to your competition achieves market dominance.
• Leadership rises (or falls) based on trust (or the absence of trust)."

 Page 35-36 Achieving Digital Trust:  The New Rules for Business At The Speed of Light - Jeffrey Ritter

Now that you Understand, it is time to Decide.  Then you must Act...

Fathers Day 2020: Reflections on Being There...

After 32 years of experience as a Husband and a Father, the emotions are again heart felt this Sunday, June 21, 2020 on Fathers Day here in the United States.

Reflecting back to last years thoughts here, the feelings and emotions are renewed and could not be said much better.

One year later however, our world has been enduring a global pandemic.  We have all witnessed the tragic loss of so many from this Covid-19 virus and on "Fathers Day 2020", the only words truly relevant are; be smart and be safe!

This year, we all have even more perspective on what it means to be a cohesive family.

As a Father, there is nothing more rewarding and wonderful than to see your own child become a parent.  To see them finally understand the joy as a new parent, whether Mother or Father.

Yet, when you look back at your own life and remember your own Father or Mother as a parent, what comes to mind, while (s)he was in your life?

Look up.  Close your eyes.  Envision them at your most memorable Birthday Party or graduation, celebrating with you.  Think about them holding you, when you were hurt or just plain hungry.  Do you have this memory?

Until you finally become a devoted parent, you can only imagine the true weight of your new role in life.  You will ask yourself each day, how could you be even better?

There really is no school per se on being a parent, even though there are plenty of YouTubes or educational videos to teach you how to swaddle your baby or set up a 529 College Fund.

Yet there is one goal that you can always aspire to achieve as a Father or Mother.  To be faithful to your new role in life!

Finally, to be even better.  To be there.  To say "I Love You" to your child whenever possible...

I Love You Taylor and Connor!

Finding Ender: Leaders Undiscovered in 2030...

Our global institutions in the public and private sectors are adapting to the change precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic.  The U.S. government is five months away from a Presidential election.  Our United States, are being challenged with a spectrum of known threats and emerging adversaries in both the physical realm and ever so pervasive in our digital domains.

"On its face, Ender’s Game is an engrossing and diverting story of heroism for science fiction fans. But it is more than that; it is also a parable for defense policymakers who are confronting the multifaceted problem set of recruiting, training, educating, and retaining military personnel capable of fighting and winning the Nation’s wars in a time of technological change and international volatility."

Finding Ender: Exploring the Intersections of Creativity, Innovation, and Talent Management in the U.S. Armed Forces -By Susan F. Bryant and Andrew Harrison

War:

• 2a : a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism
• b : a struggle or competition between opposing forces or for a particular end

It is a challenging world we live in here on planet Earth right now, in June of 2020.  Yet one factor we must not lose sight of, is our true abilities to Understand, Decide and Act.

Our nation and our leaders can achieve new levels of creativity.  The ability to remain proactive and to find new answers to new found problem-sets.  In the heart of almost every human, is the desire to contribute.  The sense of purpose each day that gives a person hope.

If you are a Leader somewhere, in a "Capital City" or on the front lines in an austere environment on earth or in space, you must remain vigilant.  We are counting on you for our countries future and for our children.  Those young minds who are yet to know what their real role will be in life.

When you look into the eyes of a new born baby, in their first week of life, what do you see?

You see the beginning of a person who is ready to learn.  A person who is absent of bias.  A person who is without any skills.  A person who is without ambitions.

This new born baby is ready to be the next Curie, Chodos, Hadid, Thatcher, Allen, or Amos.

This new born baby is ready to be the next Einstein, Picasso, da Vinci, Lincoln, Tyson, or Mandella.

This person is capable of being so creative and becoming a true contributor with purpose, if only we will allow it.

In the year 2030, what will our world be focused on?

How will we change the way we utilize our institutions of learning, our military and our governments to provide the systems and the environments for the innovations of our next generations?

Godspeed Colin!