Podcast ¦ CX Passport: The One With The Neuroscience of Trust – Tim McCleary E223

Key Take Aways

• Building a high-trust organisational culture can increase productivity by 50%, highlighting the strategic importance of trust in financial services.

• Effective communication, encompassing multiple mediums including visual and verbal, is central to fostering a cohesive organisational culture.

• An involvement culture rooted in trust, ownership, and active participation enables more agile and resilient organisations.

• The realisation that organisational culture can be shifted by involving employees directly in strategic change processes enhances engagement and buy-in.

• The methodology of understanding, owning, and activating change has proven successful in complex global organisations, such as GE, and remains applicable at different scales.

• Culture initiatives benefit from bespoke experience design—starting with understanding local cultural nuances, yet recognising inherent commonalities among human beings.

• Connecting organisational branding with lived employee behaviours prevents damaging gaps between brand promises and actual customer interactions.

• A focus on reducing complexity in processes and offerings, such as limiting variables in service delivery, directly supports more consistent customer experiences.

• The use of sensory elements—sound, sight, scent—in experience design can deeply influence emotional recall and customer engagement.

• The potential to measure trust in real-time through neuroscience, with tools such as wearable devices, offers a transformational approach to leadership and organisational health.

• An emphasis on emotional connection as a starting point in experience design increases memorability and influences long-term behavioural change.

• Organisations that understand and prioritise the inside-out of operational processes alongside outside-in customer expectations are better positioned for sustainable success.

Key Statistics

• High-trust cultures are 50% more productive.

• The experience economy surpasses the fashion economy in size, indicating a significant shift in consumer and organisational focus.

• The global rebrand of GE involved over 311,000 employees across 100 countries and was one of the most impactful in corporate history.

• The estimate of varieties of drinks at Starbucks is approximately 300 million, illustrating expansive product complexity.

• Neuroscientific measurement of trust is possible via wearable technology, enabling real-time understanding of trust dynamics.

Key Discussion Points

• The transformative power of multi-modal communication in shaping corporate culture.

• The importance of aligning corporate messaging internally and externally to prevent disconnects that undermine brand integrity.

• The role of involvement techniques in accelerating change within large and complex organisations.

• The balance between global standardisation and local cultural adaptation during organisational change.

• The nuances of global experience design—understanding that despite cultural differences, human commonalities prevail.

• The need to simplify and reduce variables in customer service offerings to enhance consistency and effectiveness.

• The application of sensory strategies—sound, sight, scent—in creating memorable and emotionally resonant customer experiences.

• Connecting external brand storytelling with internal cultural realities to foster authentic customer engagement.

• The impact of digital transformation on customer experience and reasons for recent reversals in service quality.

• The significance of regional management practices contributing to service consistency or decline, exemplified by Nordstrom’s evolving store experience.

• The utilisation of neuroscience and wearable tech to measure trust, stress, and organisational health in real time.

• Exploring the global landscape of experience design, highlighting shared frameworks and the importance of emotional first approaches.

Podcast Description

This podcast explores the nuanced intersection of organisational culture, communication, and customer experience, with insights from pioneering practitioners in these fields. Focusing on how trust, involvement, and emotional engagement drive performance, it discusses innovative approaches—including neuroscientific measurement—and shares practical strategies for senior managers in financial services aiming to create resilient, customer-centric organisations. Emphasising real-world examples and global perspectives, the show offers actionable insights into designing authentic, impactful organisational experiences.