Trust Activities NYC

A couple of years ago, I hired a new host to emcee a large-scale trivia team building NYC event. This person had never hosted an event like this before, but I trusted him based on what I thought was an impressive and unique background: lots of New York City corporate emcee experience, a great sense of humor, even a stint at game show hosting.

This particular event called for several members of the audience to be brought onstage, and invited to share their most memorable experience living in the Big Apple. The host told me that he had a great quick story of his own to share, and asked if he could tell it to the crowd before inviting the guests onstage – however, I asked him not to do this, as the event is about the client, not about the entertainment host. He reluctantly agreed.

The event kicked off, and when it was time for the audience stories, our host brought two members of the audience onstage, and explained that they were going to each have 30 seconds to tell their best story to the crowd. “But first,” he said, “I’m going to start with a quick story of my own!”

He then dived into a long-winded narrative about himself, complete with long awkward pauses and several highly inappropriate anecdotes – so crass and squirm-inducing that I can’t even bring myself to repeat them here. As the minutes ticked away, the audience grew more and more restless – eventually talking amongst themselves in between nervous laughter from the host’s unfunny humor. When he eventually wrapped it up and passed the mic, people were full-on heckling him.

I was livid, as you can imagine – my client had trusted me to provide a professional group bonding experience, and I in turn had trusted this host to represent me. The client was equally unimpressed, which they wasted no time letting me know immediately after the event concluded. I fired the host, but the damage had been done: I never saw that client’s business again.

When companies reach out to me and tell me they have a real issue involving trust in the workplace, I take it very seriously. As the above example and the recent Subway disaster with their pitchman Jared illustrate, all businesses rely on trust among the team; Subway has undoubtedly lost customers and credibility as a result of Jared’s actions, and I lost a client due to the actions of my host. For brands and companies, trust is everything; once it’s violated, it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to get it back.

As my extremely personal example demonstrates, violated trust in the workplace can have a very real and tangible impact on the bottom line.