Evidence Debt and Trust Debt

Evidence Debt and Trust Debt: Evidence Debt says we are better than the record. Trust Debt says the record may be exposing who we actually are.

Where it shows up

The two debts look similar from the outside and require opposite responses. Evidence Debt accumulates when a company earns trust, develops people, and keeps promises, but never captures any of it: month after month, the gap between the real company and its record grows. Trust Debt accumulates for a different reason entirely: broken promises, unresolved problems, poor leadership, treatment that does not match what the marketing claims. One is a capture problem. The other is a company problem, and no amount of publishing fixes it.

How it is measured

Power100 diagnoses which debt a company is actually carrying before recommending anything. Evidence Debt calls for the closed loop: listen, document, publish, connect, compound. Trust Debt calls for fixing the business first, because Reputation Intelligence documents the truth. It does not manufacture one.

Related terms

• The Evidence Gap
• The Power100 Standard

In the book: Chapter 9 of Reputation Intelligence. Read the chapter page.