Testimonials

• Robert Porter Lynch has discovered the missing code on Trust. Despite my initial skepticism (“Oh no, not trust again!) his new approach to trust is exceptional. There’s an important difference between subject matter experts and real groundbreaking thinkers; he’s definitely the latter. If there were one resource I’d turn to on matters of Trust, Mr. Lynch would be that thinker. — Paul G. Stoltz, Ph.D. Author, The Adversity Advantage and Adversity Quotient, PEAK Learning, Inc.
• Robert Porter Lynch may be one of the best trust thinkers you haven’t heard of. – Charles H. Green, Author: The Trusted Advisor
• Robert Porter Lynch is one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders – Barbara Kimmel, Trust Across America, Trust Around the World.

• Thank you for your passion and wisdom by faithfully speaking the truth to business people! These messages are critical at such a time as this!! — Michael Allen, CEO, Ventura Mfg.

• As Vice President of Innovation, thank you for your passion and wisdom by faithfully speaking the truth to business people! These messages are critical at such a time as this. If I’d had this earlier in my career, it would have saved me millions of dollars. Not only is our team using this every day; I took it home and discussed with my wife and kids. Our lives are being shifted by the approach.

  Robert has significant depth and breadth of scope and understanding of the material covered, what vast amount of knowledge. He has energy and passion. He was forthright with opinions. He had a genuine desire to help.

  One of my staff wrote me: “We all would have enjoyed a full week of absorbing information from Robert’s vault of knowledge and experience. I’ve seen my share of presenters over the years who’ve succeeded in delivering content, making a difference, and providing a learned point of view of the subject matter. However, I’ve never felt more compelled by one person’s passion for the content’s scope, and their “call-to-arms” approach to how we carry ourselves as humans in general. Thanks so much for the inspiration.”

  If I’d had this earlier in my career, it would have saved me millions of dollars – Malcolm De Leo, Vice President, Daymon Worldwide

• Not only is our team using this every day; I took it home and discussed with my wife and kids. Our lives are being shifted by the approach. – Director of Non-Profit Organization
• The bad news is: I now see why our organization is so dysfunctional. The good news is: I now know exactly what I need to do to fix it! – Senior Vice President
• I got four big take-aways from this: First, I know understand why trust has broken down so many times, and the role I inadvertently played. Second, I feel empowered to take the right corrective action. Third, I realize I can reclaim my birthright to trust – and that’s so inspiring. And last, I won’t be naive and trust like a blind fool. – Senior Account Manager
• “Our team can’t stop talking about it ‐‐ it’s having a profound effect” – Senior Director

• When I became CEO, the purpose was to turn around and grow a business that was in financial distress. Included in my process was to retained Robert Porter Lynch to coach myself and train my key team members in the architecture and techniques of collaborative business operations.

  We applied Robert’s program in a 3-part strategy. To facilitate the turn around a number of issues had to be resolved, which at the root were linked to a non-collaborative former leadership approach. Shifting to a strategic alliance model we applied the techniques and principles to building and sustaining collaborative internal work groups. This overcame the traditional silo effects of combative approaches seen in many organizations. This contributed to reducing costs and improving productivity. Second, we used the techniques to create a collaborative value chain, bringing key suppliers in as valued members of the Pultronex team. The result was a rapid and very significant positive effect on innovation impacting product development, productivity, and cost reduction from a total cost of ownership perspective. These first 2 parts of the strategy enabled Pultronex to successfully implement lean operations. And third, we applied these principles to a completely new marketing plan. They helped us build not only a Canadian network, but opened significant marketing opportunities in the U.S. Within 15 months sales revenue had quadrupled.

  Collaborative enterprise only works if you have the right people with the right collaborative skills. That is why we retained Robert, as those skills are acquired through experiential learning and honing one’s personal attitude.

  For many years thereafter, I used Robert as both a Coach and Subject Matter Expert on projects in other companies to improve performance, align teams, and generate innovation in supply chains. He always came through, and presented himself as a professional at all times. You can trust him to do the right thing. His word is his bond. — Gary Loblick, CEO, Pultronics, Inc.
  

• Robert Porter Lynch’s “Architecture of Collaborative Excellence” is unexcelled in its thoroughness, depth of understanding, scientific structure, and strategic value.
  
  He exemplifies an enlightened realist whose insights have enormous potential not only to empower leaders to bring forth the very best in others, but also to serve as a foundation for renewing our belief in business itself.

  The most compelling and insightful framework about trust yet. This work transcends the superficial treatment we’ve given the subject of trust for too many years.

  With the globalization of business, we need new management systems to adapt to the complexities of networks of enterprises. I can only speculate how many companies and alliances would have been saved from financial hardship, frustration, and even failure had their leaders had access to this architecture.
  – Paul Lawrence, Professor Emeritus, Organization Behavior, Harvard Business School

• First breakthrough on trust I’ve seen in years. 4-Drives Model is far better than Maslow’s Hierarchy. — David Burt, Chairman Emeritus, SCMI, USD Business School

Robert Porter Lynch’s work is the “gold standard.” His work has inspired many of us in Dow Chemical to see our world in a whole new light. — Curtis Volkmann, Director, Corporate Venturing, Dow Chemical

Robert Porter Lynch has played an important role in my professional leadership development as CEO. I identified Robert and selected him to work with our organization due to his wide expertise and global experiences. His work with me had significant impact on the performance of my organization, as well as the many organizations collaborated with pursuing competitiveness.

First, Robert coached us in building skills and competencies to be able to think strategically in a global context; be able to articulate an inspiring vision across cultures; and make wise choices amid complexity and uncertainly. Further, coached me in my role to put these competencies and methodologies into practice as I led global teams, built collaborative and dynamic networks and grew my organization and its leadership to expand across Canada and complete globally.

Next, Robert helped build and develop deeper competencies to build and lead collaborative networks to better provide strategic direction, facilitation, and the development of transformational frameworks. This work was undertaken with major industry leaders, many of whom were competitors. I was able to develop, through Robert’s coaching, strong facilitation skills to develop collaborative approaches and solutions that built strong commitment and engagement among each of the stakeholders. And by addressing challenges through awareness building; innovative, collaborative solutions; and pilot projects to demonstrate and measure success of approach; as well as capacity building, each of the projects saw higher than anticipated success. — Lori Schmidt, CEO, Go Productivity

• This will make a major difference in the way we think and act – Senior Dir., Government
• I’m printing the Trust Ladder in super-size and posting it behind my desk. Anyone who comes in and acts “below the belt” must turn around and leave. – High Ranking Federal Official
• Robert definitely knows his stuff. He is highly informed, and highly involved in real life practice of the material. He’s not just an academic studying it; he is an applier of it. – Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Provincial Government
• Robert has significant depth and breadth of scope and understanding of the material covered, what vast amount of knowledge – WOW! He has energy and passion. He was forthright with opinions. He had a genuine desire to help. – Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Provincial Government

• Thanks for sharing a copy of your White Paper, “The Architectures of Collaborative Systems Excellence“. I found it to be an exquisite handbook. Concepts clearly communicated. Comprehensive graphics. I see the document as a “homing beacon” which leaders and managers can use to determine and follow the bearing or path to continual performance improvement and sustainable success for teams and organizations of any size… when leadership AND management tune-in and stay-on the homing beacon’s “frequency”.

  It speaks my language and reading the section on “Implementing Collaborative Excellence Learning” was like tapping into the data banks of my mind and seeing an accurate description of things I have (intuitively) known and experienced over several decades.

  Please let me know when the book is completed so that I can join the multitude destined to help put it onto the “Best Sellers List”! 5 Stars! — Steven J. Ricks, MPM®, PMP®, IPMA-D®, MCP™, Washington, DC

• Fabulous, this gave me insight into how I will withstand the onslaught of distrustful disruptions in my life – Senior Account Mgr
• The Trust Workshop was truly a life-changing epiphany for me. It was awesome. You made trust so easy to embrace. Thank you many times over! – Senior Account Manager
• An eye-opener that has application beyond alliances.  – Susan Wright, USAA Insurance
• We can now raise the trust issue without the fear that someone might go ballistic. – Alliance Manager
• Too often people complicate things and make it difficult to talk about it. You have simplified this issue without dumbing it down. – Christine, Nationwide Insurance
• Exhilarating and Inspiring, this is the next breakthrough in alliances and human relationships. The Architecture of Trust in a Grand Unifying Principle that makes sense of lots of seemingly disparate phenomenon and ideas. It lets us break through the fog and make see some powerful realities. – Tom Halle, Hitachi
• This was terrific – you really hit a home run on this – Alliance Mg, Walt Disney Corp.
• Robert Porter Lynch is the grandfather of alliance best practices. He singlehandedly started the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals and continues to share alliance best practices with many hundreds of alliance executives to this day. He helped me personally get started in this area and I owe him a huge debt of gratitude. If you are ever lucky enough to be invited to one of his seminars then grab it! It will be the best alliance time you have ever spent. Thanks a million for all the help and support you gave me when I started out and you continue to offer. — Mike Nevin, Founder, Alliance Best Practices, United Kingdom

• As Senior Director of Global Purchasing at Procter and Gamble we owned our sourcing methodology and managed the businesses in our flagship business units. Prior to Robert’s engagement, P&G had just failed in its efforts to install a Supplier Relationship Management System for a number of reasons – poor strategic partner selection criteria, cross business unit disagreements, changing business needs, and a reward system that rewarded number of strategic relationships instead of number of appropriate relationships. Robert’s approach dealt with the systems architecture, best practices, and tools to deal with these kinds of problems.

  Initially I felt this would be the typical consultant and training engagement, but as we got to know each other, it became a powerful strategic relationship. His concepts and implementation approaches were able to be tweaked to be good fit with Procter’s culture and his advice was so valuable that once the Corporate approaches were installed he became a resource for several diverse cross functional business units (Diapers, Feminine Protection, Health Care, Beauty Care, Fabric and Home Care, and Information Technology) to tailor his approaches to their unique needs while maintaining a common platform across the entire company. This helped us create an approach that was both decentralized and centralized without undue conflict.

  Robert’s intellectual capital about strategic fit between companies became part of our long term supplier innovation and supply base methodology, and also enabled numerous P&G/supplier Connect and Develop successes for new products. This engagement lasted for several years, even after my retirement from P&G.

  What can collaborative excellence in leadership and management do for a company? Where do I begin? Relative to adversarial (win/lose) or transactional (simple exchange), collaborative excellence creates an entrance into the potential for creative and operational value improvement both internally and externally.

  Internally, collaborative excellence creates a culture that reinforces the internal functions are all on the same team, even when functional or organizational goals are, by necessity, different. The result is a mindset that looks to the delivery of results that enhance the total company and enables disagreements and conflicts to be approached with the mindset that we are all on the same team so results and effective compromise or coordinated solutions are the priority and speed solving the issues is important. Similarly, when the market changes, forcing major company pivots, a collaborative internal approach gives an environment where what is needed becomes the first priority and change is more openminded.

  Externally we have come to understand how important external relationships are – witness the coronavirus impact on supply chains. The ability to problem solve collaboratively with suppliers customers, regulators and communities is vital to coming through hard times. Importantly, when one part of the relationship is suffering, it provides the mindset to seek a jointly workable solution, but when a joint solution is impossible creates a level of empathy that allows the relationship to survive even when a common solution is elusive.

  Importantly, collaborative leadership also includes collaborative management because it is management that sustains the culture of collaboration when people, leaders, and business conditions change. Leadership without management does not work. Collaborative excellence links leadership and management into a sustainable platform over time.

• We all would have enjoyed a full week of absorbing information from your vault of knowledge and experience.  I’ve seen my share of presenters over the years who’ve succeeded in delivering content, making a difference, and providing a learned point of view of the subject matter. However, I’ve never felt more compelled by one person’s passion for the content’s scope, and their “call-to- arms” approach to how we carry ourselves as humans in general.  Thanks so much for the inspiration.  — John Countey, Business Manager, Daymon Worldwide
• Thank you for helping find a powerful new way to make a difference – Kevin Gangel, Branch Manager, Sapphire Technologies
• I have already begun the see the effects through our team’s increased camaraderie, openness, and collaboration. The great thing is that we are seeing that the lessons are being applied into action already. Several team members commented on how this workshop was “better than any class” and “ranked at the top compared to past team events”. We are making a POWERFUL difference!! Our team will never be the same after this experience! ‐‐ it's having a profound effect. My whole team is being reenergized — Cassie Kutzli, Business Innovation Manager, Daymon Worldwide
• Truly inspirational. Thank you so much for providing such an original and thought-provoking approach to collaboration and innovation. — Thomas Harding, PhD, PEng Technology Senior Advisor, Nexen Energy

• Thank you from the bottom of my heart – you opened my eyes to something we’ve been missing in our work – Gail Hope, Conflict Management Mediator
• You’ve given us the missing things I’ve been seeking for all my life. You’ve linked together in a masterful way what seemed so disparate. This whole day was moving and inspiring – I feel expanded and enriched. I was so excited about everything when I returned home I have not stop thinking about this.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.   – Lynda Telford – Mediator, Negotiator
• We are always looking for something new that will help our work – there’s been a hole for me that I couldn’t put my finger on. This material is rich and empowering to help us face the work and are so passionate about – Wendie Hassen, Conflict Management Mediator
• Just Awesome! This will change my practice – Maureen Curran, Energy Resources Conservation Board
• Fabulous! This really opened my eyes to a whole new set of possibilities – Cynthia McCarthy, Mediator
• I’ve been using this in the field every day. It really works – Sharon Seiler, Mediator
• Thanks for your life-changing presentation!!!! I learned so much. God Bless — Duncan McGregor, Alberta Arbitration & Mediation Society
• Truly a moving experience for our members. It is clearly the next wave of value past win-win thinking. – Paula Drouin, Exec. Director, Alberta Arbitration & Mediation Society
• I am forever grateful for giving me a better way….  I’ve already had a chance to use it with a couple of my mediation clients and found it very helpful. — Sylvia Thomas, Family Mediator

• Most entertaining and engaging presentation.  What an amazing amount of effort went into the research and your ability to relate a difficult topic to a wide audience. We will be using the Ladder of Trust as part of our Core Values of ‘trust, respect, and communication.’ — Donna Smith, Manager Learning & Development, Clarke Builders
• You’ve re-energized me! I am very passionate about people and their potential for greater things and your work has given me some better tools to push that positive message forward. Thank you for your endless quest for knowledge and more importantly for sharing it with the world – YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE, please keep spreading your good work! — Susan Harrison, Director, Service Delivery, Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation, Gov’t. of British Columbia
• As professionals we read so many books, but few really have content which stays embedded in our thoughts. Some of the frameworks which you have produced form the basis of how I operate… the robust and structured frameworks … have really assisted me in my career.  – Sesh Sukhdeo  Transformational Leadership.