Combating the Trust Apocalypse

Building a Catalytic Community

Today, we face a profound and widespread collapse of trust, a crisis, decades in the making, that threatens societal cohesion and democracy itself. We see warning signs in the rise of factionalism, public health responses hampered by suspicion, and citizens doubting the legitimacy of elections and scientific facts. What is at stake is nothing less than the fabric of society itself. Trust has long been the unseen glue holding communities together; its steady evaporation has tangible, troubling effects. Without trust, our ability to cooperate and function as a cohesive whole disintegrates, posing dire implications for effective governance, public health, and social stability.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, trust—or rather, its erosion—made all the difference between an effective collective response and public confusion.

Reversing this trend requires more than isolated solutions; it necessitates interconnected strategies to rebuild social cohesion, reinvent institutions for the digital age, and transform our information ecosystems. The trust apocalypse is a quintessential wicked problem—complex, systemic, and defying any single solution. No lone government policy, tech innovation, or charismatic leader can restore trust at scale.

Recognizing the limitations of traditional hierarchical models and isolated interventions, the Trust Foundation is focused on building a “catalytic community”—a living network that continuously learns, collaborates, and takes collective action toward systemic change. In practice, such networks evolve through stages: from initial connection and relationship-building to co-creating shared goals and strategies, and ultimately into sustained, widespread collective action for impact. At that mature stage, the network becomes catalytic—it can self-organize responses to emerging problems and simultaneously drive change on multiple fronts.

A catalytic community is greater than the sum of its parts:

It actively aligns the talents and resources of independent players toward a common mission (here, restoring trust). It fosters an ecosystem where new initiatives can emerge and thrive rapidly. In essence, it’s a purpose-driven network of networks capable of sparking collaboration and catalyzing systemic change. A catalytic community is a self-organizing, purpose-driven network of networks that collectively generate sustained societal change through trust-based relationships, decentralized coordination, and coherent action.

The approach is grounded in real-world insights from leaders and network practitioners across sectors. Retired General Stan McChrystal—now a strategic advisor to the Trust Foundation—learned in the crucible of the Global War on Terrorism that traditional hierarchies fail against fast-moving, networked threats. In Iraq, he found that to defeat a decentralized insurgency, his forces “would have to become a team of teams, faster, flatter and more flexible than ever.” 

This meant breaking down silos and empowering small teams to trust one another and act autonomously. McChrystal writes in Team of Teams, New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World that success depended on “trust, shared consciousness, and empowered execution” rather than top-down control. A culture of familiarity and trust had to replace rigid command, so JSOC’s (Joint Special Operations Command) thousands of personnel began sharing information in daily cross-team briefings, building a “shared consciousness” of the battle in real-time. This sharing dramatically increased agility: frontline officers gained “the confidence to solve their own similar problems without the need for further guidance,” instead of waiting for orders. The military’s “team of teams” experience proved that trusted networks can outpace and outperform centralized organizations in complex environments. We apply the same principle: to confront society’s widespread breakdown of trust, we must forge a network of teams (across sectors and communities) that share information openly and act in a coordinated but decentralized way.

Business and social innovators echo this approach. David Ehrlichman, in Impact Networks: Create Connection, Spark Collaboration, and Catalyze Systemic Change, distills the five key practices for effective collaborative networks.

  1. Clarify purpose

  2. Convene the right people

  3. Cultivate trust

  4. Coordinate actions

  5. Collaborate generously

Trust, not control, is the first guiding principle.

Notably, “trust, not control” is the first guiding principle—no single authority can command a network, so trust and mutual commitment are the glue. Impact networks distribute leadership and information flow so that each member (node) can connect and contribute directly. This decentralization makes the whole more resilient and creative, leveraging each member’s strengths instead of funneling everything through one hub. Ehrlichman also emphasizes the importance of continuous communication and learning—regular convenings, shared dashboards, and transparent updates—to maintain alignment and foster collective intelligence. Ultimately, impact networks aim for coordinated action: members synchronize their initiatives or pool resources toward a shared goal while maintaining the autonomy to adapt quickly as conditions change. All these traits—trust-based relationships, distributed structure, open communication, and adaptive coordination—are design pillars of a catalytic community. They enable a loose collection of individuals to evolve into a high-functioning, catalytic community over time.

Equally relevant are insights from the world of technology innovation and dialogue. Tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, for instance, has cultivated unconventional forums for in-depth conversations among leaders. His off-the-record “Dialog” retreats deliberately eschew formal agendas and hierarchy; there are no speeches or panels, only many moderated breakout discussions for 8–12 participants. Everything is 100% off-the-record and optimized for introverts—no small talk. By stripping away lectures and publicity and curating intimate groups, the Dialog format creates a trusted space for candor and cross-pollination. Participants from diverse fields (tech CEOs, academics, politicians, investors) engage in frank dialogue, share perspectives, and forge unlikely partnerships—precisely because the structure builds psychological safety and mutual respect. Thiel’s approach underscores that how we convene people matters: to solve complex problems, we need protocols that encourage honest dialogue and relationship-building rather than stage-managed conferences. The Trust Foundation’s convenings will adopt this ethos, focusing on facilitated small-group discussions, confidential “brain trust” sessions, and agendas set by participants, not top-down directives. This way, trust grows from day one, as stakeholders see that their voices are heard and they can speak openly across traditional divides.

Our goal is to build such a community to combat the trust apocalypse.

In short, catalytic communities are about trust, empowerment, and synergy. They draw on principles proven in military leadership, social impact networks, and high-level collaborations alike: push decision-making to the edges, replace control with trust and mutual accountability, and create environments where diverse actors can learn and act together. Our goal is to build such a community to combat the trust apocalypse—a “Team of Teams” for society that can respond to challenges with the agility of a network and the unity of a shared purpose. The following sections outline how this community will evolve, operate, and create impact, serving as both an inspirational narrative and a practical playbook for restoring trust at scale.