The Seven Rules of Trust with Jimmy Wales

In The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things that Last , Jimmy Wales explains how he turned an impossible idea—creating an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit—into a global institution. Wales is the founder of Wikipedia. In his new book, he distills two decades of lessons from building one of the world’s most trusted collaborative projects. He argues that trust isn’t a soft virtue but a practical system—a set of design principles that allow people and organizations to cooperate effectively, solve problems honestly, and endure. In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses whether Wikipedia could still be created today, how it can retain its trusted status in an age of polarization, and what we can learn from Wikipedia to rebuild trust within society. Key topics discussed: 01:02 | How to scale interpersonal trust 04:02 | The importance of assuming good faith 07:13 | Could Wikipedia still be created today? 09:06 | How Wikipedia can retain its trusted status in an age of polarization 10:30 | The impact of AI on trust 15:40 | How institutions can reclaim lost trust 18:01 | Reasons to remain optimistic about rebuilding societal trust

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The Seven Rules of Trust with Jimmy Wales is an episode from Thinkers & Ideas by BCG Henderson Institute.

This episode is 20:36 long.

This episode was published on Dec 16, 2025.

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