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Writer's pictureLyn Lindbergh

Jerry Michalski designing from trust.

Can we make a shift that will result in everything being designed from trust rather than consumerism?



About this Episode

Can we restore trust and create a world where we begin to shift away from operating from a place of mis-trust? In this thoughtful episode, Jerry Michalski shares how we need to take a second look at how our institutions are built and instead create a profitable model for trust based developments.




Some of our favorite quotes

Trust is the way back.

I have the biggest brain in the world. It's probably more organized than my wet brain onboard.

I realized I did not like the word consumer. It makes me a little itchy. My inner voice said, gawd it feels so much bigger than that. These thoughts took me to the word trust. When we consumerize every part of our lives it becomes breaches of trust.

Trust has been weaponized in a really weird way, undermining trust intentionally. Figuring out how to step back into truck is the way. Otherwise, we're kind-of hosed.

We've treated people as mere consumers and not citizens.

The normal methods of complaint, restitution, and recovery don't seem to be working so they have nothing to lose.

We need to learn how to talk to the "other." We need to learn how to find commonalities and figure out how to reconnect.

Most people don't change what they are thinking because membership trumps logic and reason. To stay part of my tribe I will forego logic because there's a belief system that keeps me a part of my community.

A lot of institutions are built for mistrust of the average person. They are built for efficiency and scale, but not for humans.

You need to give the people who have been demonized by your group a second chance to show up as humans and be helpful.

There are two kinds of people. Those who believe there are two kinds of people, and those who don't.

Starting from an assumption from trust pays off better. If you first action is one of generosity, vulnerability, or giving, you are typically going to end up better in the end. It doesn't mean that you need to not have your radar up, because there are bad actors in the world. But assuming that everyone is a bad actor, ends badly.

A lie gets around the world 3x before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on.

People expect a defense and when they see the defense they expect, then they react in the way they expected to react.

I would love if the business model [for social media] was not "How many ads can I sell you" but "How can I help you weave civilization back together?"

Unless we sort out how to come back together in trust, this ends badly.

When you've experienced design from trust in one setting, [Wikipedia or unschooling] there's a part of you that says, "Oh, that's cool, I wonder how that happened and how I can get more."



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A screen shot from Jerry's brain. Words he loves.
A screen shot from Jerry's brain. Words he loves.

Designing from Trust TEDx with Jerry Michalski.


What if we trusted you? TEDx by Jerry Michalski.



Mentioned in this Episode

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About Jerry Michaelski

Jerry helps organizations understand trust and become more trustworthy, not through fauxthenticity but rather by exploring their language, their processes and their intentions. For example, ad campaigns are like military campaigns -- yet we expect "consumers" to trust us. See the problem? And that's just the start.

In 2010 he founded a think-and-do tank called REX (the Relationship Economy eXpedition), which drew him deeper into trust. Recently he has committed to walking more of his talk, focusing his efforts on a Patreon campaign titled What If We Trusted You (link below).

As background, he wrote much of Esther Dyson's tech newsletter Release 1.0 from 1992 to 1998. Since then, he's advised and consulted to a bunch of organizations small and large, from IBM and the Wharton School to Blogger (now part of Google) and eGroups (now YahooGroups).



(Bio courtesy of Jerry's LinkedIn profile.)




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An Erik Lindbergh original.

Lyn Lindbergh's award winning book.



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