Trust is a critical part of all our interactions. Without trust, you will not be able to do many things. When we discuss trust, we are talking about:
• Having confidence when dealing with someone
• Having the ability to be dependable
• Earning a level of credibility
How to build trust
Though trust seems to be the foundation of being likeable, employable, awardable, and many other things in life, no one teaches us how to gain trust or become trustworthy. The internet, of course, is full of advice on how to build trust.
As designers there are three things that we need to build trust:
1. Skills: The skilled use of tools that we need as designers – software, drawing, sketching, using forms, colors, images, and visualizing scenarios. You need hard work to be on top of the skill game all the time. New tools keep coming, and you need to keep practicing.
2. Knowledge: To know processes and systems, learn the latest and best, and understand scenarios and trends. Know markets, people, and behaviors. You need to be forever curious to keep collecting and sharing appropriate knowledge.
3. Experience: This is not just a function of time – it is also a curation of knowledge and skills over time. How you spend your time now becomes your experience in the future. So be mindful of the work and projects that you choose to do. Always use a backcasting mirror to evaluate what you are doing and how it will be seen in the future.
All three variables are in your command and decide how trustworthy you will become as a designer. This, of course, is practical trust; add to it emotional trust, and you become a likable, greatly loved design leader.
Sudhir Sharma, Editor-in-Chief
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