Shipulski On Design

Archive for March, 2026

Things move at the speed of trust.  And when they don’t move, it’s because there’s no trust.

Talking about trust won’t make a difference.  Making trust makes the difference.

In fact, if you have to talk about trust, you probably don’t have it.

Building trust must happen before it’s needed.  And since you don’t know when you’ll need it, you might as well start building it today.

Sometimes it takes a lot of trust to tell someone what you know they don’t want to hear.

Ignoring people’s negative behavior can indicate that you don’t trust them enough to call them out.

Giving trust is a good way to accelerate its receipt.

Don’t tell people to trust you.  Tell them to watch you.

Trust is behavior-based.

Trust doesn’t require consensus, but it does require truth.

Relying on trust is risky, but it’s not lonely.

Image credit — Tom Lee

Slow down to go fast.

Progress over activity.

Effectiveness before efficiency.

Finish at the expense of starting.

Location is more important than destination.

See the system as it could be, not how it should be.

Brown field designs are real; green field designs are not.

What could go right is more important than what could go wrong.

Uncertainty is flexible, certainty is dangerous.

Learning before scaling.

People first.

Image credit — mhobl

Sometimes it’s difficult to believe in yourself.  Here is a three-step process to elevate your self-belief.

1. Find someone who believes in you.
2. Ask them why they believe in you.
3. Whatever they say, believe them.

What they tell you will be different than what you think of yourself.  They see you differently than you see yourself, and they have an eyeball-based justification for believing in you.  And you are not qualified to dismiss their justification. Their justification is grounded in your behavior. They watched what you did.  They watched you persevere through trying times. They watched you treat people with kindness and respect.  They watched you call out unacceptable behavior.  They watched you say the unpalatable when everyone else was thinking it but was afraid to say.

It may be difficult for you to believe them, but you must.  Their truth, their belief in you, is grounded in your behavior.  They believe in you because they watched you.  They have real examples.  They have personal experience.  Believe them.

And if you still don’t believe in yourself, repeat the process until you do.

Image credit — Wayne S. Grazio