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This may or may not surprise you, but most of our institutions and systems are designed from mistrust.

When these systems don't perform well, their designers just raise the volume. When prison terms don't reform prisoners, they institute longer sentences and force more punitive measures. When workers slack off, they set up keyboard tracking of workers and ever-more-restrictive work conditions. When school grades fall, they withdraw play and electives, extend the school year and assign more homework. When drivers keep speeding, they add radar guns and cameras that automatically send you speeding tickets. All those measures don't really work.

Why are we doing this to ourselves? Partly, it's the scripts in our heads that we don't know are there. We've become convinced that we're not trustworthy, that we have to control and coerce people to get anything done.

Despite plenty of evidence supporting the argument that we're not trustworthy, the opposite is true: people are more trustworthy than we think they (we) are.

Designing from Trust creates a different system. It also often:

• Costs less. Trust is cheaper than control.

• Is more effective. Trust unlocks our genius.

• Rebuilds relationships and community.