From The Daily Dialogue
From The Daily Dialogue
Broadcast of 8/14/98
Subject: [DailyDialogue #226] Ladder of Inference
"I am standing before the executive team, making a presentation. They all seem engaged and alert, except for Larry, at the end of the table, who seems bored out of his mind. He turns his dark, morose eyes away from me and puts his hand to his mouth. He doesn't ask any questions until I'm almost done, when he breaks in: "I think we should ask for a full report." In this culture, that typically means, "Let's move on." Everyne starts to shuffle their papers and put the notes away. Larry obviously thinks that I'm incompetent—which is a shame, because those ideas are exactly what this department needs…"
--Rick Ross, The Field Discipline Field Book
A Daily Dialogue reader reminded us of the "Ladder of Inference," which originated with Chris Argyris and is taught by management consultant, Rick Ross. It's a useful mental model, because it helps us understand how we sometimes shoot ourselves in the foot in our relationships.
Basically the phrase "ladder of inference" is meant to connote escalation fueled by our tendency to make untested inferences. Rick explains it as a series of internal stages that happen in milliseconds:
o I make an observation
o I notice certain data from the observation
o I attribute meaning, based on my experience
o I make assumptions based on the the meaning
o I draw conclusions based on my assumptions
o I adopt beliefs about the world
o I take actions based on my beliefs and my conclusions
Quite frequently, the action that I take based on my untested inference tends to be extreme and conflictual.
The antidote to the ladder of inferences is to develop the habit of assuming that my perceptions and inferences are probably incomplete and flawed and seek to reach an understanding of what is really going on.
Experiment: Next time someone offers what sounds like a verbal slam-dunk, offer them some feedback in the form: "Excuse me, I thought I understood you to say that your kitchen is much cleaner than mine. Is that what you meant to say?"
Affirmation: We have learned to test our inferences with dialogue.
The Daily Dialogue is published each day of 1998 by e-mail. Copyright 1998, Eddy Brame and Marty Crouch, All rights reserved.
