You may have heard of the “Ladder of Inference”, a concept first proposed by organizational psychologist Chris Argyris and used by Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Here is how it works:
The bottom rung of the ladder consists of objective facts and data. As we climb the ladder, we
For example, if I am having dinner with a friend and she pulls out her phone, I may 1. focus on that action, 2. believe that she is bored with our conversation, and 3. assume that she is checking her facebook updates. As a result, I may 4. conclude that she does not value our friendship, 5. believe that I am wasting my time with her, and 6. change my own demeanor for the worse. In reality, my friend may have been thoroughly enjoying our conversation, and may have been letting her partner know that she will be home later than expected because she does not want to cut the evening short…
So step off that ladder and take a moment to examine the underlying facts more fully. You may discover very different meanings – and a much broader set of options – than those you saw once you started climbing.