Rebecca BraglioCommunity Engagement Specialist II| Project Management InstituteNewtown Square, Pa, United States
I was just reading an interesting submission for our "Teachable Moment" project (see thread below) about a man who admitted that he had become somewhat cynical enough that he began assuming that all of his students were only interested in short-cuts and taking the easy way when it came to learning. One student showed him never to make assumptions about his students.
I'm curious - what kinds of assumptions do you make about your clients? Or your co-workers?
For example, I must admit that I make the assumptions that when I go to a developer that he/she will "come from a place of no." It's wrong to do, I admit, but it's an assumption I've made based on past experiences.
How about you? What kinds of assumptions are you making and how might you go about changing that? Saving Changes...
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Michael AdamsSolutions Architect| LANLLos Alamos, Nm, United States
Wow Rebecca, this is a great question, and one I'm glad you asked. I think it is natural and important to make assumptions, so that we can proceed with some sense of how we're going to handle an encounter.
However, we ought not let our assumptions substitute for observation. We should be prepared for someone who always says "no" to say "no," and then handle that accordingly, but we should avoid walking in to his/her office with an attitude of "ready to punch this out!"
Part of our strength as human animals is that we recognize patterns and use them to predict how things might go in the future. This is an imperfect tool, but useful non-the-less, so we can't throw the baby out with the bath-water.
Maybe we need to have assumptions about our assumptions, like I've been wrong before, and it is entirely possible that I've got something wrong on this assumption, so I'll be interested to see what it is that I got wrong. Saving Changes...
Navdeep JoshiSr. Consltant - CA PPM| TBDBangalore, Karnataka, India
It's a human tendency to make assumptions - as long as they're assumptions and do not hinder in your communication with that individual.
To be frank, you should only be thinking about the goal of your conversation and not go about a conversation with assumptions. Going with a certain set of assumptions while conversing with an individual may hamper your ability to actively listen / respond as required / achieve the goal for which you started your conversation - NJ Saving Changes...
