Three Useful Assumptions In Your Teams

What assumptions are you reliant upon within your teams? Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash

These three assumptions are just a starting point. Before I get right into them, I am aware that many people don't like the idea of making assumptions and prefer to be sure about things. I acknowledge that and suggest reading on with an open mind. I also suggest that being certain about all aspects of human behaviour is not something that philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists or anybody that I'm aware of has been able to crack to date. This brings me to the first assumption...

Assumption one - Useful is better than right
This is the foundation of this post. As humans, we often enjoy and pursue certainty. For that reason, we can either convince ourselves that our current beliefs are absolutely true or to seek more and more information in the search of certainty. I understand (and am often guilty of) this assumption. The assumption I am encouraging is to accept that utility is more valuable - and that certainty is often futile.

If you can be both right and useful, that's a great outcome. If you have to choose, opt for being useful (including minimising damage).

Assumption two - Failure is co-created
This is a quote from Dr Paul Lawrence who dropped this during a Masters of Business Coaching lecture when I was a student a few years back. I think it's a useful assumption because it encourages us to avoid the absolute positions (both of which I have heard within the last week) of:

• I am responsible as I am in the position of leader / project manager / owner and therefore failure is my fault

• It was the responsibility of the team / team member and therefore failure is their fault

Whether it's true or not, this encourages a more nuanced consideration that acknowledges that there are many factors that contribute to failure (or success for that matter).

Assuming that failure is co-created allows us to take responsibility for our share of the outcome as well as consider what else may have been at play.

Assumption three - Your team is not fully engaged
I get that this can be a confronting idea that not a lot of us want to apply. Here's why I think that it might be useful:

• Statistically speaking, it's probably true.
  According to Gallup's 2021 State of the Workplace report found that 80% of the workforce globally are either not fully engaged or actively disengaged. With those figures (which have been pretty consistent for a while), it's useful to assume that not everyone in your team is fully engaged.

• It keeps us attentive.
  None of us like being taken for granted. Assuming that your team is (and will always be) fully engaged increases the likelihood that we miss cues that suggest otherwise at the same time as reducing the likelihood that we will invest time and effort into improving the level of engagement within our teams.

So, there you have three assumptions for your teams:

1. Useful is better than right

2. Failure is co-created

3. Your team is not fully engaged

None of these assumptions need to be true to be useful. I hope that this note has been useful for you and your teams.

Here are some questions for you to reflect on this week:

1. What assumptions are you reliant upon within your teams?

2. How do you feel about the statement that "useful is better than right"?

3. If you adopted these three assumptions, what is the worst thing that could happen? What is the best thing?