Coaching practices for Critical Assumptions

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Critical Assumptions, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• My conclusion only makes sense because of a bunch of things I’m silently taking for granted about people and how the world works
• My conclusion feels airtight and yet something nags at me, and I think it’s that the whole thing only holds if a couple of unspoken things are true
• In my head the things I’m sure of and the things I’m just guessing at all run together as one blur, so I end up treating my assumptions like hard limits
• My team keeps landing in the same wrong place no matter how we tweak our actions, and it’s dawning on me that the real problem is some unspoken belief we all just take as how-the-world-works
• My plan feels solid until I notice it quietly depends on a whole stack of things just going my way

Practices that may help

1. Surface and examine the assumptions you are making
   Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
   The Ladder of Inference
2. Surface and test underlying assumptions
   Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
   Socratic Questioning
3. Separate facts from assumptions explicitly
   Sort what you actually know from what you’re assuming, in two visible columns.
   First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable
4. Surface and test the mental models driving behavior
   Make the assumptions behind decisions explicit — they are often the root structural cause.
   Systems Thinking
5. Name the assumptions that must hold for the plan to work
   Every plan rests on assumptions — list them and ask how likely each one is.
   Margin of Safety
6. Map and stress-test your key assumptions
   Before executing, list the assumptions the plan depends on — then ask which ones would kill it if wrong.
   Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail
7. Question the question itself
   Before answering a question, ask whether it is the right question and whether it is framed to produce useful answers.
   Socratic Questioning
8. Test the big assumption behind your immunity
   Design a small experiment to check whether the assumption keeping you stuck is actually true.
   Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
9. Explore the implications and consequences of a position
   Ask "if that is true, what follows?" to test whether accepting a claim creates downstream problems.
   Socratic Questioning
10. Set charitable interpretation as your cognitive default
    Deliberately adopt the assumption that people are probably doing their best given their constraints.
    Hanlon's Razor: Never Attribute to Malice What Stupidity Can Explain

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.