Coaching practices for Examine Assumptions Together

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Examine Assumptions Together, 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
• There’s this thing I’m treating as obviously true and building everything on top of

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. Use Socratic questioning to test each belief
   Interrogate every claim with “how do I know this is true?” until only bedrock remains.
   First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable
6. 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
7. 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
8. Surface the hidden premises
   Find the unstated assumptions that the argument needs to work.
   Argument Mapping
9. Align on core values — where they are shared and where they differ
   Map which values you genuinely share and which you each hold separately — without requiring convergence.
   The Shared Meaning System
10. Apply Socratic questioning to your own thinking (not just others’)
    Use the same question types on your own beliefs that you would use to probe someone else’s.
    Socratic Questioning

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