Questioning Assumptions Technique: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Questioning Assumptions Technique, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 1 minute
Try it here: choose the question to test first
Pick the question that fits the belief you're testing right now. Then answer it in writing before you decide.
Which question do you want to test first?
Practices that may help
- 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 - 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 - Surface and test underlying assumptions
Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
Socratic Questioning - 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 - Socratic questioning
Ask yourself a sequence of open questions that lead you to examine a belief from the inside.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Made Practical - 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 - Separate facts from assumptions explicitly
Sort what you actually know from what you’re assuming, in two visible columns.
First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable - 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 - Turn the "why" on your own assumptions
Apply the same "why do I believe this?" scrutiny to your existing beliefs, not just new facts.
Elaborative Interrogation: Ask "Why Is This True?" - Substitute
Ask: what component, material, person, process, or rule could be swapped for something different?
SCAMPER: A Systematic Creativity Technique
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m grinding hard on "how do I fix this" and a quiet doubt keeps surfacing that I might be solving the wrong problem entirely
- There’s this thing I’m treating as obviously true and building everything on top of
- 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
- My conclusion only makes sense because of a bunch of things I’m silently taking for granted about people and how the world works
- When someone reassures me that the thought isn’t true, I nod along but nothing actually shifts inside
Related concerns
- What Does It Mean To Question Assumptions
Before answering a question, ask whether it is the right question and whether it is framed to produce useful answers.
Question the question itself
- Always Question Your Assumptions
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
Surface and examine the assumptions you are making
- Question Assumptions
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
- Assumption Questions To Ask Friends
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
- Challenging Assumptions System
Make the assumptions behind decisions explicit — they are often the root structural cause.
Surface and test the mental models driving behavior
- Critical Thinking Assumption Questions
Before answering a question, ask whether it is the right question and whether it is framed to produce useful answers.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.