Questioning Core Assumptions: 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 Core Assumptions, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Practices that may help

1. 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
2. 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
3. Surface and test underlying assumptions
   Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
   Socratic Questioning
4. Testing a core belief with historical evidence
   Once you have a core belief, survey all your history for evidence that contradicts it.
   The Downward Arrow: Uncovering the Core Beliefs Behind Distress
5. Behavioral experiments to test core beliefs in vivo
   Design a real-world action that tests the core belief, then observe what actually happens.
   The Downward Arrow: Uncovering the Core Beliefs Behind Distress
6. 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
7. Surface and test the mental models driving behavior
   Make the assumptions behind decisions explicit — they are often the root structural cause.
   Systems Thinking
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. Compassionate reframing of the core belief’s origin
   Understand how the core belief made sense when it formed, as a first step to loosening its grip.
   The Downward Arrow: Uncovering the Core Beliefs Behind Distress
10. Separate facts from assumptions explicitly
    Sort what you actually know from what you’re assuming, in two visible columns.
    First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable

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

• There’s this thing I’m treating as obviously true and building everything on top of→
• 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→
• 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→
• I’ve already landed on the harsh thing I believe about myself→
• I can argue myself out of the bad belief on paper and still feel it in my gut the second I’m around people→

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