Read what your test actually showed

After a test of your big assumption, separate what happened from what you made of it, then decide what it tells you and what to test next.

Por qué funciona

A test is only as useful as the data you take from it. The Minds at Work test handout asks you to record what you observed, both how others responded and how you felt, and only then what it tells you about the assumption. Reams’s report on the 2009 book notes its warning against letting interpretation sneak into the observations. Keeping the two apart stops the assumption from quietly rewriting the result, and Kegan and Lahey’s final step is to evaluate both the results and the test itself, then design the next one.

Cómo hacerlo

1. Right after the test, write what happened in observable terms: what you did, what others said and did, what you felt in your body and mind.
2. Only then, in a separate column, write what this tells you about your assumption: true, false, or more conditional than you thought?
3. Evaluate the test itself: was it a fair test, or so cautious it could not have disproved anything?
4. Talk it over with a partner who saw it or heard about it, then design the next, slightly larger test.

Evidencia

Step 5 of Kegan and Lahey’s 2001 HBR process is to "evaluate the test results, evaluate the test itself, design and run new tests." The Minds at Work handout separates "What I Observed Happening" from "What it Tells me about my Big Assumption" and suggests asking someone to observe and give feedback afterward. Reviewing a behavioral experiment against the original prediction is also standard in cognitive therapy, set out in the Oxford guide, which this step resembles by analogy rather than by direct trial. (mechanistic)

The cognitive-therapy evidence concerns behavioral experiments in clinical settings; it supports the logic of reviewing tests, not the immunity-to-change process specifically.

Fuentes

• Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2001). The Real Reason People Won’t Change. Harvard Business Review, 79(10), 84–92.
• Minds at Work. Design a Test of Your Big Assumption [practitioner handout, hosted by the Wexner Foundation].
• Reams, J. (2009). Immunity to Change: A Report from the Field. Integral Review, 5(1).
• Bennett-Levy, J., Butler, G., Fennell, M., Hackmann, A., Mueller, M., & Westbrook, D. (Eds.). (2004). Oxford Guide to Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Error común

Reading a mixed result through the old assumption ("they were nice about it, but they probably think less of me now"). Write down what was observed before deciding what it means.