Assuming Too Much?

The truck carrying my favorite brand of ice cream has an ad on the back: “Still a half gallon (2 quarts).” It’s intended to highlight that many other brands have shrunk the size of their ice cream cartons. But it’s the parenthetical part that got my attention. Doesn’t everyone know that a half gallon is the same as 2 quarts? Why spell it out? The obvious answer is that they’ve learned through market research that many people don’t know this simple equivalency. Since I knew, I assumed that everyone else must know as well. In this case, my mistaken assumption doesn’t matter, but when leaders assume too much, the consequences can be far-reaching. What are some of the possible consequences? Resistance to a new initiative surprises a leader who assumed that everyone had the same underlying values and was on board. A ministry team makes a series of poor decisions because their leader assumed that they had received critical background information. A pastor assumes a level of biblical literacy and in doing so fails to connect in a new members’ class. A church’s elder board assumes that they’re required to follow certain procedures, but in reality they are acting out of habit. The point of this blog is not to convince you to quit making assumptions. That would be a waste of time – our brains are wired to make assumptions. My point is to encourage you to be more aware and examine your assumptions, especially around important decisions and initiatives. You can do this by keeping two things in mind. First, your perspective is not the only one. There are always other ways of seeing the situation. And those other perspectives will lead to different conclusions. Second, leaders are typically several steps ahead of the larger organization. When the time comes to communicate, take a step back and over-communicate. Better to do that than to assume that everyone is on the same page with you. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>