Do Simplifying Assumptions Help?

Assume no friction.” At the high school level, you can’t work the physics problem without simplifying assumptions. And yet, some of these assumptions are completely unrealistic. You make a variety of simplifying assumptions in your leadership. Sometimes these are good and appropriate ways to make decisions in a timely manner. In the early stages of budgeting for a construction project, the architect recommends using a 20% contingency factor. That’s an assumption. Making that assumption will save you hours of trying to identify and prepare for all the possible contingencies. Sometimes leaders make assumptions out of wishful thinking or because they don’t want to dig deeper. In those cases, the assumptions can lead to a variety of problems down the road. For example:

• On that same building project, you assume that all your constituents will be excited and supportive since the leadership has endorsed it. Then you run into resistance.
• You assume that a mass mailing will have a 2% response rate, so you build an entire strategy around this and don’t know what to do when the response rate is 0.2%.
• You assume that every small group will have a willing apprentice leader and will double within 6 months. By the end of 3 years, you will grow from the original 4 groups to 128! So is it a failure if you only grow from 4 to 40?

Of course, you can’t lead without making some assumptions, so you should make a habit to test to see if yours are realistic. When you find yourself saying, “If we … (have a 2% response, double every 6 months, etc) …” be sure that you also ask, “And if we don’t, then what?” If you want to assume no friction, that’s your prerogative as a leader. But it’s also your responsibility to deal with friction when you “discover” it. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>