Where am I on the ladder?
In 1994, Peter Senge’s book, The Fifth Discipline, popularized the idea of the Ladder of Inference. Years ago in our work at Soderquist Leadership, I claimed that pound-for-pound this was the most relevant, applicable, and transformative model in out toolkit. Since, a couple of other contenders have emerged but I’m pretty sure, this claim is still true. The model goes something like this…
Of all the data available, I have a subset of it that is observable to me.
From that observable data, I select data.
And then I add meaning - cultural and personal.
I then make assumptions based on the meanings I added.
I draw conclusions
I adopt beliefs.
And ultimately, I take actions based on my beliefs.
The logic is powerful with each step in the sequence being a rung in the ladder. (You’ll have to imagine to picture that step 1 is the bottom rung and step 7 as the top.)
Most get the model quickly and relate real-life experiences with ease…
The car that cut us off in traffic.
The email from the colleague that seems to know just what button to press.
The comment made at the family reunion.
The team member who is late to work… again.
And here’s the thing, with some rate of success, we may even be right about the inferences we draw. But is our batting average as high as we think it is? Likely not! In fact, our actual accuracy is probably dismal in comparison to what we think.
But it doesn’t have to be that way!
You’ve probably already made the connection to emotional intelligence. I’d argue the ladder hits all four of the traditional quadrants. Here are some things I’ve learned (and am still learning) about the ladder…
Know where we are on the ladder. This takes a certain amount of discipline and introspection to think about the meanings, assumptions, conclusions and beliefs we’re adopting. If we can do that in real time and manage it well, we’re more likely to take actions that are in line with what’s actually happening rather than the inferences we’ve drawn.
Know if we’re racing up the ladder. If we’re paying attention, we can feel it. It’s the emotional hijack and our physiological response that we (and others) can observe. If a trusted truth-teller points it out to us, we should listen. If we feel it, can we pause, just long enough, to back down a few rungs, often all the way back down to ground level and maybe, just maybe, we should do some much needed work to increase our observable data, double-check the meaning we’re adding, etc. Inquiry is a great tool for this!
Recognize if someone else has raced, or is racing up the ladder. We might need to be the trusted truth-teller with a well-placed encouragement to a friend or colleague to pause and reassess. Or, we may be on the wrong end of someone else’s race and we might need to engage in a fierce/crucial conversation to walk back down the ladder to gain clarity. Or maybe it’s not that big of a deal and we can extend grace and let it go.
If you’re like me, in the last 7 days, you’ve been on the ladder yourself and you’ve witnessed others on the ladder. How did those things go? How might the outcome have been different had the principals managed their ladders more effectively? Is there room on your ladder for someone to provide an assist when needed?
Happy climbing!