Check Your Assumptions

Managerial Trap: Assumed Knowledge

Each of us takes a great deal of our experience and perspective for granted. What seems obvious, second-nature, or common knowledge to you may not be so self-evident to others.

That gap in unexamined perspective can be especially true when you are dealing with someone from a different country, culture, or formative experience basis.

Assuming a common, shared frame of reference can lead to misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and significant consequences.

Dramatic case in point: NASA engineers who calculated distances for a space probe in English units while their European counterparts used metric measures.

Result: Mission failure and the waste of tens of millions of dollars all because of a very simple, completely avoidable, misunderstanding based on assuming a common frame of reference.

Stay mindful of what you'd otherwise take for granted. Terms of art, frames of reference, metaphors --- all can be helpful aids to communication unless they impede it.

Check for understanding; don't assume that everyone automatically and intuitively grasps your meaning even when it seems so obvious to you.

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