The Core Skill of Openness and the Ladder of Inference

In my previous article, I described the value of identifying Core Skills as a way to lend structure and continuity to a leadership-development curriculum, with the Core Skills forming the “101” level and subsequent “electives” allowing more specialized applications of those skills. By identifying the “few but pervasive” Core Skills, an organization can start building a shared language for performance at all organizational levels.

Last time, I described the first of those Core Skills: “Moving Others.” Regardless of one’s level in an organization – from Individual Contributor to CEO – the ability to “move others” toward behaving and/or thinking a certain way is a key component of success. While the scope and complexity of that skill increases as one goes higher in the organization, the basic components of that skill remain the same.

In this article, I’ll describe a second Core Skill: Openness. I define Openness as the ability to entertain comfortably a variety of alternative possibilities without feeling compelled to select any of them.

The key words here are “comfortably” and “compelled.” Many people have difficulty dealing with situations that aren’t cut and dried, with information that isn’t neatly categorized, with people who don’t match their idea of what people “should” do or be. In an attempt to reduce the internal discomfort they feel, they seek as quickly as possible to land on a certain interpretation, decision, or evaluation – usually the one that causes them the least amount of angst. However, in rushing (often headlong) to judgment, they close themselves off too soon from data that might present a better way of regarding the situation.

An apt metaphor called the Ladder of Inference, developed several years ago by Chris Argyris, illustrates the pitfalls of this rush to judgment. The Ladder of Inference depicts four steps in our decision-making processes:

RUNG ONE: We Select Information from the world around us.

RUNG TWO: Based on that Information, we Make Assumptions about the world.

RUNG THREE: Based on those Assumptions, we Draw Conclusions.

RUNG FOUR: Based on those Conclusions, we Take Action.

Each of these steps is natural, normal, and essential for functioning. In fact, as I mentioned in an earlier article, none of us can directly respond to “things as they are” (Rung One) but instead must use intervening structures (Rungs Two and Three) to make sense of and deal with our world (Rung Four).

The problem arises when we become so driven by the need for an anxiety-reducing instant resolution that we proceed too quickly up the Ladder. Rather than taking time at Rung One to consider a wide range of alternative information, options, and possibilities on which we might base our conclusions, we grab onto a small set of data and “fill in” the rest of the set at Rung Two with our assumptions.

For example, suppose a customer service rep is told by a caller “I can’t find what I’m looking for on your website.” The rep - mindful of the need to handle calls quickly - may immediately assume that the caller is technically challenged, conclude that he can’t perform basic browsing steps, and act by saying “Don’t you know how to use a scroll bar?” However, if the rep had spent time gathering more information at Rung One, he might discover that the website is experiencing technical problems and that nobody can find what they’re looking for. By not keeping his mind open to other possibilities that lay behind the caller’s question, the rep rushed too quickly up the Ladder of Inference, took an inappropriate action, and ended up insulting a customer.

Failures of Openness occur all the time in our organizational lives. In a meeting, a person hears the first few words that another person says, assumes he knows what’s coming next, and stops listening.  A team member hears an off-the-wall idea from a co-worker, assumes it would never work, and applies an Idea Chiller such as “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!” A manager observes a direct report hemming and hawing during a presentation, says to himself “She can’t think on her feet,” and refuses to consider her for assignments involving any kind of off-the-cuff speaking. Each of these reactions stems from an unwillingness to spend enough time at Rung One gathering more information that would point the way to an alternative action that might be more appropriate.

As with “Moving Others,” Openness is a Core Skill that can apply to anyone, in any role, at any level of the organization. As such, it can form another part of the “Core Skills 101” curriculum of an organization. The learning can include:

·         The ways in which assumptions (especially unconscious ones) underlie our thinking and acting;

·         The importance of gathering enough information at Rung One before climbing the Ladder of Inference;

·         The emotional prompts that send us up the Ladder too quickly (e.g., the press of time, the cognitive dissonance that makes it difficult to consider conflicting ideas, the desire for certainty in ambiguous situations);

·         The value to the organization of acting openly, candidly, and with integrity in all internal and external interactions.

With “Core Skills 101” under their belts, learners can then take “elective” courses to develop their ability to use the skill of Openness in specific contexts, such as:

·         Customer Service: Asking open-ended questions to get the entire story before rushing to provide a solution that might not address the real issue.

·         Negotiation: Staying open to multiple options in order to create win-win solutions. (See also my article on the Tradeoff Triangle.)

·         Creative Thinking: Using “mind tools” such as brainstorming to open up the field for potential solutions to problems.

·         Innovation: Keeping an open mind to possibilities and avoiding the “that’s not how we do things here” syndrome.

·         Career Development: Opening oneself to different ways of overcoming barriers (real and self-imposed) to achieving career goals.

·         Coaching: Being open to people’s potential rather than focusing on their supposed limitations (which can quickly become self-fulfilling prophecies).

Of course, as with any skill, the overuse of Openness can lead to ineffective performance as well. Next time I’ll describe a third Core Skill that must be used in conjunction with Openness to assure a proper balance between considering possibilities and taking action.