Have you ever been in a meeting where it became obvious that people had different views of why they were there?
Have you ever been in a working session where it was clear people were working on different things and at cross-purposes?
Have you ever assumed that everyone understood a problem the same way, only to discover that there were many different interpretations of the problem?
Of course you have. We all have. We all go into situations where we assume that what we know, others know. We assume others share our view of the situation. We assume others have the same objectives and the same understanding. We assume what’s in our head is in everyone’s head. It’s so obvious to us, it must be obvious to everyone. When we assume these things, we are usually surprised. And we’re not as productive as we could be.