I believe ... I think ... I know ... When you hear yourself saying these terms, you are uttering an assumption. Sometimes assumptions are masked under expressions like we must, we should, we need to. Still others come with heavy camouflage. Here are the issues we need to address. You have not been doing your job. You have made mistakes in your analysis. Here are the problems requiring solutions. All of those expressions are simply assumptions in disguise. Assumptions cloud discussions. Assumptions jeopardize planning. Assumptions distort innovations. Therefore, confronting your assumptions refocuses what you are doing or planning to do.



When an assumption appears on the horizon of your thinking, immediately jot down the statement. Underneath the statement, begin to ask any questions that come to your mind regarding the origination, development, or history of the assumption in your life. When were you first aware that you believed the statement? Where did you first encounter the statement? From whom did you first hear the statement? How has the statement changed during its history as part of your life? Who or what contributed to the changes in the statement? How is this statement coloring the decisions you want to make?

When you have emptied your brain of all questions that occur to you, you are ready to deal with the answers. For example, as I child I was told that I could do anything I wanted, anything I dreamed of doing. I believed the statement because my parents used it to encourage me to take chances, even risks, as I grew and learned. When I went to school, I began to quickly learn that my belief did not fit the world. Girls cannot play football. Girls cannot do math. Science is only for boys. Only boys can take shop. Girls take home economics. The more I heard these comments, the more I had to challenge the assumption so I could live in the world without being of the world that behaved in this way.

As time went on, schools, more than life, taught me about assumptions. In my undergraduate work, I once again hit the "no science and math for girls" assumption and the "athletic" assumption. Here I began the first phases of my personal challenges to the assumptions. I found a physical chemistry professor willing to hire me, even as a freshman. While I was confronted with learning the periodic table in my inorganic chemistry class, I was also learning about coatings that were being used on high altitude missiles to prevent them from burning up on return trips. In my communications major, I found that radio, television, and theater offered me ways to do what I wanted with math and science. In addition, I became an inter-collegiate, multi-sport athlete in the days before legislation opened athletic doors to women.

In graduate school, I again encountered the "no girls" assumption. As I was finishing my professional studies with only two classes to complete, the Dean of my academic division called me from a class to discuss something. He told me that he would not approve my doing field work to get my license even though I had only A grades in my course work. I asked, "Why?" Without even a breath of hesitation he replied, "Because you will take a job away from a man." I fought back in two ways. I changed my degree objective on the spot. Then, I completed that new degree program. Thereafter, I went back to take the only course, besides the field work, that would complete my original degree choice. The Dean of earlier days was the instructor. I was one of three women in the class. I researched and prepared for every assignment that was given to any person in the class. On presentation days, I challenged every lack of preparation, every action that revealed gender favoritism, every proposition that robbed people of the right to dream or innovate.

The assumption throughout my career continues to rear its head in a wide range of experiences and situations. Each experience gives me a chance to re-evaluate, to up-date my positions, and to change my behavior to defuse counter assumptions that conflict with my assumptions. At some point the "assumption" changes to a "personal truth" tested and molded by experience, not simple acceptance. PS: The Dean apologized, I got the top grade in the class, I completed my field work, I got my license.