Watching all the controversy around the President and frequency in which he was being tested for Covid-19, brings up the topic of assumptions.  Many people assumed the President was being tested daily.  Given the below, several are now questioning whether he was in fact getting tested daily, and whether he actually became Covid-19 positive before Oct 2nd.

• Many Covid-19 patients get worse around day seven to ten into their diagnosis

• The President only announced his positive Covid-19 diagnosis early the morning of Oct 2nd

• By the evening of Oct 2nd the President was being medevaced by helicopter to Walter Reed Hospital

As change agents and leaders, we are constantly in work and personal situations where we have the opportunity to make assumptions.  What is an assumption? 

• Assumption = something you have accepted as true or certain to happen, without proof it is true or will happen

Many times the assumption is a belief that because something happened in the past it’s going to happen again in the future.  In the case of the President, because he announced in early May he would be tested daily for Covid-19, people had assumed this daily testing was happening in September without any proof it was actually being done.  

Unfortunately making an assumption can be extremely dangerous and cause a lot of suffering both in one’s personal and work life.  In the case of the President, people who were around him over the last week had assumed he was being tested daily and that if he was around people, that meant he was Covid-19 negative.  With the White House refusing to answer the question of when the President’s last Covid-19 negative result was, the reality is the people around him in the last week may actually have exposed themselves to a Covid-19 positive President and thereby exposed their family and whoever else they came into contact with over the last week to the coronavirus.

Reflecting on the above and thinking about your work:

• What beliefs do you currently have about the company, a coworker, a leader, an organization, the market, or a process that are actually assumptions?

• What if these assumptions are untrue?

• For the untrue assumptions, what price have you and your company paid for them?

Over the course of my 20 years in corporate, I have seen time and time again the costs of an incorrect assumption.  Below are just some example costs I’ve seen.

• Valuable resources wasted on solving symptoms instead of root cause and the problem reoccurring

• Conflict between teams delaying deliverables

• A bad relationship between leader and employee affecting productivity and increasing employee turnover costs 

• Lack of collaboration between leaders hindering the company’s ability to meet a goal

Switching to reflecting on your personal life:

• What beliefs do you currently have about your partner, your kids, your parents, your health, your finances, or another area of your life that are actually assumptions?

• What if these assumptions are untrue?

• For the untrue assumptions, what price have you and the people around you paid for them?

Here are just some example costs an incorrect assumption can have in one’s personal life:

• Conflict with your partner, child, parent, or friend

• Delayed treatment for a medical issue

• Loss of money

• Unrealized potential 

Starting the journey of identifying the assumptions you have made, having conversations to validate whether the assumptions are correct, and ultimately moving to avoiding making assumptions where possible, can be absolutely life changing.  Imagine how you will feel with less conflict, less anxiety, and more success in your work and personal life!

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About the Author: Rosanne Essiambre helps change agents and departments in one-on-one and group settings to be seen, be heard, and be effective in bringing about change in the organization and/or in their personal lives. She provides consulting and facilitation to organizations to improve communications and collaboration, smooth out the change / transformation journey, get to the root cause of an issue so it can be solved for good, improve processes, and implement successful lessons learned. And she conducts workshops, trains, and speaks on Energy Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, Being a Change Agent and more. If you or your organization could use support with your change effort or some inspiration, contact Rosanne for a complimentary consultation. Rosanne is a Change Agent Coach, Facilitator, Six Sigma Black Belt, Change Management / Continuous Improvement Consultant, Speaker, and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner with more than 20 years experience working on a variety of transformations across a diverse set of industries both domestically and internationally, while continuously improving herself.