“No Matter How Good My Idea Is, She Won’t Like It”

Jenny loved her job. And today should be her best day since she started at Side Road Realty. As she waited patiently for the always notoriously late General Manager, she couldn’t help thinking back to first time she sat there. That day she was just hoping for a job, any job, even cleaning the office would at least get her foot in the door and that was the best she could hope for.

Wow, who would have guessed just ten months later she would be presenting a new filing system for all the offices to the General Manager. Oh my gosh, just the thought of speaking to Katherine sent shivers down her back. This woman was famous for her sarcastic and demeaning retorts to new ideas. She could reduce the most charismatic, dynamic sales person to a sniveling, apologetic wimp if she chose. Maybe this was a bad idea. After all, when she was hired as the front desk receptionist, she was told, in no uncertain terms, to “just” answer the phone and greet visitors, any more than that would be asking for trouble.

But the more she thought about it, the more determined she became. She had done a great job and had soon earned the respect and praise of everyone, everyone, that is, except Katherine.

She knew her new system was a tremendous improvement, and everyone she had shown it to agreed, and they were the ones who would be using it.

So, she thought to herself, bring it on, Katherine, she was ready.

The next thing she remembered was standing in front of Katherine, working her way through her presentation. Suddenly, she noticed Katherine arch her eyebrows and purse her lips as she looked down at her watch. She knew it, this was not going well. To heck with it, she didn’t care, she’d get through regardless of the fact Katherine hated her idea. After all, nothing changed around the office unless it was Katherine’s idea. That women just couldn’t stand to give anyone else credit for anything. The more she thought about it, the more hopeless this seemed. She could tell that Katherine was about to interrupt. Best bet, at this point, she thought, was to just finish. Finish as fast as she could and get out of there. Maybe if she was abrupt enough, she’d be gone before Katherine could unload.

The last couple of minutes were full of frantic “thanks for listening” (ya, right), “got to go,” “sorry to have taken so much of your time,” but at least she avoided the ridicule and now she was back in her car on her way to meet Barry, her boy friend, for a drink. Boy could she use one.

So it was no surprise that she woke-up the next day with a hangover and a dread of going into work that was close to debilitating. And if that wasn’t bad enough, when she pulled up to the office and looked through the front windows, she shuddered. There was Katherine, waiting at her desk, drumming her fingers impatiently.

Well, to make a long story short, what started to be probably the worst day of her career ended up to be a most memorable one. Katherine, although curious and full of questions about what had happened to Jenny in the middle of the presentation, was actually there to congratulate her for coming up with this terrific new system and offer her a promotion.

How could Jenny have been so wrong?

Well it’s called “Climbing the Ladder of Inference” (see The Ladder of Inference, Part 4, Section 35 from the book “Fifth Discipline Fieldbook” by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith).

Jenny was climbing the proverbial Ladder of Inference. First rung, observing behavior (watching Katherine’s every movement), second rung selecting data from what she observed (the arched eyebrows and pursed lips), third rung, she added meaning (she knew of Katherine’s reputation), forth rung, she made assumptions (Katherine hated her idea, just as she had all the others), fifth rung, she drew conclusion(Katherine was going to reject her idea), sixth rung, she adopted beliefs (Katherine knew a receptionist could never have a good idea), seventh rung, she took action based on her beliefs (She had to go before Katherine ripped apart her idea).

Jenny was lucky, she got the new job, despite the rushed presentation. The quality of her idea obviously outweighed the botched presentation. But climbing the "Ladder of Inference," more often than not, leads to very negative consequences.

This is a tendency we have all falled victim too and it can be a major factor in missing opportunities to change and grow.

Have you ever climbed the "ladder." If so, I would love you to share the experience.

If you would like some tips to avoid the "climb" or how to approach someone you sense has climbed the "ladder," let me know how to get in touch and I'll share some ideas.