Communicating for Trust (using the Ladder of Inference)

[Steve Pinckney]

Communicating for Trust

In brief:
* When attempting to put forth a position or opinion, first ensure that you understand the positions or concerns of your recipient
* After demonstrating your understanding, you can increase your chances of being understood by laying out your reasoning
* The ladder of inference is a great tool to use to frame your argument, your conclusions and recommended actions

When communicating for trust, there are two main things you should seek to accomplish.
First, you must make the person feel that you understand their position, their concerns and their priorities. Second, you must make your thinking and logic transparent.

In Stephen Covey’s seminal book on personal development, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” habit five is to “Seek first to understand, then be understood.” Before you can hope to earn someone’s trust, that person must feel that you have done your homework. They must feel that you truly understand all the issues that are present in the context you are writing or speaking of. For if you have not done so, how could you possibly know what the “best solution” – or even a “good solution” -is to address that person’s problems?
Instead, you should seek first to understand. Speak to those who have insight into the problem. Assume a stance of curiosity and ask:
* What exactly is the problem from your perspective?
* What’s been tried before?
Additionally, you can look for industry reports or journals to discover trends and patterns. Find out how others have addressed the issue. Compare that to what you learned in your initial conversations.

Finally, synthesize what you have learned and consider how they might inform the conclusions you’ve reached and the actions you’re recommending.
Once you understand the concerns of the person (or target audience,) and can articulate this to the person, you will be truly ready to communicate for trust…and you will be in a much better position to be understood.

The essence to being truly understood is to not simply state your conclusions and recommended actions, but to instead explain how you arrived at them. That is, make your thinking and logic transparent. A wonderful tool to use for this is the ladder of inference.

The ladder of inference is a tool originally developed by Chris Argyris and describes the steps we take to go from facts to actions. Often, we are unaware of these steps. Read the article here (https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_91.htm) for a great explanation of the ladder.

The important point to note in this context is that we all have our own, distinct ladders of inference. Therefore, when attempting “to be understood” we should help people climb the same ladder we climbed when reaching our conclusions and actions. That is, describe the data you’re observing and the meaning you are ascribing to it. Next, layer in any assumptions you are making it. Follow up by identifying the conclusions you are drawing from this and any beliefs you have (or that are being reinforced by this.) Only after doing this, should you layout the course of action(s) you are recommending.

This approach allows for two things:
* First, the recipient will be in a much better position to understand your position than if you had simply began with actions and opinions. Whether they agree with you or not, they can appreciate that there is reasoning behind your suggestions.
* Second, the recipient has a chance to respond in a more meaningful manner. Rather than simply providing their opinion of your opinion (a shaky foundation for any argument or negotiation at best) they can instead follow your reasoning, and find the one point that they disagree with or have an alternative explanation for.

When attempting to influence a person or target group through communication, doing so through trust is your best approach. And the best way to begin establishing trust is to first demonstrate your understanding of their position as much as possible and second, by transparently laying out the thinking and reasoning that lead to the actions you are recommending.

[Kelli Hildebrand]

Great resource Steve. When I work with teams, I will often share this model and give them the common language of “running up my/our ladder”. This gives the team a way to identify when they are collectively making unhelpful inferences or assumptions about each other, stakeholders or even the problem at hand.

[Dominiek Plancke]

Steve, this makes me think about “the pyramid of influence” developed by the Arbinger institute. The main difference they point out is the mindset we have when we approach the other. Are we engaging with an outward mindset taking into consideration the other person’s objectives, challenges and opportunities or just our own ? In other words are we communicating to make only our own point or to build on each other? To often you see “skilled” team members making a perfectly rational reasoning in an eloquent way, but having no influence on the other because they are truly only busy with their own agenda.

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