How can the poor perspective lead to utter chaos….have we ever realized? Our perspective for certain things is formed on our old beliefs or through our misconstrued opinions, which affect our relations, be it at the personal level or professional.

Recently, I witnessed a small incident during my training session when Ruhana misinterpreted Saleem’s remark. An argument led to a brawl. It was just a matter of poor perception on the part of Ruhana. She was checked and guided by her co-trainee during her presentation. She could have ignored it, but she had taken it as a comment. It was only a difference of perception. I believe that Ruhana had taken a hostile attitude based on her old belief, (boys pass silly comments on girls) which had made her draw a different conclusion. The heated environment was thus pacified with my intervention when I made her realize the positive aspect of the whole situation.

We see this in our day-to-day life as well as how these small skirmishes drive us to bigger issues—be it in our personal, and professional life, or at any communal violence. In this fast-paced world, we make assumptions based on meaning and some added meanings and thus jump to wrong conclusions. It is where “The Ladder of Inference” helps us. It is a tool that explains how to make decisions. More often we jump to a conclusion. We don’t use all the available facts and data to make every decision.

This is what happened in the case of Ruhana. She decided through the lens of her experience, that “boys pass remarks on girls” which led her to the wrong conclusion. I do believe it happens with many of us and we become judgmental. We make assumptions about XYZ that may not be necessarily true. We need to step down the ladder and rethink according to others’ perspectives. This Ladder of Inference helps to make decisions. Ruhana when guided to take a positive perspective through the ladder of Inference, changed her perspective.

This self-awareness tool has helped me to become more aware to make better decisions for me and my team and not to be cognitively biased. It has stopped me from taking my beliefs as truth. This has encouraged me to have more harmonious relations in my personal and professional life.  I am sure it has helped you too.