The ladder of inference problemsolving training from. The ladder of inference teaches you to take a few steps back in the reasoning process, allowing you to remain objective and not to immediately jump to conclusions. The ladder of inference is a mental model first described by organizational psychologist, chris argyris, and later popularized by peter senge in his book, the fifth discipline. This image helps us to understand that we all start on even footing, and then each of us goes up our own internal ladder. When looking at most diagrams, start at the bottom. Ladder of inference and protocols for skillful inquiry. It can support us in ensuring common understanding. The ladder of inference is a useful tool that provides a framework to structure some of our communications and connect people. The ladder of inference helps us understand how the human mind goes from taking in data to making meaning about the world to then taking action on that meaning. The first step is to identify the reality and facts of a situation, and then choose selected data to focus data. The data is long since lost to memory, after years of inferential leaps. Professor kathryn parker boudett explains how to reduce jumping to conclusions, especially in an educational context, by using the ladder of inference developed by. The thinking stages can be seen as rungs on a ladder and are shown in figure 1. The ladder of inference is typically thought of as something you climb up.
Ladder of inference and protocols for skillful inquiry handout 1 communication tools to support effective community planning conversations. The ladder of inference describes the thinking process that we go through, usually without realizing it, to get from a fact to a decision or action. The ladder of inference explains why most people dont usually remember where their deepest attitudes came from. The ladder of inference linkedin learning, formerly. In this lesson, trevor maber introduces us to the idea of a ladder of inference and a process for rethinking the way we interact. For instance, once doris and i understand the concepts behind the ladder of inference, we have a safe way to stop a conversation in its tracks and ask several questions. The ladder of inference helps us monitor our thought processes as we analyze data. To understand the thinking process we go through when making a decision and practice identifying when our internal processes may prevent us from taking rational action. Using the ladder of inference you cant live your life without adding meaning or drawing conclusions. Each rung of the ladder is dependent on the rung before it. The ladder is made up of 7 rungs or stages that outline the rapid process our minds go through to make conclusions and take action in a given situation. First proposed by chris argyris, way back in 1970, the ladder of inference is a way of describing how you move from a piece of data a comment made to you, or something that you have observed to happen, through a series of mental processes to a conclusion. Using the ladder of inference teaches you to look at facts unbiased and not to judge too soon.
966 693 622 621 462 8 72 1428 1159 148 1122 841 1400 931 1306 871 31 985 1216 156 627 342 672 520 586 1088 510 1311 307 1251 1156 1449 865 821