What Happens If I Have a Faulty Premise?
What Happens If I Have a Faulty Premise?
Premises are what guide the actions of what you do. When you operate under a faulty premise you will get erroneous information, inconsistent behavior and future problems.
Let me give you an example to illustrate.
When NASA was preparing to launch the Challenger they operated under the premise of “prove why it is not safe to launch”. This caused the engineers to try to figure out how to overcome anything that would say no launch. Their brain power was on defending why they should launch and on dismissing or downplaying why they shouldn’t launch. This way of thinking caused them to NOT grasp a presentation that was done on the possible conditions that would cause the panels to fail.
Take just a moment to think where your brain goes to when you thinking of proving why something WON’T work. You quickly move to putting up each obstacle and then overcoming them. But you don’t move your brain to “what is needed to make this successful.” Different energy going in different directions.
Now if they had worked under the premise of “what conditions need to be present in order for us to safely launch” they would have had their energy focusing on improving all things to make sure that the launch was ready on all levels. They would have tried to see how all of the key components necessary for a safe launch were causally connected. They would have really seen blockers from the danger point rather than the “let’s overcome” point.
When you are working on key problems. Check to see the premise you are working under and whether it is causing you to have blind spots or not.
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