Separating fact from interpretation
In advisory work, a recurring pattern shows up early: a description of a problem in which evidence and interpretation have already been braided together so tightly that no one can pull them apart.
By Paige Williams — applied researcher and strategist developing a Narrative Intelligence framework.
The braid
“Our board has lost confidence in the strategy” may contain a fact (two directors asked hard questions in the last meeting) and an interpretation (they no longer believe in the direction). The fact and the interpretation travel together, and the interpretation is usually the part driving the next decision.
Sorting the two is not an accusation that someone is wrong. It is a way of finding out what is actually known, which is often less—and more workable—than it first appeared.
Discernment, not doubt
SORT—discernment—is about accuracy. The aim is not to be suspicious of every account, which is its own kind of distortion, but to be clear about the status of each claim: observed, inferred, assumed, or inherited.
Teams that can do this together argue better. The disagreement moves from “you are wrong about the situation” to “we are inferring different things from the same evidence,” which is a problem a group can work on.
An open question
What helps a person hold uncertainty long enough to sort it, particularly under time pressure and visible stakes? That remains one of the open questions in this research rather than something the framework resolves.
The disagreement moves from “you are wrong about the situation” to “we are inferring different things from the same evidence.”
Continue
More research notes.
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