From Tension to Transformation: A Board's Guide to Flourishing (excerpt)

Ladder of Inference

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: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization.

This ladder-to-nowhere represents rapid mental gymnastics as we jump to conclusions based on limited data. Unlike other ladders that help us elevate, this one just escalates. Instead of asking questions, we might leap to ill-informed answers which stir up conflict and waste energy. For example, for several of my clients fundraising can be contentious and this is one scenario where board members went too far up the ladder:

Scenario: The board is discussing fundraising strategies for the upcoming annual gala event.

Data: The board receives a report showing a decline in donations from last year's event.

Selection: A board member focuses on specific donors who contributed less this year.

Interpretation: The member infers that the decrease in donations is due to dissatisfaction with the event's organization, management, or the organization’s work.

Assumption: They assume the event planning committee dropped the ball with outreach efforts.

Belief: The member starts to believe that the event planners are negligent or aren't putting in enough effort.

Action: They voice their concerns in the meeting, suggesting a change in the event planning committee composition and approach.

This situation resulted in strained relationships because the event planning committee members felt personally attacked and became defensive about how much effort they had exerted. Instead of focusing on constructive solutions, the attention shifted towards blame, with the committee members surfacing how they weren’t set up for success. The board discussion got mired in the past instead of proactive ways to share the load and improve fundraising strategies and outreach for the upcoming event.

Climbing the ladder of inference leads to rifts, misplaced personalization, and detracts from productive dialogue. Board members need to recognize when they're making assumptions, validate their inferences, and disclose where they are on the ladder. One tool to help stay off the ladder is to use “I notice…I wonder,” instead of declarations. The first statement gives space for the observation to be named, and the latter invites critical inquiry and conversation.

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Makiyah Moody?(she/her/ella) is the founder and president at Kairos & Heart LLC where she helps organizations ask and answer critical questions about how to advance their missions. A skilled facilitator and governance specialist, Makiyah launched Kairos & Heart in August 2021 after realizing that being and doing are different and she wanted to explore different design choices for partnering with organizational leaders.???

Before becoming a business owner, Makiyah sharpened her consulting skills at La Piana Consulting, directed governance initiatives for the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, was the founding executive director of the New Orleans regional office of Leading Educators, and held various roles over six years with the KIPP Foundation. Additionally, she was a 2013 participant in the Aspen Institute’s Roundtable on Community Change Racial Equity Leadership Development Seminar, is a Pahara Institute NextGen Fellow, an Executive Scholar with the Center for Nonprofit Management at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a BoardSource Certified Governance Consultant.

Before graduate school, Makiyah was a Civil Rights Investigator with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, an experience that vividly confirmed the disparate impact of structural racism. She is most energized by the opportunity to work with organizations that support underinvested communities and people of color and promote a thriving, multiracial democracy.

Makiyah has an MA in Humanities from the University of Chicago and a BA in Hispanic Studies, magna cum laude, from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where she served as a trustee from 2014 to 2019. Makiyah is a former board member of Heartland Alliance, the New Hampshire Center for Justice and Equity, and the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health.