WEBVTT

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JustLearn. The most confident person may not have the best information. Learn

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to examine a claim without confusing delivery, status or certainty with support.

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This edition uses synthetic narration.

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Notice the presentation separately. Someone answers immediately, uses familiar technical words and

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speaks without hesitation. Their explanation may be correct. It may also benefit

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from a question about how they know. A fluent delivery gives you

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information about presentation, but it does not by itself establish the claim.

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This distinction matters in everyday decisions as much as in formal research.

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A confident recommendation about a project, a purchase or a person's motives

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can travel through a group before anyone asks what it rests on.

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You need not become suspicious of everyone who speaks clearly. Simply keep

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the evidence available for inspection.

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Ask a question that tests the claim. Useful questions include: ‘What are

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you basing that on?’, ‘Does that apply in this situation?’ and ‘What

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would make you reconsider?’ Listen for an answer that adds substance: an

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observation, a relevant source, a comparison or an explanation of limits. A

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person may have useful experience without a document to produce. Ask what

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they directly observed and how similar the circumstances were. Equally, a source

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can be quoted impressively while being irrelevant to the actual decision. Your

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task is to understand the connection between the support offered and the

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conclusion being proposed.

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Apply the same standard to your own certainty. It is easy to

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examine someone else's confidence while treating your own familiarity as sufficient proof.

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Before repeating a strong claim, ask whether you know it, infer it

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or have simply heard it often. Adjust your wording accordingly. For practice,

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take one recommendation you are about to make and add a sentence

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about its basis and limits. ‘This worked in our small team when

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the deadline was flexible; I do not know whether it suits a

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larger operation.’ You have not made yourself less useful. You have helped

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the listener decide how much weight the recommendation can reasonably carry.

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A question to take with you. What supports this claim apart from

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the confidence with which it was delivered? First published by JustLearn. Read

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the original article at justlearn dot online.