‘Would You Reconsider Your Assumptions?’
‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
I asked this question during an interview I was conducting. You might also choose to use the question to present to your candidates.
As I watched the candidate’s response, I found myself wondering: What assumptions was I making about their answer? About what constituted a ‘good’ response? About what this question could possibly reveal?
What began as an assessment tool became an exercise in examining my own certainties.
Turning the Question on Itself‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
Before we explore what this question does to candidates, what does it do to us? When we pose this question, what are we assuming we can discover? That intellectual humility can be assessed in real-time? That we can recognise authentic self-reflection when we see it? That our judgement of someone’s response reveals their character rather than our biases?
What if the most important person in the room who needs to reconsider their assumptions is the interviewer?
What Do We Assume About Knowledge in Professional Settings?‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
In our professional lives, we often act as if certainty equals competence. We reward those who present strong positions. We value expertise. We seek decisive leadership.
But what if we’ve confused confidence with wisdom? What if the most valuable people are those who hold their knowledge lightly enough to examine it?
Or what if constant self-doubt paralyses action? What if some situations require unwavering conviction?
How do we know which is which? And who decides?
The Socratic Recursion‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
Socrates claimed to know only one thing: that he knew nothing. If we take this seriously, what does it mean for how we evaluate others?
When I ask someone to reconsider their assumptions, am I not simultaneously being asked to reconsider my own? My assumptions about what makes a good candidate? About what intellectual humility looks like? About whether I can recognise it when I see it?
What if the question reveals as much about the questioner as the questioned?
The Pattern of Responses and What They Might Mean‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
When I’ve posed this question, I’ve observed various responses:
Some immediately agree to reconsider, then struggle to actually do so. Others become defensive. Some acknowledge their assumptions explicitly. A few ask what evidence might change their minds.
But what do these patterns tell us? That the immediate agreers lack conviction? That the defensive ones lack flexibility? That the assumption-acknowledgers have self-awareness? That the evidence-seekers think systematically?
Or do these interpretations reveal my own assumptions about what responses ‘should’ look like?
The Lencioni Test—Or Is It?‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
Patrick Lencioni describes ideal team players as humble, hungry, and smart (people smart). When someone handles this question well, do they demonstrate these qualities?
But what does ‘handling it well’ mean? Who decides? Based on what criteria? And if I can’t define ‘handling it well’ without imposing my own assumptions, what does that say about the question’s value?
Are we assessing Lencioni’s virtues, or are we assessing our ability to recognise what we think those virtues look like?
What We Confess We Don’t Know‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
Here’s what I don’t know:
Whether intellectual humility actually correlates with job performanceWhether people who demonstrate it in interviews practise it in daily workWhether the ability to reconsider assumptions matters more in some roles than othersWhether my judgement of someone’s response reflects their capabilities or my biasesWhether this question does anything more than make me feel cleverWhat else don’t we know about how we evaluate people? How much of our assessment process rests on unexamined assumptions?
The Question Questions the Question‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
If this question asks people to examine their assumptions, what about examining our assumptions about the question itself?
What am I assuming when choosing this question as an interview tool? That self-reflection is universally good? That intellectual humility is always preferable to conviction? That I can recognise authentic intellectual humility when I see it?
Each assumption leads to another question. Each question reveals another assumption.
Where This Enquiry Leads‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
I don’t have conclusions. I have more questions:
What would happen if we approached interviews with genuine intellectual humility ourselves? If we acknowledged that we don’t know what we’re looking for or whether we can find it?
What if instead of seeking to assess candidates, we engaged in mutual enquiry with them? What if we admitted that we’re all operating on incomplete information and uncertain assumptions?
Or does our entire focus on selecting individuals miss something fundamental? W. Edwards Deming stated that 95% of performance comes from the system, only 5% from the individual. If he’s right, what does that say about our obsession with finding the ‘right’ people?
The Question That Continues‘Would you be willing to reconsider your assumptions and opinions on that?’
This question keeps turning back on itself. Every time I think I understand what it reveals, I have to ask: What assumptions am I making about what it reveals?
Perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps the value isn’t in what the question tells us about candidates, but in how it reminds us to examine our own certainties.
Or perhaps that’s just another assumption to reconsider.
What do you think? And more importantly: Would you reconsider your assumptions about what you think?
Further ReadingDeming, W. E. (1988). Introduction. In P. R. Scholtes, The team handbook: How to use teams to improve quality. Oriel Inc.
Lencioni, P. M. (2016). The ideal team player: How to recognize and cultivate the three essential virtues. Jossey-Bass.
Plato. (2002). Apology. In G. M. A. Grube (Trans.), Five dialogues. Hackett Publishing. (Original work published c. 399 BCE)
