Assessments

Assertions have to do with what is so. Assessments have to do with what is possible.

Julio Olalla

Assessments are also Declarations.

An assessment is a speech act where the speaker defines how he/she relates to the world or an event. For example, good vs bad, right vs wrong etc. The speaker takes a stand on something and comes to an judgement about something.

• Assessments are highly generative and creative.

• No third party may either prove an assessment true or false, as they are personal judgments from different observers out of different standards, beliefs, moods and experiences.

• Assessments belong to the observer and not what is being observed. Assessments often reveal more about the observer and their standards than the subject being observed. The room is spacious or cramped is an assessment that belongs to each individual observer, and not to the thing being observed. Whether a room is cramped or spacious depends on who’s looking.

• Assessments have everything to do with the future, and can be viewed as “stepping stones” toward the future. Whether positive or negative, assessments influence our interpretations and actions in the future. Sometimes this influence is minor, sometimes it is huge. If you assess Bob as unreliable and there is an opening for your team, you will not choose Bob. The assessment of unreliable in the present influences the future choice to not select him. However, you could also make a different assessment - that Bob is reliable. This orients you towards choosing him for your team in the future instead.

  We tend to interpret in a way to make ourselves right. If you assess Bob as unreliable, what do you notice? Every time he’s late, but not when he’s on time (which gets written off as an exception).

• We make assessments against standards which are often unspoken. E.g, Bob has been late 3 times leads to the assessment that Bob is unreliable, if the standard is say not being late more than twice. This assessment would affect whether Bob is chosen for a new team. There is a social aspect to assessments. We adopt many of these standards through our upbringing or the community, often without consciously choosing to do so. Standards are historical and can shift over time. E.g, what is considered old has changed in the past century due to medical advances. There is nothing wrong about having different standards. However, standards are often hidden and not discussed, as such conversations are often missing. These conversations are powerful in both personal and professional relationships.

• Assessments are highly influenced by moods and emotions. You will react differently to missing your bus when you are joyful vs frustrated. This connection also goes the other way. If someone always makes assessments like “that won’t work” or “nothing will make a difference”, what mood is that person living in? Probably resignation or pessimism. The connection between mood and language shows up here in assessments. If you want to figure out the mood you’re in or consciously design a different one, look at your assessments, particularly how you ground them or declare standards that you observe against to others.

• We tend to assess ourselves based on our intentions, but others based on their behaviour.

• Socially, we are expected to have some grounds for making our assessments and are not just conjuring them from thin air.

• Most people use the word opinions to describe assessments. The key difference between opinions and assessments in this context is assessments influence how we interpret future information, as we tend to only notice things that fit into our assessments so that we are right. For example, noticing every time someone is late, but not when they are on time.

Contrast this with Assertions.

Assertions Vs Assessments

It is critical to make the distinction between assertions and assessments. This may sound obvious, but we often forget this and hold our assessments as the complete truth, especially regarding beliefs about ourselves. We often use them in the same way when thinking and speaking.

People who live as if their assessments were assertions usually create a public identity of being stubborn, opinionated etc.

Assessments may always be revised. This is very powerful when looking at assessments about ourselves that are not serving us in getting the results we say we want in our lives. Instead of viewing them through the right / wrong lens, do our assessments work / not work for us?

Who Do You Grant Authority To Assess You?

• Who do you give the authority to assess you?
• In what domains?

If you don’t grant anyone authority to assess you in any domain, it shows up as not allowing anyone to share their authentic experience of you, which could be very valuable.

It does not have to be an all or nothing answer. Your boss may have the authority to assess you on your work performance, but not your choice of hobby.

Assessments are never the truth, but can be useful. It could be one thing if 1 in 10 people said you’re not performing; its another if this comes from 7 in 10 people.

in personal situations we often give those closest to us great permission and latitude in assessing us, even in domains in which they may not be competent to do so. Thus, “I love you and I give you permission to define who I am.”

Being conscious about who you grant permission to assess you and in which domains can lead to more peace and less resentment in our lives.

Assessments From Authority Figures

Assessments from authority figures are not just assessments - they are Declarations. We tend to ignore many positive assessments from others and focus from negative assessments from people in authority. Ground such assessments that you receive, and examine why the focus on only the negative assessments.

Assessments from others belong to them. But once you take it into yourself, they become declarations because you have authority over your own life. When “You’re not good enough” becomes “I am not good enough”, that’s when the words have the most power over you.

If you’re someone in authority, be careful with your assessments.

Master Assessments

Master assessments are root assessments that can spawn many other assessments.

Some of the most common ones are:

• “I’m not good enough”
• “I should …”
• people pleaser
• The opposite of not being enough: “I am better than …”

Examine these more closely by grounding these assessments.

Grounded Assessments

We are assessment machines and assess all the time. This is not inherently bad, it just is.

Assessments show up everywhere in our lives. Assessments can be grounded or ungrounded. Being better at producing more grounded assessments - assessments consciously connected to facts, behaviours and standards - allows us design the lives we want.

1. Clarify to yourself why you’re making the assessment, for the sake of what? E.g, for some future or interaction. If there isn’t a reason, then this is a recreational assessment that can’t be grounded.

   We can have recreational assessments and there’s nothing wrong with that, just that they’re ungroundable. Recreational assessments tend to be more negative. The key is to notice them.

2. Clarify the standards you’re using in the assessment. Requires consciously noticing the standards that you set. If you assess someone as unreliable, what is the standard you have for reliability against which you’re judging that person?

3. Come up with actions or events (assertions) to support the assessment. Is this first-hand information? Be careful about using assessments to ground other assessments - you can’t use being sloppy to ground the assessment of being unreliable. We often borrow assessments of people we’ve never even met from others and use that to make other assessments.

4. Come up with assertions that support the opposite assessment. If so, what does this mean?

5. Ground the assessment with other people, especially the way that you connected assertions to assessment. This is not about trying to get others to agree with you. Maintain a mode of openness and inquiry in this conversation, as this can be one way to build trust and lay a foundation for solid relationships. It can also be an excellent source of feedback about the effectiveness and consequences of using our current standards.

Do I Need To Assess This?

This is a useful question for looking at your own assessments: ask yourself “when assessing, do I need to assess this?“.

This can reduce the recreational assessments that you make, which can lead to more peace in our lives.

Event Does Not Equal Explanation

We create stories all the time to explain or make sense of events - it is just in our nature. It isn’t bad. But after we create those explanations, we forget that these are stories we created and view these explanations as the truth.

The event of failing a test is very different from the explanation or assessment being made of it of “I am stupid”.

The question is not whether your story is right or wrong. Rather, is your story working for you given the results you say you want? If not, you can always learn to author more powerful stories that will serve you better in designing the life you want.