GROUNDING ASSESSMENTS
Grounded assessments don’t answer questions as such because they require clarification before they can be accepted. It involves making assessments of assertions. You are looking for evidence and a logical argument that it is a good assessment for the purpose of achieving a desired future result. What verifiable standard or public endorsement supports the assessment?
You “ground” your assessments, judgements or opinions by providing relevant and compelling evidence that can be easily verified and convinces your listener to accept its validity and authenticity. An assessment should set a context, direction or attitude that will motivate people to act on something that they can agree, care about and trust.
An assessment is essentially a personal evaluation. It is neither true nor false. When assessments are grounded they become assertions because they can claim something that is accepted as true of the world. They can then be substantiated or refuted with the new observable evidence.
Grounding is a complex skill as we have to acknowledge the listener’s standards for acceptance if they are to trust it. That’s important because we may want to use them as a basis for committing to an action or to deliver on a promise. Intuition, blind trust or a good feeling will not be enough. It’s the listener, not the speaker that decides if a statement is grounded enough to get their agreement or acceptance.
So, grounding can involve a number of key questions.
- Does the assessment fit with the listeners’ beliefs?
- To what exactly does the assessment apply?
- What are the concerns? Does anyone care?
- What value or satisfaction can the results deliver?
- What facts are offered, and can they be corroborated? Do they make a convincing case?
- What are the supporting assessments? Can they be validated?
- Does the speaker come across as confident, authentic and centred?
- Can the speaker be trusted? Sincere, reliable, respectful, caring, honest, fair-minded?
- Where or when would the assessment not be valid?
