The Meeting That Started With a Wrong Assumption

It started with "we all know why we're here."

What followed was an hour of discussion based on a premise nobody had verified.

"We're cutting the budget." The team spent two meetings discussing how to cut the budget. Except nobody had decided to cut the budget. It was a rumor that took on momentum.

The meeting that started with a wrong assumption. Everything that followed was built on a foundation that didn't exist.

Why Wrong Assumptions Spread

No one questions the premise.

When someone starts a meeting with "since we're all aligned on X," the room accepts X without examination. Questioning feels like disruption. It isn't — it's rigor.

Assumptions feel like facts.

"We need to restructure the team." Not "we've decided to restructure" or "we're considering restructuring." Just "we need to" — as if the decision has already been made and the only question is how.

By the time you realize, it's too late.

You've built plans around the assumption. You've had conversations with stakeholders. You've made commitments. Even when you discover the assumption was wrong, reversing it feels more painful than continuing.

How to Catch Wrong Assumptions

At the start of any meeting, ask: "What's the decision we're making today?"

If the answer is "we're not making a decision, we're just discussing" — you're probably in an assumption-based meeting.

When someone says "we all know X," say: "Actually, let me verify that."

Not confrontationally. Just: "Can we confirm that X is actually the case before we move forward?"

Distinguish between decisions and hypotheses.

"We're doing X" is a decision. "We need to do X" is a hypothesis wearing a decision's clothes.

The meeting that started with a wrong assumption produces a plan that's wrong before it begins. Verify first.