Assumptions

Good morning Team,

I've been thinking about assumptions lately.

Not because I believe they're always wrong.

Quite the opposite.

Most of our assumptions are right.

That's why we make them.

Over the years, I've investigated incidents involving different companies, different trades, different people, and completely different circumstances. Yet after the interviews, the reports, and the conversations were over, I often found the same thread running quietly beneath the surface.

"I thought someone else checked."

"I assumed the breaker was off."

"I figured they understood."

"I thought they knew."

It made me wonder if assumptions aren't really a safety problem at all.

Maybe they're simply part of being human.

Our minds are remarkable. Every day they help us make thousands of decisions without stopping to analyze every detail. They fill in gaps, recognize patterns, and allow us to move through life without questioning every single step we take. If they didn't, we'd accomplish very little.

We assume the traffic light will change.

We assume the bridge ahead is safe.

We assume the person we're talking to understands what we mean.

Most of the time, those assumptions are correct.

And that's exactly what makes them so powerful.

Every assumption that proves true reinforces itself. Over time, certainty quietly replaces curiosity. We stop asking the extra question. We stop looking one more time. Not because we don't care, but because experience has convinced us that this situation is probably no different than the hundreds we've already encountered.

Until one day it is.

The longer I've spent in construction, the fire service, and leadership, the more I've come to believe that many of our biggest challenges don't begin with bad intentions. They begin with things we never stopped to question.

Did they really understand?

Did I clearly explain it?

Did someone actually verify it?

Am I seeing what's really there, or am I seeing what I expected to see?

I've known some incredibly talented leaders throughout my career. The ones who impressed me most weren't always the smartest person in the room, nor were they the ones with the quickest answers.

They were the ones who stayed curious.

They were willing to ask one more question.

To seek another perspective.

To pause long enough to verify what everyone else assumed.

Perhaps that's one of the quiet responsibilities of leadership.

Not to eliminate assumptions—that's impossible.

But to recognize the moments when the cost of being wrong is simply too high to assume we're right.

I've come to believe that's true far beyond the jobsite.

It's true in leadership.

It's true in relationships.

It's true in the conversations we have with the people we care about most.

Maybe that's why curiosity is such an underrated leadership quality. It keeps us asking questions long after everyone else believes they already know the answer.

So I'll leave you with a question I've been asking myself.

What assumption have you stopped questioning simply because it's always been true before?

Until next time,

Chuck