There are so many things we know so well that they become obvious to us and we take for granted that others must know them, too.
I often encounter this when presenting or talking with a coaching client. Simon Sinek’s TED Talk has 64 million views, yet so many of my participants or students have never heard of him. I presumed that most workshop attendees learned about growth mindset or emotional intelligence somewhere in their professional development, but I have discovered that is not true. I couldn’t believe my niece didn’t know who Wile E. Coyote was — so I attributed it to the cartoon being old, but then in my class of adult students, several did not even know what Chat GPT was, and none had experimented with AI even though it’s new and trending.
It’s a reminder not to assume a shared understanding but rather to offer an invitation to explore concepts together. We each amass a separate body of knowledge from our experiences, learning, social media feeds, and other inputs. Utilize that perspective as a launch point to connect with others and their ideas to build on what we each know.
