Attributing meaning

Attributing meaning is a person loading their own interpretation onto an event, a word, or a behavior. A person often lives not the raw fact but their own inference about it; the same silence can mean indifference to one and respect to another. Chris Argyris's concept of the 'ladder of inference' shows how quickly we climb from observation to interpretation, and how often we are not even aware of this leap. The problem begins when we mistake our interpretation for the fact. The coach helps the client tell apart an observation from the meaning they attach to it: 'Did this really happen, or is it the meaning you gave it?'