11 minutes
Where assumptions enter a decision Six entry points, every one of them ordinary: how the question was framed, who was in the room, what counted as evidence, the default, the criteria, and the exception path.
What you’ll be able to do Walk one consequential decision through six entry points and name at least two places where an unchecked assumption is shaping the outcome. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What should the team do before the request goes out? Document a next step for Where assumptions enter a decision: Take one decision currently in front of you and write one sentence for each of the six entry points. Mark the two you are least sure about, and find out. A decision is a sequence, and each step has a door Consequential decisions in public administration rarely arrive as a single choice. They arrive as a sequence: someone frames a question, someone convenes a group, evidence is gathered, a default is inherited, criteria are set, and an exception path is written for the cases the criteria will fail. Every step is a door an assumption can walk through, and most of them are propped open by convenience rather than intent.
This matters because the later you notice, the more expensive the fix. An assumption caught in the framing costs a conversation. The same assumption caught after the request for proposals is published costs an amendment. Caught after the award, it costs a protest, a delay and the trust of organizations that will not apply next time.
The six entry points below are not a theory. They are where the work actually is, and staff in quality, contracts, data, communications and supervision touch several of them every week.
Six entry points, with the question that opens each The framing Whoever writes the problem statement has already decided where to look. “How do we reduce incomplete applications?” points at applicants. “Why does our application produce incomplete submissions?” points at the form. Ask: whose behavior does this framing make the problem?
The room Who was convened, and who was consulted only after the design was set? Ask: whose expertise is missing from this table, and would inviting them earlier have been cheaper than the revision we are about to make? Community members, people with disabilities, families and culturally specific organizations belong here as compensated advisors and co-designers, not as an audience for a finished plan.
The evidence What counted as evidence, and what was dismissed as anecdote? Administrative data describes people the system already processed. Ask: who never appears in this data at all, and what would it take to hear from them?
The default What happens when nobody chooses: the standard letter, the mail-only notice, the automatic closure, the business-hours-only channel. Ask: what does our default assume about a person's transportation, schedule, reading, language, energy and internet access?
The criteria What is being measured, and is the measure the thing or a proxy for the thing? Ask: does this criterion measure capacity to do the work, or familiarity with how we write things?
The exception path Every rule fails someone. Ask: is the exception route published in plain language where the affected person will see it, or does it depend on knowing whom to call?
Built-in assumption, real requirement, or preference dressed as a standard? Applicants must document how funds will be tracked and reported.
Choose a category Assumption we built in Requirement we must meet Preference dressed as a standard The workplan must use our template, in a spreadsheet, with one row per activity.
Choose a category Assumption we built in Requirement we must meet Preference dressed as a standard Notices go out by mail only, because that is how the notice system was set up.
Choose a category Assumption we built in Requirement we must meet Preference dressed as a standard Public meeting materials must be provided in an accessible format on request.
Choose a category Assumption we built in Requirement we must meet Preference dressed as a standard A request under two pages is returned for more detail.
Choose a category Assumption we built in Requirement we must meet Preference dressed as a standard Applicants who have not held a state contract before are unlikely to manage this one well.
Choose a category Assumption we built in Requirement we must meet Preference dressed as a standard Check matches Reset Read the rule before you defend the habit What you can change You control whether your unit can say, with the text in front of it, which parts of a process are required and which parts are custom.
What to watch for Do not let “we have always required it” stand in for “the rule requires it.” The two get confused quietly, and staff end up defending a preference as if it were the law.
Your next step Choose one requirement your unit enforces, find the policy or statute text behind it, and mark in writing what it requires and what your office added.
Carry this forward The framing of a question decides most of the answer. “How do we reduce errors in applications?” and “Why is our application hard to complete correctly?” send two different teams in two different directions.
Criteria that reward familiarity with the agency — prior state contracting experience, knowing the right words, having a grants writer — measure proximity to the system as if it were capacity to do the work.
Separating what a rule actually requires from what habit has added to it is one of the highest-value things a staff member can do, and it usually takes an afternoon with the policy text.
An exception path that exists only for people who know it exists is not an exception path; it is a reward for insider knowledge.
A contracting scenario about scoring criteria, and a sorting exercise separating built-in assumptions, real requirements and preferences dressed as standards.
Take one decision currently in front of you and write one sentence for each of the six entry points. Mark the two you are least sure about, and find out.
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Previous lesson Next lesson Carry this into practice How assumptions travel from a quick judgment into a routine, into a standard, and into the lives of people who never met you.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
