Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 076
Measure the position and the assumption
Coordination depends not only on what two parties believe, but on whether each estimates the other’s position accurately
Premise
Leadership teams routinely act on assumptions about what employees, regulators, customers, or partners believe. Coorientation theory makes those assumptions measurable. For a shared issue, each party has its own orientation and an estimate of the other’s orientation. Comparing the four judgments distinguishes substantive disagreement from hidden consensus, false consensus, and misunderstood disagreement.
The executive implication is diagnostic economy. If positions are close but each side imagines conflict, persuasion addresses the wrong problem. If both believe they agree while actual positions differ, implementation rests on false consensus. Communication can create value by improving accuracy even where legitimate disagreement remains.
What the model is: Coorientation Theory in Knowledge →
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainConversation & Relationships
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.
- KnowledgeCoorientation Theory