Imagine you're sitting in a meeting.
Someone explains something and, if you're being honest, you understand maybe sixty percent of it.
You look around.
Nobody asks a question.
So you think: “Everyone else must understand. It must just be me.”
And you stay quiet.
The meeting ends.
A few minutes later, somebody messages a colleague: “Did you understand what they meant?”
The answer comes back: “Not really.”
And then you discover two other people were wondering exactly the same thing.
Something interesting happened.
Everyone interpreted everybody else's silence as understanding.
We do this more often than we realise. We see someone else's silence and assume certainty. We see someone else's confidence and assume clarity.
So the next time you're holding back because nobody else is asking, perhaps ask yourself:
“Do I actually know that everyone else understands?”
Or am I just assuming they do?