Find the focus, make your work clear.

Find a method for your next update. Make the facts, judgments and next steps clear.

How can you distinguish descriptions, explanations, forecasts and recommendations?

The situation

Fictional scenario

We send the numbers every week. Why is the next action still unclear?

Which statements are observations, which are causal explanations, and what does the proposal depend on?

I’ll state what happened, then separate causal hypotheses, future conditions and proposed action.

What is getting in the way

Description, diagnosis, prediction and prescription answer four different questions. Later stages are not automatically more reliable, and not every update needs a forecast. With limited evidence, the appropriate action may be investigation.

Method and tool

Move from description to a testable action

Compare the categories and the evidence each needs. Classification does not turn a hypothesis or proposal into a fact.

Move from description to a testable action

01
Describe · what happened
State definitions, scope and observation.
02
Diagnose · why
Connect explanations to evidence and label unproven causes.
03
Predict · what may happen under which conditions
Retain assumptions and uncertainty; do not invent probabilities without a basis.
04
Act · what to do and how to review
Connect the proposal to evidence, action and an outcome check.

Keep evidence gaps and unapproved arrangements explicit.

Apply it to your own work

Copy the prompt and add your material to prepare a draft you can adapt.

View prompt

Act as a workplace communication assistant. Help me use “Move from description to a testable action” to organize the material below.

Use these checks:
1. Describe · what happened: State definitions, scope and observation.
2. Diagnose · why: Connect explanations to evidence and label unproven causes.
3. Predict · what may happen under which conditions: Retain assumptions and uncertainty; do not invent probabilities without a basis.
4. Act · what to do and how to review: Connect the proposal to evidence, action and an outcome check.

Return a concise update organized by these points, followed by up to three priority questions. Keep confirmed facts, interpretations, proposals and approvals separate. Mark missing information “To confirm”. Do not invent figures, causes, dates, owners or agreement. Keep the units, periods, denominators and uncertainty in my material. Do not treat the fictional example as my facts.

My material:
[Paste the context, evidence, constraints and response needed, with sensitive information removed.]