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We need more time to think!
This a plea that I’ve heard from numerous people over the years. Time to pause, to reflect, time to actually think about the next steps and maybe even spend some time thinking with others to come up with new creative and innovative answers to those tricky issues.
However, we rarely give ourselves, or others, that time. It’s usually seen as a nice to have rather than a must have, or something to do outside the busy working day or when you’re on leave.
Yet as Nancy Kline says,
‘The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first.’
She goes on to say that,
‘The quality of our thinking depends on the way we treat each other while we are thinking.’
So, what can we do to build in that time and how do make effective use of it?
Based on both research and experience, it seems there are a set of ten behaviours that will generate the finest thinking; to create what Nancy calls a Thinking Environment ®.
Each of these behaviours is powerful on its own, but the presence of all ten working together can have a transformative impact.
So what are these ten behaviours? I’ve summarised them below so you can get a flavour of a Thinking Environment ® looks like.
- Attention – listening to others without interruption and with interest in where the person will go next in their thinking.
- Equality – regarding each other as thinking peers, and giving everyone equal time to think.
- Ease – putting aside both our internal and external pressures.
- Appreciation – noticing what is good and actually saying it out loud.
- Encouragement – giving everyone courage to go to the unexplored edge of their thinking by putting aside the need to compete with others.
- Feelings – allowing people to talk about how they feel. (This actually helps rather than hinders thinking.)
- Information – absorbing all the relevant facts, even if we don’t like them.
- Difference – prioritising diversity of group identities and understanding their lived experience. Life is diverse!
- Incisive questions ™ – looking at the assumptions we make and working out whether they are actually true.
- Place – producing a physical environment that says to everyone, ‘You matter’.
Together these create a Thinking Environment ®.
I am guessing that by now you’re thinking that it’s a long list and how an earth can anyone find time to think about those. Stay with me as the data shows that by creating a thinking environment for yourself and for others not only do you get everyone’s optimum thinking it actually helps you get to where you want to be faster. Even implementing one of the components can make a difference.
We all want to be appreciated and when we are we produce oxytocin, the hormone that gives us that warm, fuzzy feeling and lowers stress and anxiety. Some studies show that oxytocin also helps people feel safe and increases trust and positive communication.
By giving everyone equal time to think we get to hear from everyone, we hear from the introverts in the team, not just those who typically take up most of the airtime in meetings. We get everyone’s best thinking and that leads to innovation. Something every organisation is looking for.
If you’d like to find out more about the Thinking Environment ® get in touch and we can explore the impact the Thinking Environment ® can have in your organization, on the people around you and on your life.
Finding your purpose – Ikigai
Over the last year I’ve talked to a growing number of people who’ve got to a point in their lives where they feel the need to take stock. To look at what they’ve done so far, where they’ve been and where they’re going – a moment to wonder about jobs, relationships, and occasionally even what the point of it all is.
What’s happening to our attention?
I don’t know if it’s just me but I’m finding it harder and harder to give my full attention to just one thing; to tune out the background noise, sensations, intrusive thoughts and focus on what’s important to me.
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