The Impact of The Thinking Environment - Nancy Kline
I have had some unforgettable moments. As the Thinking Environment has taken hold in more and more lives and groups, I have seen extraordinary things. Most moving for me has been in the faces of leaders a kind of irrepressible quickening, an acknowledgement of something in front of them that was remarkable.
Before their eyes the brightest of people became even brighter, more articulate, and acquainted, sometimes for the fist discernible time, with a measure of humility. In front of them also the quietest, assumed to have nothing to contribute, sharpened, spoke, engaged, and became invaluable.
In front of these leaders ideas were born that they knew would before have been out of reach. These ideas that had found the right environment in which to advance beyond a single cell, at last conceived, implanted, and matured -- no longer aborted by the dynamics of the group.
And inside these leaders themselves new ideas and insights stirred because they had been spawned by the ideas of others, not forced to spring as Minerva full blown from the head of Zeus. In these leaders I have seen excitement woven with relief.
I have also seen in the faces of teams a relaxing of the muscles of defence. I have seen an at-first cautious, but soon wholehearted, dance with diversity - of their ideas and their identities -- no longer ambushed by take-no-prisoners ambition in others. Into their midst I have watched arrive a no longer occasional visitor: dignity. And in the eyes of these teams I have seen, as in their leaders, excitement woven with relief.
And I have seen in the faces of individuals a resurrected wisdom, a throwing into consciousness long submerged insight, and ease with themselves, and with their own, too rarely recognized, intelligence. On those faces smiles have appeared from far away, from places only they know and do not need to describe, but can return to over and over now, no longer repelled by reprisal.
I have watched conversations of every kind grow smarter, sharper, more rigorous, and more generous -- both more stimulating and more at ease rich in original thinking, grounded in good information, more open-armed.
I have seen groups set free to find the best ideas in the most unusual places, where the gems in the independent thinking of people finally catch the light.
Since the publication of Time to Think, seven years ago, my colleagues and I have discovered even more about why the Ten Components of a Thinking Environment are this powerful. We have done our best each day to stay true to the principle:
To help people think for themselves, we must be more drivingly interested in what is real and true for people than we are frightened of being proved wrong.
That principle has allowed us to notice nuances in the Thinking Partnership and the Meetings we had missed before. And we have made changes in the models and structures to make them smarter, more reflective of the way the human mind seems to work at its best.
We also have observed that the simplest processes are the hardest. Attention, for example, requires virtually no complicated activity at all. But it seems to take instruction and committed practice because it unsteadies the ground we are accustomed to. It requires even the most professional listeners among us to change our goal and reinvent our gait, gingerly at first, gracefully in the end.
And we have seen the implications of a Thinking Environment explode. What facet of life, we have begun to wonder, is not going to be changed by individuals' thinking for themselves in this environment? Are there, after all, no sacred cows? But more importantly, were those cows ever the product of the liberated human mind in the first place?
What would our world look like if a Thinking Environment truly became, as Shirley Edwards observed was its nature: a way of being in the world?
APPLICATIONS OF THE THINKING ENVIRONMENT IN ORGANISATIONS
- Transforming Meetings®
- Thinking With Other Leaders
- Creating a Coaching Culture
- Mentoring For Thinking
- The Time To Think CouncilTM
- Living Your Values
- Speaking With AuthenticityTM
- Mediation in a Thinking Environment
- Supervision in a Thinking Environment
- The Caring Adviser
- The Powerful YearsTM
RESULTS OF THE THINKING ENVIRONMENT IN ORGANISATIONS
- Savings of up to 35% of senior management meeting time per year
- Salvaging a $200,000,000 product in one hour
- Financial savings of $30,000,000 in one day
- Rescuing 40% of national revenue in 36 minutes
- Reducing by 80% the cost of each decision
- Saving of one month of work in 30 minutes
- Increased quality of decisions from meetings
- Fuller maturation of ideas in discussion
- Greater focus
- Ease in completing the agenda
- New levels of trust and respect among team members
- Courage to explore the cutting edge of ideas
- Greater support for decisions
- Added grace and success in moving through conflict
- Increased team cohesiveness and independent functioning
- Inclusion of minority voices and points of view
- Energy gained
- Time gained
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