30 Jan Thinking well together

Thinking well together is fundamental to so much of what we do. We need to think well with our colleagues to anticipate and resolve issues on projects. We need to think well with our clients to create solutions that add real value. We need to think well with our leadership team to bring ideas and energy to our organisations.

Unfortunately, in my experience, the way we work together often gets in the way of thinking well together. We have meetings with no meaningful agendas, to which people come unprepared to contribute. We interrupt and talk over each other, so ideas never get the chance to develop. We hear the voices of a dominant few at the expense of hearing the thinking from everybody.

Thankfully, there is another way to work together which allows great thinking to emerge from every person. Regular readers will recognise my affinity with the Thinking Environment™ approach developed by Nancy Kline. Believing, as do I, that the quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first, Kline’s approach seeks to uncover ways in which we can keep improving the quality of that thinking, for ourselves and with others.

I’m therefore delighted to announce that I’m now an authorised Time To Think Facilitator, and a member of the Time To Think Collegiate. If you’d like to find out more about the Thinking Environment or about how I can help you and your people think well together, please get in touch.