“The greatest thing I have ever done for myself is to learn how to think for myself. I began to do that at an early age but it’s really difficult to do that when there are things all around you telling you what to think.

Capitalism is seductive. It limits your imagination and then tells you that you should feel free because you have choices, but your choices are limited to the products they put before you or to the limits of your now limited imagination.”

- Benjamin Zephaniah

What is the Thinking Environment?

It is a set of conditions that foster the highest quality of both independent and collaborative thinking and communication within individuals and groups.

Based upon a central observation and decades of field work that the quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first, it creates, intentionally, the best possible conditions or environment in which people will think well, for themselves, and as themselves. Because the quality of our thinking depends on the way we treat each other while we are thinking

When we are treated in particular ways we (and of course, others) become more creative, courageous, and collaborative. We become more confident in our own judgement, more likely to initiate and deliver without needing constant guidance, yet genuinely interested in others’ ideas. It’s more of a “way of being” than a model, and can be brought to any settting including coaching, mentoring, meetings, appraisals, workshops, learning circles and more.

See below for detailed descriptions of the Ten Components of a Thinking Environment along with some articles by Linda.

Why is thinking for yourself so important?

  • If you don't think for yourself, others might try and do it for you! Many people will happily tell you what to think, direct and control you, and make decisions for you, rather than you deciding based on your values, or what you want, or what you need. 

  • If you're not thinking for yourself, might also not be speaking for yourself - so others might step in and speak for you or interpret your thoughts, intentions and actions, and make assumptions about you, which could be wrong.

  • If you aren’t thinking for yourself you’re probably not contributing the value you could, nor feeling fully satisfied or engaged. And when you don’t have a voice, others can assume you don't matter.

What’s the impact of a Thinking Environment?

People regularly tell us that in a Thinking Environment they:

  • Experience greater courage in their own thinking, increased creativity, and much more clarity of thought than ever before

  • Find better solutions because they’ve thought things through more thoroughly

  • Feel more valued, equal, engaged and are more likely to speak up and participate in meetings than ever before

  • Welcome different perspectives more easefully and have a shared sense of responsibility for the success of meetingss

  • Use valuable time more efficiently, productively and enjoyably, whilst creating a positive culture of collaboration.

How can I learn more or train in the Thinking Environment?

As global Faculty of Time to Think I offer the full suite of “official” Time to Think services and programmes as well as bespoke events - both online and in person. These include:

  • Bespoke Time to Think Workshops (1.5 hours to full days): Click here to download a sample of a short session

  • Consultancy & event facilitation: Partnering with you to integrate Thinking Environment principles into your offsites, leadership programmes, events etc.

  • “Transforming meetings”: In just two days transform your meetings - boards, teams, groups - into highly satisfying, collaborative, inclusive and productive events with better outcomes. Click here to download a Transforming Meetings session outline

  • First level programmes: the Thinking Partnership and the Time to Think Foundation courses *

  • Qualifying programmes: the Time to Think Coach, the Time to Think Facilitator and the Time to Think Consultant courses *

* Visit my courses page to find out more about upcoming public courses or contact me to discuss your in-house training needs.

What are these Ten Components?

The ten behaviours that generate the finest thinking, and have become known as The Ten Components of a Thinking Environment, are: Attention, Equality, Ease, Appreciation, Encouragement, Feelings, Information, Difference, Incisive Questions, Place. Each Component is powerful individually, but the presence of all ten working together gives this process its transformative impact.

Attention

Listening without interruption and with interest in where the person will go next in their thinking

Attention is an act of creation.

The quality of our attention determines the quality of other people’s thinking. Attention, driven by the promise of no interruption, and by respect and interest in where people will go with their thinking, is the key to a Thinking Environment. Attention is that powerful. It generates thinking. It is an act of creation.

Equality

Regarding each other as thinking peers, giving equal time to think

Even in a hierarchy people can be equal as thinkers. In a Thinking Environment everyone is valued equally as a thinker. Everyone gets a turn to think out loud and a turn to give attention. To know you will get your turn to speak makes your attention more genuine and relaxed. It also makes your speaking more succinct.

Equality keeps the talkative people from silencing the quiet ones. And it requires the quiet ones to contribute their own thinking. The result is high quality ideas and decisions.

Ease

Discarding internal urgency

Ease creates; urgency destroys.

Ease, an internal state free from rush or urgency, creates the best conditions for thinking. But Ease, particularly in organisations and through the ‘push’ aspect of social networking, is being systematically bred out of our lives. if we want people to think well under impossible deadlines and inside the injunctions of ‘faster, better, cheaper, more,’ we must cultivate internal ease.

Appreciation

Noticing what is good and saying it

The human mind works best in the presence of appreciation. In life we learn that to be appreciative is to be naïve, whereas to be critical is to be realistic. In discussions, therefore, we focus first, and sometimes only, on things that are not working. Consequently, because the brain requires appreciation to work well, our thinking is often specious. The Thinking Environment recognises the right ratio of appreciation to challenge so that individuals and groups can think at their best.

Encouragement

Giving courage to go to the unexplored edge of thinking by ceasing competition as thinkers

To be ‘better than’ is not necessarily to be ‘good’. To compete does not ensure certain excellence. It merely ensures comparative success. Therefore, competition between thinkers can be dangerous. It can keep their attention on each other as rivals, not on the huge potential for each to think courageously for themselves. A Thinking Environment prevents internal competition among colleagues, replacing it with a wholehearted, unthreatened search for good ideas.

Feelings

Welcoming the release of emotion

Unexpressed feelings can inhibit good thinking. Thinking stops when we are upset. But if we express feelings just enough, thinking re-starts. Unfortunately, we have this backwards in our society. We think that when feelings start, thinking stops. When we assume this, we interfere with exactly the process that helps a person to think clearly again. If instead, when people show signs of feelings, we relax and welcome them, good thinking will resume.

Information

Absorbing all the relevant  facts 

Full and accurate information results in intellectual integrity. We base our decisions on information of many sorts. When the information is incorrect or limited, the quality of our thinking suffers and we can be trapped in denial. Accurate and full information can both dismantle denial and construct a rich template of truth for fine independent thinking.

Difference

Committing to freedom from untrue assumptions driving prejudice 

Prejudice consists of untrue assumptions, particularly about identity groups, and functions, therefore, as a thinking inhibitor. When we commit to freeing ourselves of these assumptions, we enhance the quality of everyone’s thinking. A Thinking Environment helps realise this commitment.

Incisive Questions™

Freeing the human mind of untrue assumptions lived as true

A wellspring of good ideas lies just beneath an untrue limiting assumption. An Incisive Question will remove it, freeing the mind to think afresh. The key block to high-quality independent thinking is an untrue limiting assumption, lived as true. To free the mind, therefore, we need to know how to construct an Incisive Question, a tool of unbelievable precision and power.

Place

Producing a physical environment – the room, the listener, your body – that says, ‘You matter’

When the physical environment affirms our importance, we think more clearly and boldly. When our bodies are cared for and respected, our thinking improves. Thinking Environments are places that say back to people, ‘You matter.’ People think at their best when they notice that the place reflects their value to the people there and to the event. And because the first place of thinking is the body, it needs to be in a condition that says to us as thinkers, ‘You matter’. In these ways, Place is a silent form of appreciation.

 “The principles of The Thinking Environment seem so simple, yet they support the complex. The simplicity means that you might not notice them at first, which happened to me. On Linda’s courses, taking time to dive deeper into the ideas and concept helped me to understand how powerful the simple can be beyond the complex - on the surface it is about listening, but so much more lies beneath. The Thinking Environment has been a gift, and one that keeps on giving!” Elizabeth, Executive Coach and qualified Time to Think Facilitator .

Writing on the Thinking Environment

Articles

“Road test - think well, think together: The Thinking Environment® in groups & teams",  Linda Aspey & Anneke Panman, Coaching at Work magazine, Oct 2018, Vol 13, Issue 6

The 5 minute interview: Linda Aspey on igniting thinking in a webinar environment” , Angela Dunbar interviewed Linda for the Association for Coaching in 2017, about her webinar series ‘Journey to Coaching Mastery and the Thinking Environment’ (2015-2016) with Ruth McCarthy

"Road test - go your own way: coaching in a Thinking Environment", Linda Aspey & Michelle Lucas, Coaching at Work magazine, March 2014, Vol 9, Issue 2

Why we need to stop asking so many questions - and what to do instead - Part 1” , AICTP Journal, Summer 2012

“Why we need to stop asking so many questions - and what to do instead - Part 2”, AICTP Journal, Summer 2012

"Time for a rethink - new pathways for executive development", Linda Aspey, Developing Leaders magazine, October 2011, Issue 5

“The art of coaching: “thinking partners”, Therapy Today, March 2010

Books

Linda contributed two chapters to “101 coaching supervision techniques, approaches, enquiries and experiments”, edited by Michelle Lucas, published by Routledge, May 2020

She co-authored "Supervision in a Thinking Environment",  in "The heart of coaching supervision: working with reflection and self-care", eds. Turner & Palmer, published by Routledge, October 2018

And she contibuted a chapter on the Personal Consultancy model and the Thinking Environment - "Below the Surface", in "Personal Consultancy, a model for integrating counselling and coaching", by Popovic & Jinks, Routledge, 2013