Time to Think

Creating a Thinking Environment: A Way of Being in Life and Leadership

Igniting independent thinking through a system of key behaviors that profoundly support the quality of our thinking, feelings, and resulting actions — within an agreement of absolute confidentiality and the promise not to interrupt.

Joy is a Certified Time to Think Coach and Facilitator.

“The quality of our actions starts first with the quality of our thinking.Nancy Kline

The Research

How We Think, Listen & Speak

125words per minute we speak
400words per minute we listen
900–1000words per minute we think
11 sechow often we interrupt in exchange thinking

Interrupting someone mid-thought is considered a micro-aggression to the brain.

“Can I be sure that what I, as the listener, am about to say will be of more value than what you are about to think?Nancy Kline

What would the world be like if everyone could think independently for themselves?

  • Without interruption
  • Without competition
  • Without judgment
  • With courage, grace, and trust
  • With complete confidentiality
  • With complete, generative, focused attention

There is only one singular purpose with Time to Think: to ignite our minds to think independently for ourselves.

What is the Thinking Environment?

The Thinking Environment was created by Nancy Kline — author of Time to Think, More Time to Think, and The Promise That Changes Everything… I Won’t Interrupt You — and her colleagues, based on 40 years of rigorous research, all with the sole purpose of helping people think independently for themselves.

“How to listen so people can think” — Monica Schüldt, TEDxStockholm University

How We Create It

The Ten Components

  • 01Attention

    Listening without interruption and with genuine interest in where the person will go next in their thinking. Attention is an act of creation.

  • 02Equality

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

  • 03Ease

    Discarding internal urgency. Ease creates; urgency destroys.

  • 04Appreciation

    Noticing what is good and saying it. The human mind works best in the presence of appreciation.

  • 05Encouragement

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

  • 06Feelings

    Welcoming the release of emotion. Unexpressed feelings can inhibit good thinking.

  • 07Information

    Absorbing all the relevant facts. Full and accurate information results in intellectual integrity.

  • 08Difference

    Committing to freedom from untrue assumptions that drive prejudice.

  • 09Incisive Questions™

    Freeing the human mind of untrue assumptions lived as true. A wellspring of good ideas lies just beneath a limiting assumption — an Incisive Question removes it, freeing the mind to think afresh.

  • 10Place

    Producing a physical environment — the room, the listener, your body — that says, “You matter.”

Why Does It Matter?

In this day of ‘digistraction,’ polarization, and disconnection, it is essential to find a way to listen deeply to one another — to receive, not transmit. It is an opportunity to heal.

One-to-One

The Time to Think Coaching Experience

This is somewhat different from how you might experience me as a traditional ICF PCC coach.

  • The primary goal in the Thinking Environment is for you to think independently for yourself, as yourself — in partnership with me, your Thinking Partner (coach).
  • The approach is non-directive in nature, and yet very client-focused.
  • The coaching agreement rests on three important factors:
    • Positive Philosophical Choice — believing that you are whole, creative, and resourceful, and by nature good, intelligent, and loving, and completely able to think through anything.
    • Complete confidentiality.
    • The promise not to interrupt, which supports your best thinking.
  • When we begin, I’ll ask you for a cue that lets me know your thinking has paused and you’d like support to continue.
  • As your coach, I remain in complete stillness, with generative focused attention and ease, to support your best thinking.
  • At any time you can ask for my insights, but I’ll challenge you to commit to your own thinking before I offer my thoughts.
  • We close by expressing mutual Appreciation — each sharing, succinctly, one quality that stood out about the other during the session. This helps sustain quality thinking after we leave.

Working With Teams

The Time to Think Facilitation Experience

Working with teams — select any application to explore it:

The Four Building Blocks

Four Overall Applications

Every engagement is customized to the needs of each client.

One person is the thinker, the other the thinking partner — then switch. Agree on the amount of time to think per person, and always include time for appreciation at the end. Always with the promise of confidentiality and the promise not to interrupt. Ask the thinker for a prompt that signals they need further support to keep thinking well for themselves. The brain works best in the presence of a question, so we always begin with: “What do you want to think about, and what are your thoughts?”
The meeting hasn’t started until everyone has spoken; there is equality in the Thinking Environment. Anyone can begin, and once they do — with an allotted amount of time per person — they pass to the next person around the table, virtual or otherwise. Opening Rounds and Closing Rounds are used throughout a team meeting: a chance to connect at the start, and to close by hearing everyone’s freshest thoughts.
This is the closest to everyday conversation — thinking together, not conversing. An exchange of thoughts, ideas, and brainstorming while maintaining equality. There are no discrete turns, but remember to ‘share the stage’ throughout the allotted time. Agree on the total time and create a shared topic. Always end in appreciation — one quality you appreciate about the other, expressed succinctly.
An opportunity to ask a question and let people speak in any order, any number of times. No interruption — and maintaining some level of attention — is essential within the Thinking Environment. Should certain people begin to dominate, that can prompt a Round, which brings a question for renewed focus.
How can organizations respect the time it takes to bring everyone together? How can we respect the intelligence and creativity of the team? What is the question that lies within the issue? What is the desired outcome when quality thinking leads? Each of the building blocks can be woven into meetings to create fertile thinking ground.
The presenter — the thinker — shares the problem, offering as much as everyone needs to know (no more than ten minutes to build context), then frames the challenge as a question. It works best with no more than fifteen people, who serve as thinking partners. The group then shares insights back to the presenter, who has the chance to think freely for themselves; often their thinking shifts through this iterative, thoughtful process. Appreciation is always expressed at the close.
Think of your audience as your Thinking Partner, letting their attention encourage you, and relate to them as the Thinker, giving them generative attention as you speak. Let your voice be both connected and a little louder than feels comfortable. Use PowerPoint sparingly — the fewest possible slides, mainly for graphics — in a way that lets you sustain a strong, personal connection with the group. Hard-copy handouts can make that connection even easier to hold.
Group facilitation in a Thinking Environment builds an infrastructure on all Ten Components and draws specifically on the Building Block Applications. It differs from transforming meetings: the facilitator creates the Thinking Environment with the group, teaching them an overview of the Ten Components so the environment sustains itself throughout the meeting.

Listen In

Joy on The Mindset Game® podcast with Vered Kogan — “How to Be Radically Present.”