Thinking Partner
Thinking Partner
Deepening your presence to bring your finest thinking to the fore in the pursuit of lasting, high-quality outcomes.
Facing the issue – thinking – re-discovery!
Some of my clients need a “thinking partner” – someone to think through issues and challenges with, who doesn’t have a vested interest in either the problem or the solution.
My role as a thinking partner is to give my clients time and space to invite their own thinking on an issue without being interrupted. We raise points of reflection that provoke divergent thinking and eliminate untrue assumptions. The clients create their own ideas and mental maps – an essential step on the path to change and transformation.
Thinking environments are spaces in which new ways of solving problems, making a decision or reframing an issue can be co-created by thinking together – in one-on-one or group and team settings. Facing thinking and re-discovery
In a successful thinking partnership or environment, we bring ourselves with our freshest and best thinking, with our information, questions, feelings, appreciation, without being hurried or intimidated. It is a collaboration built on honouring the other’s thinking and ultimately people’s authentic selves.
Think about it!
How can a thinking partnership benefit you as an individual?
● Bring your finest thinking to the fore.
● Think with more clarity in every interaction.
● Escape analysis paralysis and make better decisions.
● Distinguish the signal from the noise.
● Think without interference.
● Manage multiple streams of thought.
What can a thinking environment do for your team?
● Come up with a win-win solution or find a bold new way.
● Bring out the best and most creative thinking in your team.
● Invite the voice of each team member to the room.
● Maximize the effectiveness of your team meetings.
● Enable team members to be fully present and equal irrespective of hierarchies and backgrounds.
1. Attention: having a deep interest in what a person thinks and will say next instead of interrupting or listening in order to reply.
2. Equality: regarding the other as a thinking Equal regardless of hierarchy and background or other differentiating qualities (age, gender, seniority etc).
3. Ease: stay at ease inside yourself regardless of the rush and urgency – remain unhurried.
4. Appreciation: appreciating a people 5x more than criticising them increases their clear and creative thinking.
5. Encouragement: encouraging someone to dare to enter unexplored thinking will invite excellence. Thinking is not a competition.
6. Feelings: Feelings are part of who we are. Making space for their expression instead of fighting or ignoring them allows for more holistic thinking.
7. Information: offering accurate information while respecting beliefs and assumptions of the thinker stimulates questioning perceptions.
8. Diversity: Honouring differences, identities, and cultures instead of indicating to be better fosters inclusivity and acceptance which in turn enhances the thinking process.
9. Incisive Questions: are questions which challenge untrue limiting assumptions of the thinker and allows him/her to replace a limiting belief with a boosting and more productive truth statement.
10. Place: preparing a physical and emotionally safe place for the thinking environment, which is inviting and non-threatening in set-up shows, that you care. People, that feel they matter, think better.
Based on the Ten Components of a Thinking Environment in Nancy Kline’s book “More Time to Think”.