Time to Think (Nancy Kline)
A book about how to think effectively and the importance of doing so. (it’s not as emotionless as you might be imagining)
I enjoyed the book. I think the content is valuable. I didn’t like the writing so much. The author spoke in a tone that felt amost righteous to me. And included content that felt superfluous. This book probably coulda been shorter.
Anyway, the content was good! Following is a summary. This summary is not enough to fully capture the content of the book. This is not so much because the book said much more, but rather because it said so in detail, and with examples; it gives the reader better affordances to holistically digest and understand the messages.
Thinking environments
A thinking environment is exactly what it sounds like: an environment designed to support effective thinking of its members. This can be applied, for instance, to meetings or conversations.
Thinking environments have the following ten attributes, which are essentially self-explanatory1:
This list is essentially taken verbatim from the book. Page 35 on my copy.
Attention: listen with respect, interest, and fascination
Incisive Questions (more below)
Equality: treat everyone as a peer: give equal turns and attention; respect agreements and boundaries
Appreciation: adhere to a 5:1 ratio of appreciation to criticism
Ease: offer freedom from urgency
Encouragement: move beyond competition
Feelings: allow for emotional release
Place: create a physical environment that says back to people, ‘you matter’
Diversity: our differences add quality
Incisive Questions
An incisive question is a question designed to remove a limiting assumption in the way of thinking towards a goal. Incisive questions have this form:
If you knew + freeing assumption + goal
When struggling to think towards a goal, an incisive question may be constructed with the following process:
Ask, “what are you assuming that may be stopping you from reaching this goal?"
Wait
If they reply with a fact or possible-fact (eg, “I might get laughed at”), ask them this: “That may be true, but what are you assuming that makes that stop you?". We are searching for a so-called bedrock assumption, a base-level belief about life. (eg, “I am unworthy of love” or “People don’t leave this company”). Repeat until a bedrock assumption is found.
If necessary, ask them to shorten their response
Ask them what their positive opposite of this assumption is. Do not phrase it for them. It may not be what you expect.
Now you have your question: “If you knew {positive opposite}, how would you {go about goal}?"
Thinking Partnership
A thinking partnership is an application of a thinking environment to a group of two people.
One person acts as the thinker and the other as their peer. A session proceeds as follows:
Peer asks, “What do you want to think about”? Thinker speaks. Peer asks, “Is there anything more you feel/want to say about this?". Repeat until the thinker responds with an emphatic, “no”.
Peer asks, “What do you want the session to achieve at this point?" Thinker replies.
Peer asks, “What are you assuming that’s stopping you from achieving that goal?". Thinker replies. While necessary, peer asks, “That may be true, but what are you assuming that makes that stop you from achieving your goal?"
When the bedrock assumption (see Incisive Questions) is found, peer askss, “What is your positive opposite of this assumption?"
Peer asks, “If you knew that {positive opposite}, what ideas would you have towards {goal}?"
The above question is written down
The thinker and peer share one thing they each respect about each other.
Other things
The book offers other possible applications of Thinking Environments, for instance to coorporate (or non-coorporate!) organizations, and to interpersonal conflicts / arguments.