What is a Thinking Environment®
A Thinking Environment® is a set of conditions in which individuals and groups can think for themselves and think well together. The Thinking Environment® process and its ten components are important in leadership practice because create the world in which we live, with our thinking. Ancient wisdom and scientific research remind us of the power of our thinking. In the words of Buddha “We are want we think; all that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts we make our world”. INSERT A SCIENTIFIC QUOTE
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10 Components of a Thinking Environment® |
Attention | Listening with palpable respect, interest, fascination and without Interruption |
| Equality | Treating each other as equals and thinking peers even in a hierarchy | |
| Ease | Offering freedom from internal rush or urgency | |
| Encouragement | Moving beyond internal competition to realise that to be ‘better than’ is not necessarily to be good | |
| Appreciation | Practicing a 5:1 ratio of appreciation to criticism | |
| Feelings | Allowing sufficient emotional release to restore thinking | |
| Information | Supplying the facts, dismantling denial | |
| Diversity | Welcoming divergent thinking and diverse group identities | |
| Incisive question | Finding and removing untrue assumptions that limit ideas and distort thinking | |
| Place | Creating a physical environment that says to people, “You Matter”. |