GREENER PRACTICES RESOURCES
Here are a few resources I either talked about during the session or I thought might be of use.
The four components I talked about are Attention, Ease, Equality and Appreciation - a list of all 10 of the Components of a Thinking Environment can be found here.
ATTENTION - Listening without interruption and with interest in where the person will go next in their thinking
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, 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.
A few things to consider before a meeting:
Make time to go through issue-outcome-questions so you know the purpose of your meeting
Put agenda items into questions
Do you have long enough to do what you need to do with ease?
What pre-reading can you send out and in what format so you can use the time you are together most effectively?
During the meeting:
Use a variety of facilitation tools - try and break the group into smaller groups to increase safety and engagement
A few words I might use to introduce the session
After:
Send out any follow up as soon as possible with a clear ask
Communicate next steps, timelines and how any decisions will be made.