The Thinking Environment

The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first. The quality of our thinking depends on the way we treat each other while we are thinking.

Nancy Kline

The Thinking Environment - moving meetings from timewasting to trailblazing

An approach that transforms organisations

The Thinking Environment is a set of conditions that help people to think well for themselves. It was developed by Nancy Kline, President Time to Think, and is the product of her observation that in order for people to think clearly and independently, the people around them need to behave in certain ways. 

Nancy’s Thinking Environment approach underpins all of my work and I am proud to be a member of her Time to Think Collegiate.

I have had the privilege of taking this transformational approach into multi-national corporations such as Skanska, Sony Pictures and Arup as well into the NHS, Judicial Office and Cabinet Office.

"This was a fulfilling and ‘ work-changing’ session. Attendees ranged from chairmen of global organisations to senior regulators and those running smaller agencies. By educating us in how to create a ‘thinking environment’, which is not only inclusive but promotes fresh and clear thoughts, the meetings become more productive and engaging. Applying this in practice was a joy with immediate results."

Richard Karmel, Managing Partner - Mazars, London

Core Trainings

  • People listening as others speak

    The Thinking Environment™ Foundation Course

    Learn to transform everyday work and business communications into clear-thinking, invigorating, positive experiences.

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  • One man listening to another

    The Thinking Partnership™

    Liberate your own independent thinking, undergo shifts as a thinker, have epiphanies, and create a deeply held space for others to do the same

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  • Man speaking about his feelings

    Transforming Meetings™

    Perfect for organisations and leaders who want to use the Thinking Environment to run better meetings and produce the finest thinking from everyone.

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Within 1 year, you could be a Time to Think Facilitator or Coach

Are you an experienced coach or facilitator seeking to enhance your impact, or perhaps just beginning your journey? The Time to Think qualification pathway offers a structured yet flexible path toward accreditation. Recognised for its pioneering approach, the Thinking Environment stands at the forefront of coach and facilitator training.

Productive meeting around boardroom table

The Ten Components of a Thinking Environment

Time To Think has identified ten behaviours that generate the finest independent thinking. These are called Ten Components of a Thinking Environment

In the presence of this ‘way of being’ people think for themselves with rigour, imagination, courage and grace.

Each component that forms an effective Thinking Environment is powerful just on its own. Combine them together and the process delivers transformative impact for both organisations, teams, and individuals.

The ten components are:

Attention, Equality, Ease, Appreciation, Encouragement, Feelings, Information, Difference, Incisive Questions, and Place.

  • ATTENTION: Listening without interruption and with interest in where the person will go next in their thinking

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

    EASE: Discarding internal urgency

    APPRECIATION: Noticing what is good and saying it

    FEELINGS: Welcoming the release of emotion

    ENCOURAGEMENT: Giving courage to go to the unexplored edge of our thinking by ceasing competition as thinkers

    INFORMATION: Absorbing all the relevant facts

    DIFFERENCE: Prioritising diversity of group identities and understanding their lived experience

    INCISIVE QUESTIONS: Freeing the human mind of an untrue assumption lived as true

    PLACE: Producing a physical environment — the room, the listener, your body — that says, ‘You matter’

Bespoke programmes and coaching - Examples:

  • Women from diverse backgrounds in a thinking environment meeting

    Beyond Difference

    LENGTH: 7 MIN

    Hear how aspiring leaders from ethnically diverse backgrounds in Dorset Health and Social Care developed skills from influencing to decision making.

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  • Man in a meeting communicating his anger

    Listening Through the Anger

    LENGTH: 2 MIN

    Hear how a leader brought a team back to harmony after an upheaval.

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“I think we often feel as though our voice isn’t heard and people don’t value our ideas. Mitzi taught us about Nancy Kline’s Time to Think approach and helped us to work out how we could create the right environment for everyone to feel confident, prepared and supported to think & speak up."

Janet Thornley RN MSc ACP, GPN Strategic Lead BLMK Integrated Care System

Simple Execution, Profound Results

I help individuals to apply the ten components so they can create Thinking Environments for themselves and their organisations.

The result is simple but profound. Everyone at every level can think for themselves.

For example:

The Havers’ Masters study found a 95% consistency in the outcomes of meetings held in a Thinking Environment, including that these meetings time and again:

  • Produced a measurable, positive impact on performance indicators of organisations

  • Generated better ideas, solutions, and decisions

  • Created an environment in which people felt valued and equal

  • Achieved resolution faster

  • Gave rise to greater participation and involvement from everyone

  • Fostered productive working relationships

 You can achieve these results too.

Book a free 30-minute discovery call to learn more about Thinking Environments and how you can learn to apply the ten components.