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

These components can be used both at the organisational (‘The Thinking Organisation’) and at the individual level (‘The Thinking Partnership’).

All ten are important, but even just using one component will dramatically improve the quality of someone’s thinking.

When you interrupt or finish someone else’s sentence you are saying that either your words will be better (or that you know their words) and that they cannot finish their own sentence. Let others do and finish their own thinking, let them formulate their thoughts, let the words be their words.

Create meeting structures where everyone has a turn to speak, knowing they will not be interrupted.

In a Thinking Environment, everyone is a thinking equal, regardless of hierarchy, giving everyone a turn increases the intelligence of the group and will save time in the long run.

Being able to craft an incisive question can free up more thinking and thought.

A few brilliant ones for leaders to ask themselves:

If I were to be my real self in leadership, what would I do differently?

What is limiting my leadership? If I were to assume something more liberating, what would change?

As well as to ask their team:

How would your work have to change for it to be exactly right for you?

If you were not holding back, what would you be doing?

What do we already know now that we are going to find out in a year?

Take time to appreciate those around you.

A 5:1 appreciation to criticism ratio helps people to think for themselves. For example, at the end of meetings to take time to say one quality you respect of the person to your right (nowadays the next person on your virtual meeting screen!). Often we are quick to criticise, but actually, our thinking improves when we are in the presence of concrete appreciation.