This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Time to Think" by Nancy Kline. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What surprising insight did Nancy Kline find during her research on students? How does listening to someone help them think?
What and how we think determines everything we do. Nancy Kline asserts that the quality of our thinking is determined by how well we listen to each other. She shares a six-step process for listening to someone to help them engage in higher-quality thinking, resulting in great ideas that lead to powerful action.
Read more for five Time to Think quotes that will give you a taste of the book’s concepts.
Time to Think Quotes
In her book, teacher and researcher Nancy Kline shares key components of the thinking process and describes how her thinking session system can be adapted for a group setting. She also describes the characteristics of a productive thinking environment. We’ve provided these Time to Think quotes along with some context and explanation to help you understand and implement Kline’s ideas.
“The most important factor in whether or not they could think for themselves, afresh, at a given moment seemed to be how they were being treated by the people with them.”
According to Kline, all our actions are dependent on the thinking that precedes them. Further, our thinking is dependent on how well others listen to us. Her research on students showed that, while factors like age, IQ, and experience had little impact on the students’ thinking, the attention that others paid them had a significant impact. Therefore, she reasoned, we can teach people to think well. And, in order to teach people to think well, people have to learn how to listen well to each other. She used this insight as a foundation for studying how to elicit good thinking from others by paying attention to them and treating them well.
“Real help is different. Real help, professionally or personally, consists of listening to people, of paying respectful attention to people so that they can access their own ideas first.”
The first step in Kline’s thinking session process is to give the thinker the opportunity to say everything that’s on their mind. Kline explains that your job as the listener is to pay attention as the thinker spells out everything about the topic they’re pondering.
According to Kline, the reason listening works so well for producing high-quality thinking in others is that, when someone identifies a problem, the solution is usually buried somewhere in their mind. The purpose of discussing an issue with someone to help them solve it isn’t to give them your ideas or decide what you should do for them. It’s to provide an environment that prompts them to uncover the solution themselves.
“A question works because, unlike a statement which requires you to obey, a question requires you to think. The mind seems to prefer to think, not to obey.”
The fourth step in the thinking session process is to ask the thinker an incisive question that challenges their limiting assumption. To help the thinker identify their liberating assumption, ask them what the converse of their limiting assumption is. Simply saying “That’s not true” won’t dispel a limiting assumption.
Once you’ve identified the assumption, work with the thinker to create an incisive question. Use the following formula: “If you knew,” plus [the liberating assumption] (which we’ll discuss shortly), plus “how would you [go about reaching your goal]?” Then ask the thinker the question and listen to their response, says Kline. You should pay close attention and not interrupt, even when the thinker is quiet for a long time. After they answer the question, ask it again. Allow them to answer, and then ask yet again. While the question remains the same, the thinker will continue to generate new ideas on each occasion. Continue to ask the question until the thinker is certain they’ve answered it fully.
“Society teaches us that to be positive is to be naive and vulnerable, whereas to be critical is to be informed, buttressed and sophisticated. Organizations operate on this negative norm.”
The sixth step in the thinking session process is to express appreciation so that both the thinker and the listener leave the session feeling positive about themselves and what happened. This appreciation shouldn’t focus on what you talked about in the session—meaning, the listener shouldn’t say “You did a great job generating ideas”—but should instead be a statement about what you respect about the other person, such as “I admire your teamwork skills” or “I appreciate your attention to detail.” Then when you receive appreciation from the thinker, don’t resist or argue with it. Simply say “Thank you.”
If you do this, at the end of the session, the thinker will leave feeling empowered about their problem and with many new ideas and possible solutions, and the listener will feel satisfied and encouraged about the work they did (and they’re also likely to have learned a lot along the way).
In group situations, Kline emphasizes that you must highlight the positive before addressing the negative, or the thing that needs to be improved (if improvement is the goal of the session). This means showing a lot of appreciation for each other and discussing what’s going well for everyone both at the beginning of the meeting and at the end. She says you should strive for a five-to-one appreciation-to-criticism ratio.
(Shortform note: Research shows the importance of appreciation in group settings: The greatest factor in employee engagement is feeling that employers care about their wellbeing and success. Beginning a meeting with appreciation and maintaining it consistently establishes these positive effects early and helps everyone feel more valued and comfortable.)
“Ease is the space a Thinking Environment needs in order to stay intact.”
According to Kline, thinking spaces should have a relaxed, unhurried atmosphere that communicates to thinkers that they can take their time to do their best thinking. Many business executives believe that conveying urgency gets better results from their employees or group members, and some groups even fabricate a sense of urgency deliberately to get these results. But, this only leads to greater stress and less effective thinking.
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Nancy Kline's "Time to Think" at Shortform.
Here's what you'll find in our full Time to Think summary:
- That what and how we think determines everything we do
- Why the quality of your thinking depends on how well you listen to others
- A step-by-step process for taking on the role of the listener
