Product Description

The power of effective listening is recognised as the essential tool of good management. In this book, Kline describes how we can achieve this, and presents a step-by-step guide that can be used in any situation. Whether you want to have more productive meetings, solve business problems or build stronger relationships, this book offers you a new world of possibilities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6565 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Nancy Kline is President of Time To Think, an international leadership development and coaching company. She is also a published author and public speaker. Nancy created and pioneered the development of the theory and process called The Thinking Environment(R). This model allows people to turn their teams, organisations and relationships into Thinking Environments in which people at every level can think for themselves, with rigour, imagination and courage. The process increases the quality of thinking in, and thus of concrete results from, all human interactions, both in pairs and in groups, and decreases the amount of time it takes to achieve them. Time To Think began in 1984 and grew out of Nancy's consulting and teaching work near Washington, DC, where she had served as a Founding Director of The Thornton Friends School for twelve years and as Director of The Leadership Institute for six years. She is a Fellow of Ashridge College, UK Nancy was born and raised in New Mexico and lives in England with her husband Christopher Spence.

Customer Reviews

Its simplicity is beautiful
To read this book is to have the experience of realising the obvious truth that you have ignored for so long. It is precise and powerful with a beautiful simplicity.

Nancy Kline has spent fifteen years developing the Thinking Environment™, a model of human behaviour that dramatically improves the way people think, work and live.

The book starts with the simple assumption that everything we do depends for its quality on the thinking we do first and that our thinking depends on the quality of our attention for each other.

The opening section builds on this assertion by setting out ten components of the Thinking Environment™. If you do not read beyond these, you will have had a stimulating exposition of how we can be more effective listeners. But this isn't just another book about how to listen. It is a book about how to give people attention and help them to think, really think, creatively, powerfully and beautifully.

The second section shows how the ten components of the Thinking Environment™ can be applied in a variety of work and personal settings to enable others to think effectively for themselves. The simple assertion is made that, 'The brain that contains the problem probably also contains the solution,' and we are shown how we can help that person seek out the solution.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the book is the approach to breaking down negative assumptions that people hold. These assumptions act as barriers to being able to think, and Nancy shows us the power of asking Incisive Questions to shatter those assumptions and free us up to think again.

Nancy also proposes some radical changes to traditional work and societal ethics. The removal of competition from the workplace is one such change. To quote the author directly, 'To compete does not ensure certain excellence. It just ensures comparative success.' Furthermore, she urges us to 'Focus on finding a good idea, not on winning' when we engage is conversation and discussion with others.

Simple, challenging and powerful, I can't wait to put the principles of the Thinking Environment™ into practice. I can't wait to see the difference it makes in others and in my relationships with them.

An experimenter of the thinking enviroment
After having read Time To Think I couldn't wait to experiment it.
I tried to have a Thinking Session with my husband following the book's instructions. We didn't get the results we expected so I emailed to Time To Think Inc. asking for a consultant to do a Thinking Session. We did it and it was a deep experience for me.

I felt deeply heard first time in my life; time didn't existed while I was talking/thinking about my problem. Anne - the consultant- asked me the Incisive Question and in that moment my thinking was so deep I could heard my answer coming out from my body and I knew with no doubt it was the right answer/solution for me in this moment of my life.

Even it may sound silly I have to say that, because I found my own answer to my dificult problem, I feel more confidence.

Before this experience I thought the sessións where expensive.I was not sure if would work for me but after have seen the results I feel grateful to Nancy and her team. The Thinking Sessions really work.

One of the most stimulating books I have ever read
This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in personal development, relationships or group dynamics. After I read it I went out and found myself a thinking partner who I now meet with once a week on the phone. This has proved to be an incredibly productive commitment for both of us. If you try the methods Nancy Kline recommends you will be amazed both at your own thinking and other people's!