This book review of Nancy Kline’s book “Time to think” was first presented in a workshop at the international coaching conference SOLworld in Bucharest in May 2010 and is published in InterAction – the Journal for SF in Organisations.
Book Review - Time to think: Listening to ignite the human mind
Nancy Kline
Cassell Illustrated, 2001, reprinted in 2009, 256pp, £9.99 paperback
Review by Dominik Godat
“Most people think they listen well, but they rarely do – not at this level. Listening this way is a radical act. (…)
Whether you want to have more productive meetings, solve business problems, create bold strategies or build stronger relationships, this book offers you a new world of possibilities.”
This quote from the book jacket is, for once, a promo blurb that under states the content of this book, especially the usefulness for solution focused practitioners. Although this book is neither written with the aim to be solution focused nor especially for coaches or facilitators, many of the findings are perfectly in line with the solution focused approach and have the potential to complement the way you coach or facilitate in the future.
“Are you listening well enough to your clients? Are you really listening in a way that ignites their minds? Are you creating a thinking environment for your clients?” Before Ernst Bechinie, a fellow solution focused coach asked me these three questions, I thought that I was a good listener. But the more I reflected on this, I realized that in my coachings my focus is more on asking the right questions than on the listening. I have seen how solution focused questions can ignite the minds of my clients, but how could it be possible to reach this only by listening? And what is a thinking environment? To find out, I knew that I had to read this book.
In “Time to think” Nancy Kline builds on the well known assumption that the brain that contains the problem also contains the solution. To seek out the solution, the thing that this person needs the most is time to think in a special environment that enhances thinking. In the first section she, therefore, sets out the ten components that lead to the Thinking Environment. Although many of those might sound familiar, like giving attention, appreciation, encouragement, or ease, Kline manages to highlight small, but very important details on the one hand. On the other hand she points out the importance of creating an environment where thinking can take place in its full beauty. It might be as important to listen the right way, as to ask the right questions. Have you lately, for example, asked the next solution focused question while your client was quiet? Did you really know if her thinking process was finished? Or did your question interrupt her solution thinking? … read the full review
