22/02/2019
Radical Listening: The Time To Think Thinking Partnership® Course
Like the sound of ‘listening to ignite, rather than listening to reply’ but no idea where to start?
A common experience for those who’ve invested in listening skills is that in fact many approaches often result in our own internal voice - the one telling us to summarise, paraphrase, and have the next helpful question all lined up –drowning out the voice, and thinking, of the other. Tragically, we are often being more of an obstacle than an enabler to others’ thinking because of our preoccupation with being helpful. The experience of listening in this way, stocking up our arsenal of useful next questions, is stressful for both the listener and the person being listened to in this well-meaning but distracted way.
The implications of our coming in too soon as professionals and listeners is chilling. For the person being ‘listened’ to in this way they are left feeling not only unheard and shut down but their own independent thinking has been sabotaged, setting up all kinds of fight or flight responses in them. For the person listening in this way, they are feeling urgent, stressed, adrenaline-fuelled and not able to do their best thinking either.
Contrast this to the very different experience of listening with spaciousness – and anything longer than 11 seconds is going to feel pretty spacious! – and an interest in where the person in front of us is going next in their thinking, which we would never have discovered had we crashed into that thinking with an interruption. For the person listening in this way, it’s incredibly liberating to be eliciting the next new wave of thinking in another rather than anxiously preparing your next too-early interruption of their thinking.
In addition to accessing a deeper level of listening than we’re used to, the listener also reports that they learn a lot more from the person they’re listening to than if they had interrupted, and also that they are able to be more present to the inherent wisdom of the other, which remains hidden when we interrupt with our own agenda and solutions too soon.
And for the person who gets to complete their waves of thinking without the threat of interruption, it’s a hugely enlivening, connecting and clarifying experience. Other feedback from those who’ve presenced this quality of transformative listening for one another is that they instantly feel a deep sense of trust, connection, relatedness, appreciation for diverse views and perspectives, transformed thinking and often joy even from just five minutes of this generous listening.
Another valuable element of this quality of listening is our ability to ask Incisive Questions ™ which invite the thinker to remove blockages in their thinking, usually limiting assumptions. A key piece here is the timing of these – only once the thinker has had a chance to first access their own waves of thinking can we check if explicit questions to remove blockages may be needed.
Our 3 day Thinking Partnership Course offers a deep immersion in this transformative listening and the 1: 1 application of a Thinking Environment®, crafting of Incisive Questions™, and time to think for ourselves about topics that deeply matter to us. After the course you have access to a global community of fellow thinking partners with whom to swap deep listening sessions, accessing new thinking, feeling and actions.
The Thinking Partnership Course is for you if you’re
* A leader who recognise that your primary objective is to facilitate leadership in those around them, and who wishes to build Thinking Partnerships and the Thinking Environment approach into your life and organisation
* Anyone whose wants to listen more deeply during conversations which are in service to others including parents, teachers, healthcare practitioners, coaches, consultants and counsellors
* Anyone who is needing time to think about issues which matter profoundly to them
Participants can expect to:
* Learn about the Thinking Environment theory and the 1: 1 Thinking Partnership process that underlies this powerful approach to listening
* Spend a significant amount of time practising listening and being listened to in this way, rather than solely digesting theoretical models
* Explore a current personal or professional challenge
* Continue a lifelong practice of swapping 1: 1 listening sessions with the global thinking partner community
* Have a lived experience of why human skills are critical to cultivating new thinking and thriving workplaces and communities in a technological era.
The Thinking Environment’s contribution to the work of Coaching:
The Thinking Environment is one of the finest ways in which coaches can hone their ability to provide generative attention: attention which catalyses the thinker’s thinking. Given the commitment and promise of coaching to provide a place in which clients can access their own best solutions to the issues they bring to their coaching sessions, coaches who train themselves to be Thinking Partners can reliably manage the perennial pitfalls of transference and unconscious infantilisation that so often trip up the best-intentioned helping professionals. The Thinking Partnership Program therefore forms the basis of the Coaching Course and is a pre-requisite for becoming an accredited Time To Think Coach.
Recent participants reflect that:
“The workshop has helped me become much more aware of my listening style and the impact that the quality of my presence has on others … I would love to see this way of interacting really catching on - I can see the potential for much needed positive change." Lisa
“I have had my knowledge, understanding and capability taken to another level in this program. I was challenged and supported in an environment that created ease. The participants and Candice as facilitator gave me the ease and safety to learn through my own issues being clarified through the Partnership practice. The practice of the breakthrough questions was exceptional and Candice was potent in her teaching and facilitation. For anyone wanting to deepen their listening and thinking partnership practice this is a must!” John.
’I’ve had the amazing opportunity to attend a number of Candice’s programs over the last year and have come away each and every time not only having explored and expanded my thinking in new ways but in quickly forming deep and enduring connections. Candice’s embodiment of a true ‘thinking environment’ creates the conditions for transformative experiences, enabling thinkers to explore their thoughts with curiosity and sometimes vulnerability, often revealing unanticipated insights and understanding. If you’re a leader who wants to encourage more expansive thinking in your organisation or a facilitator/coach interested in supporting the creation of the necessary conditions for truly independent thinking, I highly recommend Candice’s programs. “ Bridget
Course: The Thinking Partnership® Course
Dates: March 4, 5, 6
Time: 9.00 – 17.00
Location: Toorak, Melbourne
To discover more call Candice Smith on 0404 276 460
To reserve a place: http://www.thethinkingfield.com/courses/2019/3/4/thinking-partnership-course-melbourne.
