How To Ignite Human Brilliance : Equality

In this series of blog posts, I will be exploring the 10 Components of a Thinking Environment® and bringing each component to life by sharing my own personal experiences and stories of how these components make a positive difference in the world.

All quoted text is attributed to Nancy Kline, unless otherwise indicated.

The 10 Components of a Thinking Environment® are: Attention, Equality, Ease, Appreciation, Feelings, Encouragement, Information, Difference, Incisive Questions^TM and Place.

Click on each component above to read a blog relating to each one.

This post explores the component of Equality

The component of Equality has two layers of meaning. It means both “Regarding each other as thinking peers”, and “giving equal time to think.” As Nancy has observed countless times over the five decades she has dedicated to this work, “Even in a hierarchy people can be equals as thinkers.”

There a many complex interactions between all the components of a Thinking Environment®. It is helpful to note that there is a particularly important feedback loop between the components of Attention and Equality. This is because “knowing we will have our turn improves the quality of our attention.”

One of my most cherished Thinking Pair partners is a wonderful woman called Prisca. Prisca and I worked from the same CoWorking space in Melbourne, Australia.

I believe that the component of Equality has played a key role in the quality of the relationship we have cultivated.  Prisca and I are both Founders and we both love to have many different plates spinning. This has meant that our time to think together needs to have clear boundaries.

We normally agree to meet at a certain time and scurry off to find a meeting room or a quiet corner. After a quick but warm hello, we settle in for some good thinking. Depending on how many plates we are each spinning on that particular day we might invest between 5 and 10 minutes each to think. We always set a timer. There are often tears, but there is rarely any “fixing” or “helping” – there is simply open-hearted holding of those precious minutes for each, equally, followed by a word of appreciation to recognise a quality we noticed in each other on that particular day.

Prisca recently shared the following observation following one of our Thinking Pairs “This time to think opens up more is more space inside of me, and even after the session ends, that extra space is still there!”

I think that, for Prisca and myself, the ‘busy-ness’ of our days somewhat paradoxically helps us to honour the component of Equality. If either one of us took more that our fair share of that precious little island of sanity, the whole thing would be soured.

As I begin to subtly draw on the components of a Thinking Environment® in the coaching sessions I hold with leaders, I have observed that many leaders have lost faith in their ability to think for themselves. I have come to realise that when leaders engage me as their leadership coach, there can be an unspoken assumption that part of what they pay me to do is to validate their thinking, or perhaps even tell them what to think.

I recently heard Nancy ask the question in a podcast: “What is so frightening about freedom?” I have been thinking about this question, and about my answer.

If I’m being honest with myself, I think what’s most frightening about freedom is that there’s no one else to blame if things go to crap. And that perhaps, what’s most frightening is that if it all goes to crap, it’s proof that my greatest fear is true. My fear that I am somehow not enough. Not smart enough. Not educated enough. Not experienced enough. Not savvy enough. Not worth enough.

These beliefs are for so many, untrue assumptions lived as true. They dull and diminish our true brilliance both individually and collectively in so many different ways.

As a small business owner (and recovering over-achiever with an under-valued self), I must constantly remind myself that I am enough. And that I have nothing to prove to anyone. For me, this is a life-long practice of self-care and self-leadership.

On the days I remember to remind myself, freedom is way more exhilarating than it is this frightening. On those days, being able to think for myself is joyous.

The Thinking Environment® is helping me to continue to cultivate faith in my enough-ness – and to do the same for my coaching clients. To restore their trust in their capacity to think well for themselves. I am bringing much more awareness and care with how I respond to questions such as “Does that make sense?” and “What do you think?”.

Now, at the start of my coaching sessions, I remind my clients that what feels like rambling is actually thinking afresh for ourselves – and that so many of us are just a little out of practice due to the absence of equality, and the loss of faith in our ability to think well, for ourselves. I also remind them that the brain that contains the problem also contains the solution and that they are much more likely to find a way to navigate and solve the challenges they are facing than I am. I explain that my role as their coach is to be their steadfast companion as they explore beyond the known limits of their own thinking.

In conclusion

The only way to really understand the power of a Thinking Environment® is to experience it. The more I practice embodying the ten components, and the more people I share it with, the more natural and easeful the components become.

“We will get to a new and better world with new and better thinking. Brave thinking that dismantles denial. Thinking that is the simplicity on the far side of complexity.” Nancy Kline

Hi there, I'm Cassandra Goodman.

I'm a former global executive turned accredited Thinking Environment™ Trainer and Facilitator.I love empowering people to activate their own brilliance - and the brilliance of those around them.

Are you ready to ignite the brilliance in your team or organisation? 

The Thinking Environment is both a framework you can learn, and a way of being you can practice.

Learn about my workshop offerings here.

Or reach out to explore possibilities [email protected]