Nancy Kline’s A Time to Think comes highly recommended by a number of coaches and is part of the reading list on my course. Having read it through over the last couple of weeks this framework stood out. It is both simple but having only a few hours of coaching under my belt so far, I can already see how effective this could be.

The six steps of the framework are as follows.

1. “What do you want to think about?”

   This question is followed up with a repeated, “Is there anything else you are thinking or feeling or want to say?” until there is nothing else that the thinker wants to say.

2. What do you want to get out of this session at this point?

   Here the thinker can start thinking about an objective but the “at this point” leaves it open for further thinking and development.

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3. Identify what might be a limiting assumption - “What are you assuming that’s stopping you from moving forward/reaching your goal?”

   An example response might be: “I’m assuming that no-one listens to me around here” or “I’m not clever enough”. Nancy talks about 3 groups of limiting assumptions.

   1. Facts – things that are verifiably true. e.g. “I’m not the boss so things won’t change”

   2. Possible facts – things that might be true, but we don’t know yet. e.g. “They’ll laugh at me if I try this”

   3. Assumptions – things we believe to be true but haven’t tested. e.g. “there is nothing I can do about this”.

   Once an assumption has been identified, ask for the thinker’s words for the positive opposite. Don’t bring in your assumptions here, allow the thinker to use their words as they may well be different from yours!

4. Ask what Nancy Kline calls the Incisive Question to remove that belief. This is created by using the positive opposite of the limiting belief. As a response to the example you might ask: “If you knew you would be listened to, what would you say, and to whom”

   1. “If you were the boss, what would you do in this situation?”

   2. “If you knew that they wouldn’t laugh at you, what would you do to reach your goal?”

   3. “If you knew that there was something you could do, what would you do to reach your goal?”

   The incisive question can then be repeated until the person has no more to say.

5. Allow for silence. The best thinking happens in ease and silence. Watch for body language. Nancy likens the silence to allowing the thinker to go for a walk trusting them to come back and tell you where they have been.

6. The last step is for the thinker to write the incisive question down verbatim. It was their words for their assumption and the positive opposite. It is these words that enabled their thinking to cut through the assumptions. The thinker can very quickly forget what the question was because they were focused on the thinking, not the question that enabled it.

   Close with appreciation for the thinker. They have been vulnerable with you and do not take that trust for granted.

It may be that you don’t have opportunity to try this framework out in full, though what is stopping you from asking a friend to help you think better with this as a guide? Set the ground rules that the friend can’t interrupt, can’t offer advice, can't contradict or affirm, but can only ask these questions. Then swap turns. See what happens when you give someone your full attention.

How can you offer your attention and ask better questions to help those around you think more carefully and deeply?

If you think the above would be helpful and are interested in a coaching session to help you think deeply about a topic, clarify some goals, or work through a problem, then feel free to get in touch.