More Time to Think: The power of independent thinking

listening to reply is different from listening to ignite.

Celia aced this. She said, “Given that the assumption that there is an inherent standard of beauty is stopping you from feeling happy about your body, what would you credibly have to assume in order to feel happy about your body?”

If you knew that you are intelligent, what more would you think? If you knew that I welcome whatever you need to say, what would you feel? If you knew that your thinking matters, what other ideas would occur to you? If you knew that I am interested, where would your thinking take you next?

What are you assuming that is most stopping you from going forward? Do you think that assumption is true? What is true and liberating instead? If you knew (insert liberating assumption), how would you go forward?

when Al said that to me, he was talking about heightened awareness through contrast. Over the years of organizational life he had become numb to the pain of interruption, of rushing his thoughts and fighting to keep his turn, of being trampled by the people who stampeded in order to get noticed, of being dismissed when he ventured difference.

The human mind thinks more rigorously and creatively in a context of genuine appreciation

We call it an Incisive Question because it cuts through an untrue limiting assumption to replace it with a true liberating alternative.

ponder what it will take to produce a planet of people thinking for themselves – in the best interest of all people.

“It’s possible that people may frown on the gaps in your CV, but what are you assuming that causes that assumption to stop you from making a plan to find a global position in a global organization?”