Strengthen your thinking · Area 04 of 06
How to create the conditions where great thinking, honest conversations and bold action happen together.
Explore the other areasPeople do not think well in rooms where it feels unsafe to be wrong. The atmosphere you create decides whether you hear people's best thinking or only what they believe you want to hear, and most leaders never find out which one they are getting.
Learn to read and shape that atmosphere and your team starts reaching honest, high-quality thinking together. The doubts get said out loud, the important conversations actually happen, and the weather you bring into a room begins working for you.
A question to sit with
Do I create the conditions where better thinking can happen?
Your guides here are people from the Thinking Squad, matched to you and to how you want to grow. They work one to one, and with groups and teams.
Each guide is qualified and informed in their area, with one mission: to elevate the quality of your thinking, conversations, decisions and actions.
Book a discovery callThinking Atmosphere Guide
Key focus areas
The Thinking Marketplace
Our five top picks for this area, chosen from the full shelf for this area. Each one earns its place.
Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind
Nancy Kline · 1999
Kline's argument is simple: the quality of your thinking depends on the quality of the attention you receive. Her ten components of a Thinking Environment turn that idea into a discipline you can run in any meeting or one-to-one. It is the founding text for this pillar and still the most generous book on listening we know.
About 6 hours (288 pages)
The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth
Amy C. Edmondson · 2018
Edmondson did the original research on psychological safety and this is her playbook. It shows you why silence is expensive and gives you a three-part toolkit for making it safe to speak up. If you lead a team, this is the definitive text on the subject.
About 6 hours (256 pages)
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
Daniel Coyle · 2018
Coyle spent four years inside groups like Pixar, the San Antonio Spurs and the Navy SEALs asking why some cultures click. The answer comes down to small signals of safety, shared vulnerability and purpose. You leave with habits you can try in your very next meeting.
About 7 hours (304 pages)
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High (Third Edition)
Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler and Emily Gregory · 2021, first published 2002
The standard work on honest conversations when opinions differ and emotions run high. It gives you concrete moves for keeping dialogue safe without going soft, starting with the state of your own thinking before you open your mouth. More than five million readers say plenty.
About 7 hours (304 pages)
Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace
Amy C. Edmondson (TEDxHGSE) · 2014
Eleven minutes from the researcher who defined psychological safety. Edmondson explains what it is, why the best teams report more mistakes, and three things any leader can do about it. Watch it with your team before your next retrospective; it changes the weather in the room.
11 minutes
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