How I Work
I create a place where people can focus attention on what matters, can find answers, can move forward
Through my courses, facilitation and coach, I help people think superbly so that they make better decisions
My work as a Time To Think Consultant, Coach and Facilitator is based on the framework known as the Thinking Environment.
Having trained as an Executive Coach, I decided to specialise in the Time to Think approach and in 2020, I qualified as an accredited Time to Think Coach and Facilitator.
I work with individuals, as a coach and mentor, and with teams and groups, creating an environment where they can generate ideas, find solutions, and work collaboratively.
I help people focus their attention on what matters, discover ways to move forward with confidence, and break through what might be holding them back.
In 2024, I qualified as a Time to Think Consultant, and now offer a range of accredited Thinking Environment Programmes in person in Ireland.
What I offer as a Coach
My own background as a senior leader means I understand the personal and professional challenges that can arise from being in complex and changing situations. As a coach, I can provide you with time, space and focussed attention in which you can think things through, so you can generate your own answers to the questions you’re grappling with. This will help you make progress.
Sometimes working at a senior level can be a lonely place, you may be slow to talk to others about challenges. My experience of working in senior roles, combined with my experience of changing career direction, enables me to offer you a supportive, non-judgemental space in which you can explore and consider your options, so that you can move forward.
What I offer as a Facilitator
I have extensive experience of working as a senior leader and managing challenges, especially when faced with competing demands. I understand the pressures of time and expectations that face managers and leaders. After a career in a range of senior corporate and operational roles, I worked as an Organisational Consultant and have insight into the complexity and ambiguity that faces senior leaders .
I can work with you and your team to create a structured and focussed environment in which to think about and plan for change, an environment where people can think creatively, challenge their assumptions and where perspectives can shift. As well as delivering practical outcomes from structured sessions, having an opportunity to experience the Thinking Environment approach and processes will provide and your team with skills you can apply in both your personal life and your professional life.
What I offer as a Teacher of Thinking Environment accredited Programmes?
The starting place to learn about Time To Think are my two foundational courses, viz. the Foundation (2-day) Programme (learning how to use this approach with groups) and the Thinking Partnership (3-day) Programme (focussed on one-to one application.) Each Programme is for a small group and is held in-person in Dublin.
The next level courses I offer are the 3-day Facilitator Course and the 4-day Coaching Course, each of which is followed by a supervised Practicum stage, successful completion of which leads to qualification as a Time To Think practitioner.
I also offer the one-day Transforming Meetings Programme, in-person or online, for teams or groups of peers.
What is the Thinking Environment?
At the heart of the Thinking Environment ® are Nancy Kline’s observations that
“the quality of everything we do depends upon the quality of the thinking we do first”
“what helps us do our best thinking is how we are treated by others when we are thinking”.
Having made these observations, Nancy Kline went on to identify a way for people to think with courage, with imagination, with rigour and with grace. A way to encourage independent thinking, to build a culture of fresh thinking. For anyone in a leadership role, the framework known as the Thinking Environment is a simple yet powerful way to encourage creativity and problem solving, a way to transform how people interact and to build their leadership capacity.
This is grounded in the behaviours and conditions that Nancy Kline recognised can encourage and support independent thinking. The conditions (known as The Ten Components™) are: Attention, Equality, Ease, Appreciation, Encouragement, Feelings, Information, Difference, Incisive Questions, and Place. While each component is powerful individually, the presence of all ten working together gives this approach its transformative impact. You can read more about the Ten Components in this article.
What are the Building Blocks of the Thinking Environment?
The “Building Blocks” are the tools we can use to create a Thinking Environment in meetings or interactions.
They are different ways to offer people the opportunity to think well and to listen well together, using the ten components. The four tools are: Thinking Pairs, Dialogue, Rounds and Open Discussion. These tools are included in the “Build a Thinking Environment Programme” and the Transforming Meetings programme.