Time To Think

“If you listen you ennoble people with the depth of your attention and shake them to their roots by convincing them that they can think for themselves so they can access their own answers first. Everything we do depends for its quality on the thinking we do first. IQ, age, background, gender and even experience seemed to have surprisingly little to do with the times when students thought well. The key behavior was attention. The quality of a person’s attention determines the quality of other people’s thinking. As our thinking depends on the quality of our attention for each other, perhaps the most important thing we could do with our life and with our leadership was to listen to people so expertly, to give them attention so respectfully they could begin to think for themselves, clearly and afresh.”

“Beneath the fear of being punished for thinking for themselves, most people have ideas that matter, ideas that would make a difference if they could be developed fully. The best conditions for thinking, if you really stop and notice, are not tense. They are gentle and quiet and unrushed. They are stimulating not competitive. They are encouraging. They are paradoxically both rigorous and nimble. When you are listening to someone, much of the quality of what you are hearing is your effect on them. Giving good attention without interruption to people makes them more intelligent. Poor attention makes them stumble over their words and seem stupid. Your attention, your listening is that important. We think we listen, but we don’t. We give advice, give advice, give advice! Listening to each other, if you want to think for yourselves, requires discipline and the most profound attention for each other.”