Banter 100: 17Dec25 Taking Time to Think, with Linda Aspey
Linda showed the importance of creating thinking environments, highlighting the improved decision-making that can result from lack of interruptions; including practical strategies to achieve these
Please note that a technical fault prevented the last third of the session from recording - apologies to all, but we will re-run the exercise in 2026 to catchup - date now set for 18Mar26
Presentation:
No presentation this week - the video is all-encompassing. However, you may find this interesting!
Meeting Summary:
Dec 17, 2025 11:53 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536
Quick recap
The meeting focused on the concept of creating effective thinking environments, led by Linda, who introduced the 10 components of the Time to Think approach. Participants discussed the importance of uninterrupted attention, the impact of interruptions on thinking, and how to foster a safe space for collaborative thinking. Linda shared practical strategies, such as using thinking pairs and rounds, to enhance meeting productivity and inclusivity. The group explored how these techniques could be applied in various settings, including parish councils and corporate environments, with participants sharing personal experiences and challenges. The session concluded with reflections on the value of allowing time for independent thinking and the need for humility in facilitating group discussions.
Next steps
Next steps were not generated due to insufficient transcript.
Summary
Climate Action Hubs Scotland Update
The meeting began with informal conversation about recording protocols and personal introductions, including Linda's discussion about dandelions and their symbolic significance. Frank shared updates about his efforts to engage Climate Action Hubs in Scotland, with a focus on mapping initiatives, while Linda requested and received co-host privileges to share slides during the meeting.
Banter Network's 100th Climate Session
The meeting marked the 100th session of the Banter Network, a non-profit organization focused on supporting parish and town councils in addressing climate change and environmental issues. Graham introduced the session, explaining that it involves a weekly 15-25 minute discussion on a relevant topic, followed by Q&A, with all content compiled into a knowledge base shared with participants. Linda, the host for this session, welcomed newcomers, including John and Simon, and discussed the organization's efforts to provide a centralized resource for climate and net-zero information. The conversation ended with Graham reiterating the network's goal of simplifying climate action information and encouraging participants to share their locations in Zoom to demonstrate the group's national reach.
Enhancing Thinking Environments
Linda, an organization development consultant and climate psychologist, led a session on creating thinking environments, emphasizing the importance of attention and uninterrupted listening for effective thinking. She introduced the concept of the "thinking environment" and its 10 components, highlighting that the quality of thinking directly influences decision-making and outcomes. Linda explained the origins of this practice, its application in various sectors, and its neurobiological basis, encouraging participants to focus on the quality of their attention during the session. The session included breakout groups for further discussion, with an agreement to keep personal sharing confidential.
Enhancing Thinking in Meetings
Linda discussed the importance of creating conditions for effective thinking in meetings, emphasizing the impact of attention, questions, and psychological safety. She highlighted that the mind thinks better when focused on questions rather than being interrupted, and that allowing pauses can lead to deeper thinking. Linda also mentioned the Google Aristotle Project's findings on high-performing teams, which identified psychological safety as a key factor. She concluded by encouraging participants to reflect on how they can create environments that foster independent and collaborative thinking.
Enhancing Team Effectiveness Through Safety
Linda discussed the Google Aristotle project's focus on team effectiveness and its findings on psychological safety, creativity, and risk-taking. Graham shared his experience from the Royal Navy, highlighting the importance of a familial atmosphere for team effectiveness. Amanda compared teaching practices to the concepts discussed, emphasizing the role of psychological safety in learning and inspiration. Linda explained the neurobiological link between safety and improved thinking and introduced components of a thinking environment, such as pairs, rounds, and dialogue. She invited participants to engage in a thinking pair exercise to explore the impact of interruptions on thinking.
Enhancing Meeting Thinking Environments
Linda facilitated a discussion on creating effective thinking environments in meetings, emphasizing the importance of allowing uninterrupted thinking and the neuroscience behind why interruptions can be detrimental. Participants shared experiences and insights, particularly highlighting the challenges of managing different personalities and contexts in meetings. Linda introduced the concept of the "thinking environment" and its ten components, which aim to foster better collaboration and idea-sharing. The session concluded with participants reflecting on their own meeting practices and the potential benefits of implementing these strategies in various settings, including local councils and corporate environments.
Chat:
In answer to the verbal question "What brought you here today?":
00:08:33 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Fascinated by the topic 00:08:37 Simon Donovan: Your post Linda! 00:09:07 John Renshaw, Folkestone: Curious to meet the group 00:09:21 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Regular attendee 00:11:27 Simon Donovan: Liversedge - West Yorkshire. Luddite country! 00:12:26 Andrew Wright (South West London): I'm near where the magna carta (and more importantly charter of the forest) was signed. 00:15:46 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Runnymede? 00:16:45 Andrew Wright (South West London): Replying to "Runnymede?"
Yep 00:18:25 Andrew Wright (South West London): I think this was advertised on the Climate Emergency Centre WhatsApp which is why I'm here? 00:19:13 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I’ll add them to the list, to ask if they would do so each week. Good suggestion, thank you! 00:22:11 Amanda Davis: Essential classroom management practice.... Alistair Smith promoted it as Accelerated Learning
Audio-transcript (for AI indexing and search):
(the audio-transcript does not pick up again after the deliberate pause in recording the audio, so the second part of the session is lost)
160 00:12:33.540 --> 00:12:51.960 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I will, yes, most people know about us, but I'm very happy to say that we're a non-profit organization that is dedicated to trying to get parish councils and town councils and community organisations more effectively on the road towards climate change or…
161 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:54.410 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Just in the environment generally.
162 00:12:54.540 --> 00:13:01.039 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So we run a weekly banter session, which, Linda is now the host for the 100th session.
163 00:13:01.300 --> 00:13:05.999 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Which is sort of good news, yes, there are… and,
164 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:12.859 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: We try to bring up a useful topic every week,
165 00:13:12.910 --> 00:13:32.609 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Which, sort of, is about 15 to 25 minutes of chatting, and then the rest of the time is spent in answering questions. People put all sorts of helpful links in the chat, because we produce the whole lot afterwards on our knowledge base, and you'll all get a copy of the notifications as to where that is and when it's gone up.
166 00:13:34.210 --> 00:13:54.069 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And that is building into some place where people can come as their first port of call, I hope, when they're looking to do anything in the climate change or net zero worlds. So, rather than get confused by the multiplicity of details out on the internet, we're trying to find best practice in any
167 00:13:54.380 --> 00:13:57.980 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Field or arena, and point people towards it.
168 00:13:59.430 --> 00:14:04.180 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And the chats that we give each Wednesday are a major part of the knowledge base.
169 00:14:04.610 --> 00:14:07.570 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Thank you very much for the time, Linda, all yours.
170 00:14:07.770 --> 00:14:18.999 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Great. Session is being recorded, which was going to go into the knowledge base. Hopefully that's okay with everybody, but there will be some breakout groups, so I'm going to… that won't be recorded then.
171 00:14:19.280 --> 00:14:28.249 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So today's going to be a bit different, perhaps, than a normal banter, in that I'm going to invite everybody, if they can and are able to, to switch their mobile phones off.
172 00:14:28.660 --> 00:14:35.469 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And to give attention, because we're going to be looking at the subject of attention, and why it's so helpful.
173 00:14:35.520 --> 00:14:51.439 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So we're going to be looking at that, and there's going to be, chance to go into breakouts, and whilst we're not necessarily sharing anything personal, if you do share anything personal in the breakout, it would be nice to agree that the person you're with doesn't come back and say, you won't believe what they've just said.
174 00:14:54.550 --> 00:15:04.959 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: or similar. If you want to share your own personal stuff, you can, so that would just be nice to know that it's confidential. So, a bit of background, really, about me. I'm,
175 00:15:05.060 --> 00:15:16.159 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I'm an organization development consultant and coach and facilitator, involved in climate, for the last 8 years, particularly, and now a climate psychologist.
176 00:15:16.350 --> 00:15:27.189 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And I'm a qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor, amongst other things. And back in 2008, I came across an organization called Time to Think.
177 00:15:27.780 --> 00:15:40.970 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And I was a coach, and also an assessor of coaches at the time, and teaching coaches. And, it really struck me that this was something very, very important, is how do we have time to think, and how do we create
178 00:15:41.180 --> 00:15:48.890 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: conditions where people really can think. Because often, lots of coach training and lots of counselling training actually teaches you to interrupt.
179 00:15:49.210 --> 00:16:02.199 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: teaches you how to interrupt, effectively, or ineffectively. And so this was very different, so this really grabbed me. So I'm going to invite you to give attention today, for this next hour, if you can.
180 00:16:02.530 --> 00:16:11.569 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And switch off any things that are going to ping, and close your email down. To just think about this. The reason I think it's so important, I hope will transpire.
181 00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:16.070 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I've got some slides to share with you around some of the concepts of it.
182 00:16:16.300 --> 00:16:20.190 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: The first part of it came from this book called Time to Think.
183 00:16:20.350 --> 00:16:22.520 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: by a lady called Nancy Klein.
184 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:40.590 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And, Nancy is an American living in Oxfordshire, and I met Nancy, as I said, back in 2008, and I trained with her as something called a Thinking Partnership Practitioner. Hello, Amanda, nice to see you. I trained as a thinking partnership practitioner, and I went on
185 00:16:40.590 --> 00:16:48.320 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: to train more and more and more, and eventually became faculty member of Time to Think. There were just 35 of us around the world.
186 00:16:48.340 --> 00:17:06.270 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And we teach and qualify people to work with what we call the thinking environment. So, that's what I'm going to do today, is invite you in. And Amanda, we just agreed that when we go into breakouts, and then come back and reflect, that anything personal that's shared in the breakouts, pairs, doesn't get shared. That's just lovely.
187 00:17:06.390 --> 00:17:24.270 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And invited also people to switch off devices and focus on the quality of the attention they're being… they're giving right now. And we'll look at why that is so important. So I'm going to start with some slides, and everything is invitational, you don't have to do anything. If you say, I don't want to go into a breakout, that's fine too.
188 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:31.719 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, this, this, this idea, these ideas are used all over the world now.
189 00:17:31.950 --> 00:17:46.529 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: quite a lot in NHS, a lot of NHS organizations create what we call thinking environments. Lots of councils, I've worked with loads of those, lots of corporates, lots of coaches and facilitators use these practices.
190 00:17:47.010 --> 00:17:48.430 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, let's share.
191 00:17:49.760 --> 00:17:52.849 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And the session I usually call is Think Well, Think Together.
192 00:17:54.600 --> 00:17:59.369 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And, we've done that in the chat. What brings you here today?
193 00:17:59.930 --> 00:18:06.289 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So there's been a mixture of curiosity, my post on LinkedIn, people already know
194 00:18:06.490 --> 00:18:10.780 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: each other, and so a variety of different things. So.
195 00:18:11.470 --> 00:18:26.969 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: This is what we call the 10 components of the thinking environment. We're going to look at a few of them today. I will share… you'll… I'll share these, you'll see this on the recording afterwards, and I'll also put links in to various sources of information, including websites.
196 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:36.350 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And I will come back to that. The beautiful thing about the thinking environment is, although there are 10 things, unless you're actually teaching it, you don't need to remember all 10.
197 00:18:36.620 --> 00:18:40.240 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: You can begin to apply them every day in your life.
198 00:18:40.930 --> 00:18:42.579 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: How did this come about?
199 00:18:43.060 --> 00:18:46.249 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Well, the first one is what I've just said, it's attention.
200 00:18:46.610 --> 00:18:53.909 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And we'll talk a bit about what this… we call it a component, but it's an element of creating a space in which people can think well.
201 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:59.330 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And we define attention and thinking environment as listening without interruption.
202 00:18:59.750 --> 00:19:03.620 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And where… and with interest in where the person will go next in their thinking.
203 00:19:05.220 --> 00:19:08.129 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So what's this all about? What's the background to this?
204 00:19:09.140 --> 00:19:17.610 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Well, the thinking environment started with a key observation by Nancy Klein back, at least 40, 50 years ago now, around 40, 50 years ago.
205 00:19:17.720 --> 00:19:21.439 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: She's still alive and teaching occasionally.
206 00:19:22.150 --> 00:19:24.480 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And it started with this key observation.
207 00:19:24.690 --> 00:19:29.759 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: That the quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first.
208 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:38.560 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: If we don't have good thinking, we won't make good decisions, and we won't take good actions, and we won't get good outcomes.
209 00:19:39.540 --> 00:19:52.049 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Whereas, but in this day and age of everybody so busy all the time, our attention's being grabbed by multiple sources, multiple factors, both internal and external.
210 00:19:52.760 --> 00:19:57.450 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: We're not often getting the quality of the thinking time that we really need.
211 00:20:00.130 --> 00:20:07.819 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: good thinking results in good decisions and good actions. If we want good outcomes, we have to have quality thinking.
212 00:20:08.060 --> 00:20:18.029 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And so this, many years ago, set Nancy off on a quest. She's a leadership trainer, and anybody here who's a Quaker might recognize some of the
213 00:20:18.150 --> 00:20:30.589 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: some of the practices that we use, it's not a spiritual or religious organization or way of being, but it is based on ways of being together that help people to think and share and open up.
214 00:20:30.990 --> 00:20:32.340 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: and create.
215 00:20:33.230 --> 00:20:37.250 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, you'll recognize elements of Quaker practice in here.
216 00:20:38.260 --> 00:20:43.569 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: But we don't sell it as that. It's, it's not about that. It's about the quality of thinking.
217 00:20:44.500 --> 00:21:01.230 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And what we've been finding over the years, Nancy started out on her own, and then a few of us joined her, and started to look at this, this, this singular question that obsessed us, really, particularly Nancy in the early days, is, what does it take for people to think well for themselves?
218 00:21:01.630 --> 00:21:11.070 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And what she'd noticed was in the schools that she'd taught in, and the colleges, and the leadership institutions, and the coaching, and the management courses.
219 00:21:11.190 --> 00:21:13.699 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Very little was focused on.
220 00:21:13.990 --> 00:21:16.230 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: What is it to think well?
221 00:21:17.520 --> 00:21:32.279 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And how do you do that well? How do you think well? And what you notice, principally, is that if you didn't get the right kind of attention, if you didn't get attention when you were thinking, when you were with others, you wouldn't think very well.
222 00:21:32.660 --> 00:21:40.879 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Because it would have an impact on your brain, and on your thinking patterns itself, that you were being interrupted, or you weren't being attended to.
223 00:21:41.180 --> 00:22:01.100 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Now, what we now know, which we didn't know 40 years ago, is that actually there's a neurobiological element to this. If you give somebody attention, they feel safe, if it's the right kind of attention. And they'll feel safe to be creative, to explore, to think for themselves as themselves.
224 00:22:01.340 --> 00:22:11.160 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And the findings along the way have been things like the way that we behave as listeners with people actually has more impact on the quality of their thinking
225 00:22:11.500 --> 00:22:15.079 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: than their IQ, their prior knowledge, or their experience.
226 00:22:16.030 --> 00:22:22.919 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Doesn't mean to say their thinking is going to be, the same as a rocket scientist, but if you are someone who's not a rocket scientist.
227 00:22:23.130 --> 00:22:27.450 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: what they thought about landing people on the moon, they would have some thoughts.
228 00:22:28.490 --> 00:22:38.959 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: They might not be technical, they might not be based on experience, they might not have particular intellectual expertise to think about that, but they can think about the subject.
229 00:22:39.730 --> 00:22:41.820 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And they can share their thoughts with you.
230 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:51.689 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So the way we behave with people has a big impact. We're actually helping them as co-creators in their thinking because, as you'll know from your climate work.
231 00:22:51.950 --> 00:22:56.959 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: and your biodiversity work, we are all connected. We are all connected to everything.
232 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:04.999 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So the way we behave with people has much more impact on the quality of their thinking than their IQ, prior knowledge, or experience.
233 00:23:05.720 --> 00:23:11.990 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: We also have discovered along the way that the human mind seems to think better in the presence of a question.
234 00:23:12.980 --> 00:23:17.420 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And yet, how often do we go to meetings with lists of things that we've got to cover?
235 00:23:17.870 --> 00:23:22.719 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And the energy changes when you say, here's a list of questions we need to address today.
236 00:23:24.470 --> 00:23:31.160 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: What we've also found is that the mind who's got a question, with the question, is usually the best one to answer it.
237 00:23:32.300 --> 00:23:39.290 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And if you've had the luck of having a great coach in your life, you will know that when you ask the coach a question.
238 00:23:39.870 --> 00:23:44.469 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Often they will say, that's a great question, what are your thoughts about that?
239 00:23:45.460 --> 00:23:53.059 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And something amazing happens, and you go, oh, yeah, well, they're interested in what I think. What do I think? And off they go.
240 00:23:54.090 --> 00:24:07.460 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And if I'm in a group, if I'm teaching to a group in an audience… by the way, you can interrupt me at any time and put your hand up if I'm going too fast. So do… do feel free to do that, even though I've said it's not about interruptions.
241 00:24:07.630 --> 00:24:22.800 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: But I'd appreciate it, no chat at the moment, because that will pop up and take our attention away. Our brains, as Oliver Berkman has told us in some of his wonderful books, particularly one I called out, Oliver Berkman is Busy.
242 00:24:22.800 --> 00:24:29.709 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Is that we can't do two things at once. We think we can. There's no such thing as multitasking with task switching.
243 00:24:29.970 --> 00:24:37.090 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And it takes 40% longer when you task switch to get your thinking back to where it was before you went somewhere else.
244 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:47.230 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, we know that the mind with the question is usually the best one to answer it. So, if I'm in a group, of a live audience, and somebody asks a question about the thinking environment.
245 00:24:47.260 --> 00:25:01.769 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: They'll say things like, this is… this sounds great, but it'll never work in my organization because of so-and-so. How would I do that in my organization? And I say, that's an interesting thought. What are your first thoughts? And they'll, guess what they'll do?
246 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:07.440 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: They'll answer it! And they say, well, I could try this, and I could try that, and I say, yeah, absolutely you could.
247 00:25:07.860 --> 00:25:13.449 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So we know that the mind with the question is often the best one to answer it, and I'd say 99% of the time.
248 00:25:14.190 --> 00:25:27.410 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And anyone that's been coached by me will notice that I don't speak at all, unlike many coaches which do speak… I can speak if you invite me to, but most of the time, we find that you do the work, in your own space, because I've given you time to think.
249 00:25:27.800 --> 00:25:32.380 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: We've also noticed that the mind seems to think in waves and pauses.
250 00:25:32.860 --> 00:25:38.509 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So someone will have a thought, and maybe they'll share that verbally. And they'll go quiet.
251 00:25:39.350 --> 00:25:46.789 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And if we don't interrupt that quiet, because we recognise they're probably still busy thinking, they will have some more thoughts about it.
252 00:25:47.180 --> 00:25:55.109 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Whatever that question is. But in society, we tend to always interpret a pause as a chance to nip in there ourselves.
253 00:25:56.660 --> 00:26:03.939 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I mean, in fact, one could say we live in two worlds of thinking. There's a large, large world, which we could call exchange thinking.
254 00:26:04.630 --> 00:26:22.030 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Where there's an unwritten rule that when someone speaks, somebody else speaks immediately afterwards, or sometimes before they've finished. And we know that that's a big world we're used to. It's a dialogue world, we can have a chat, we can have a banter, there's an exchange, and that's a good, you know, it's a great place to be.
255 00:26:22.110 --> 00:26:27.279 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: But it's often coming at the expense of the much smaller and increasingly smaller world.
256 00:26:27.460 --> 00:26:34.530 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: of independent thinking. What do I think about this for myself, as myself? What's my view here?
257 00:26:34.670 --> 00:26:46.540 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I'm fed all this information. What do I think about this? What's right for me? What are my values? What's a decision that feels good to me, that's not influenced overly by somebody else's?
258 00:26:47.250 --> 00:26:56.239 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So we've noticed when we don't always just jump straight in, and we let that pause happen, the person will continue thinking for themselves.
259 00:26:56.470 --> 00:27:03.449 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Now, naturally, we have to have some agreements around this, otherwise some people could talk forever and a day.
260 00:27:03.660 --> 00:27:07.819 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So we have some agreements around taking turns and things like that.
261 00:27:08.920 --> 00:27:18.270 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Because knowing… and knowing you will have a turn is very different from being lucky and getting one. Have you ever been to a meeting where you've never spoken the whole time, or you've noticed somebody else hasn't?
262 00:27:19.210 --> 00:27:26.799 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And how quiet, and often managers and leaders say to me, I just wish everybody would, you know, play their part in a meeting.
263 00:27:27.280 --> 00:27:35.560 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And my question to them is often, well, what are the conditions you're setting up to make that possible for people to step in and speak? How safe is it?
264 00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:37.060 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Are you making it?
265 00:27:37.210 --> 00:27:46.149 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Explicit that everybody can speak if they want to, that we can go round and have a turn, and as long as we manage the time well, everyone can speak if they want to.
266 00:27:46.430 --> 00:28:05.319 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And anyone that knows the work of the Google Aristotle project a few years ago, which looked at high-performing teams. Of course, not every organization is like Google, thank goodness. However, we do know that the research they did of vast numbers of teams, vast amounts of research data.
267 00:28:05.320 --> 00:28:13.870 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: is that there were 5 things that made teams really effective. And the top factor that made teams the most effective and high-performing
268 00:28:14.120 --> 00:28:19.129 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Was the extent to which they created psychological safety.
269 00:28:20.300 --> 00:28:30.430 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And psychological safety means that you know various things, such as it's safe to speak, or you perceive it's safe to speak, you perceive that you won't get criticized.
270 00:28:30.630 --> 00:28:34.640 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: You perceive that you can say, get something wrong and not get laughed at.
271 00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:38.620 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So certain things that make it safe for you to take risks and be creative.
272 00:28:38.890 --> 00:28:47.940 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And part of what the practices of these high-performing teams was, was making sure that everybody had a turn to speak at the beginning and at the end of meetings.
273 00:28:48.850 --> 00:28:56.100 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And it was time… not necessarily with a hand timer, but it was time, you know, we've each got a meeting to speak here. Haven't had time today, hence the chat.
274 00:28:57.400 --> 00:29:02.680 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, knowing you'll have a turn is very different from being lucky and just getting one, because you've been able to get in
275 00:29:04.190 --> 00:29:11.849 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So we then come on to these 10 components, and they're 10 behaviors that seem to make a significant difference in the quality of our thinking.
276 00:29:12.010 --> 00:29:17.220 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And you don't need to remember all of them, but if all you'd remembered was the quality for your attention.
277 00:29:17.360 --> 00:29:20.920 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Makes a massive difference. When someone else is speaking.
278 00:29:21.290 --> 00:29:23.629 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: That will change the way they think.
279 00:29:24.940 --> 00:29:32.320 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Because when one person gets attention, and someone else, or others, listen with the intention of igniting
280 00:29:32.480 --> 00:29:35.850 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: They're thinking as if they're on a shared creative journey.
281 00:29:36.460 --> 00:29:40.499 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: They listen to ignite and not to respond, we think better.
282 00:29:40.570 --> 00:29:51.070 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And it is also natural that we're… when someone's talking, we are always in the background thinking what we want to say in response to it, either to
283 00:29:51.070 --> 00:30:04.570 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Make a comment, or a joke, or a suggestion, or an observation. But when we change our perspective, and we intentionally listen to ignite their thinking, and not just to respond to it, they think better.
284 00:30:05.120 --> 00:30:09.380 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: They just do. They… when you know you're not going to get interrupted.
285 00:30:09.670 --> 00:30:17.890 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I mean, you know for sure you're not going to get interrupted. You'll just develop so much more confidence in your own thoughts, whereas if you're waiting.
286 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:26.780 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: You know, just imagine what's happening to your amygdala, to your nervous system, when you're waiting for someone to nip in there and have a joke at your expense, or…
287 00:30:26.780 --> 00:30:39.050 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And Ovid, the great philosopher, knew this, and there's very rarely a management program without a dead Greek philosopher popping up occasionally. And Ovid, in whatever year it was, 439…
288 00:30:39.540 --> 00:30:43.340 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: BCAD, I don't know, I don't, I should know the year. He said.
289 00:30:44.350 --> 00:30:47.199 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: An idea is a very delicate thing.
290 00:30:47.350 --> 00:30:51.330 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: It can be killed by a frown on the right man's brow.
291 00:30:51.530 --> 00:30:54.939 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Or a sneer on the right man's face.
292 00:30:55.590 --> 00:31:02.199 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So he knew the power of someone else's, response to our thinking.
293 00:31:02.800 --> 00:31:04.510 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: That could kill the idea.
294 00:31:06.540 --> 00:31:14.790 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I'll just do a couple more of these, and then we'll move on. So, when we give… when we give attention to somebody, rather than interrupting them.
295 00:31:15.100 --> 00:31:19.560 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: It actually seems to have the effect of asking them a question.
296 00:31:19.730 --> 00:31:26.759 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: When we just give attention, and we wait expectantly, you know, wonder what else this person thinks, this is really interesting, where are they going?
297 00:31:27.650 --> 00:31:30.470 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: It has the effect of asking, what more do you think?
298 00:31:30.730 --> 00:31:34.300 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Or feel, or want to say. And it starts a new wave of thinking.
299 00:31:37.820 --> 00:31:44.830 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And people sometimes say, well, that's all very well, Linda, all this independent thinking. We want people to work together.
300 00:31:46.070 --> 00:31:56.190 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: But what we found is that when independent thinking is welcomed, and you're given a turn, and your ideas are listened to, and you feel respected and valued.
301 00:31:56.340 --> 00:32:04.840 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: guess what you do? You listen to others better, you become more collaborative, you become less triggered.
302 00:32:05.060 --> 00:32:08.410 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Less emotionally dysregulated.
303 00:32:08.500 --> 00:32:25.200 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And of course, this is all going on beneath the surface in most corporate boardrooms, most meetings every day. We go to work terrified. Well, most people go to work every day with a hope they don't even know they have, which is that somebody's going to ask them what they think.
304 00:32:26.660 --> 00:32:30.500 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: But equally, at the same time, we go to work with an absolute terror.
305 00:32:30.820 --> 00:32:33.010 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Someone's gonna say, what do you think?
306 00:32:34.370 --> 00:32:40.589 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Because if they say it in a way that puts the pressure on us, they're going to go, I don't know, what do I think? I don't know, I don't want to get it wrong.
307 00:32:40.710 --> 00:32:46.730 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So if we create conditions in which people can think, well, we'll all think better and more collaboratively.
308 00:32:48.930 --> 00:32:55.680 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, I'll stop there for a moment and just see… let's get to people's responses to what I've just said.
309 00:32:55.960 --> 00:32:57.590 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Any questions?
310 00:32:57.700 --> 00:32:58.860 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Challenges.
311 00:32:59.160 --> 00:33:00.700 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Observations.
312 00:33:01.140 --> 00:33:02.220 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Andrew.
313 00:33:02.350 --> 00:33:06.969 Andrew Wright (South West London): I've got an interesting one. So if the Google Aristotle project was such a success.
314 00:33:07.150 --> 00:33:11.129 Andrew Wright (South West London): how come Google buy, I don't know, some metrics?
315 00:33:11.260 --> 00:33:23.870 Andrew Wright (South West London): is probably… obviously, they did drop its don't Be Evil thing, and people would now kind of associate Google with AI, and kind of thinking that may not be ideal by, again, some metrics. I'm wondering how…
316 00:33:24.100 --> 00:33:26.210 Andrew Wright (South West London): Yeah, how these two, kind of, almost, like.
317 00:33:26.440 --> 00:33:29.950 Andrew Wright (South West London): Different things in the same space.
318 00:33:29.950 --> 00:33:30.920 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Yeah, yeah.
319 00:33:30.920 --> 00:33:35.840 Andrew Wright (South West London): What they were looking at specifically was team effectiveness, not strategic effectiveness.
320 00:33:36.500 --> 00:33:41.909 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I think. Yeah, and this… the research was done, I think, about…
321 00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:46.259 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I think it was about 2015 or something like that.
322 00:33:46.870 --> 00:33:57.029 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Well, certainly before COVID, but yeah. So these behaviors, these were repeated across team after team. If there was psychological safety, they were more creative.
323 00:33:57.220 --> 00:34:03.120 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: More connected, more trusting, more likely to take risks, but measured risks.
324 00:34:05.760 --> 00:34:09.560 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Anything else? Any other thoughts, questions, challenges?
325 00:34:09.820 --> 00:34:12.960 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: just an observation, Linda, that,
326 00:34:14.190 --> 00:34:29.020 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I used to start my career, or I started my career in the Royal Navy, and it was very noticeable that some ships or submarines were much more effective than others, and the ones that were happy ships, were because everybody felt part of a team.
327 00:34:29.150 --> 00:34:45.849 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And you… the more familial, if that's the right word, the atmosphere, then the more everybody worked together. And the more that they worked together, the much better they were at responding to an emergency. So, what you're saying is so far hitting all the right spots, as far as I'm concerned.
328 00:34:46.340 --> 00:34:50.810 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, there's some… Amanda?
329 00:34:51.219 --> 00:35:08.799 Amanda Davis: I'm so sorry that I… you probably said before I joined about not putting anything in the chat, so I did put something in the chat, which probably did disturb, but was just comparing with that part of my career that I spent in the classroom teaching.
330 00:35:09.149 --> 00:35:09.999 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And…
331 00:35:09.999 --> 00:35:12.389 Amanda Davis: First of all, that fear of being asked.
332 00:35:13.629 --> 00:35:17.199 Amanda Davis: Probably… you know, I'm seeing why this has come from.
333 00:35:17.339 --> 00:35:24.069 Amanda Davis: Because, you know, we've all been to school, that's the one thing that we've all had to do, if you like, in our upbringing.
334 00:35:24.359 --> 00:35:25.459 Amanda Davis: And,
335 00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:39.439 Amanda Davis: And also the fact that it's… it's… when I said essential classroom practice, what I meant by that was vital, or the core of classroom practice. I didn't mean the basics of
336 00:35:39.599 --> 00:35:47.339 Amanda Davis: teaching practice, because it's something that, you work on. You first of all think it's about controlling your class for class behaviour.
337 00:35:47.549 --> 00:35:59.019 Amanda Davis: But actually, it's about enabling your class, when you truly mature as a teacher, and getting your students so inspired that they'll get more from it, that they believe in it for themselves.
338 00:36:00.040 --> 00:36:06.290 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Yeah, absolutely, beautifully put. I didn't get a chance to read the message because I was talking, but yeah, beautifully put.
339 00:36:06.290 --> 00:36:17.839 Amanda Davis: I was referring to Alistair Smith, who, when I was learning, probably about 20 years ago, was the guru on accelerated learning. That's what he called it.
340 00:36:17.840 --> 00:36:19.620 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Oh, thank you, we'll look up, yeah.
341 00:36:19.620 --> 00:36:27.169 Amanda Davis: It's all about the brain connection. The more we understand about the brain and how it works, the better we can develop and learn and thrive.
342 00:36:27.490 --> 00:36:30.559 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
343 00:36:30.560 --> 00:36:31.200 Amanda Davis: Thank you.
344 00:36:31.200 --> 00:36:39.320 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So what we know is that, what we've found over the years is there is a neurobiological link to this, is if you feel psychologically safe.
345 00:36:39.320 --> 00:36:55.289 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: you are much able… much more likely to be tapping into… if you're feeling alarmed, for example, and bearing in mind that an idea is a very delicate thing, it can be killed by a frown on the wrong man's brow… on the right man's brow, is if you're feeling safe.
346 00:36:55.290 --> 00:37:04.649 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: then, or unsafe, your broker, R-O-C-A-S, broker's area, in your brain, responsible for language, will shut down.
347 00:37:05.060 --> 00:37:21.129 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: just shut down. You know what it's like when someone puts you at the classroom, teacher puts you on the spot and says, what do you think, Freddie? You go, your language, you can't find the words. It's because you're… you're being triggered in that area. We know that when you create safety, and you say, I'm going to give you attention, and I'm going to listen to what you say.
348 00:37:21.890 --> 00:37:31.270 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And of course, that can be… that can be learned. We used to be able to do it, and we've unlearned it, because of the pace of life.
349 00:37:31.580 --> 00:37:48.249 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, these are… these components, and there's so much in this, and I'm going to try and squeeze as much in as I can today in an easeful way. We know that, or I say we know, our observations over hundreds and hundreds of coaching sessions of
350 00:37:48.370 --> 00:37:55.329 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Meetings, of events and conferences, is that the quality of the attention is absolutely key.
351 00:37:56.010 --> 00:38:02.450 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: When we give attention, and when we receive attention, it changes the outcome into something much more positive.
352 00:38:02.980 --> 00:38:05.519 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So I'm going to go back to my slides.
353 00:38:07.560 --> 00:38:25.980 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, what would… so how do you make this come alive? When… we're going to talk about some of the components in a moment, but how do we make this come alive? Well, the thinking environment is this… we've… we've… it's the, the book was called Time to Think, but the… the process and those 10 components,
354 00:38:26.220 --> 00:38:28.909 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Which I will go back to shortly.
355 00:38:29.260 --> 00:38:43.349 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: enable us to actually build a thinking environment in pieces, and it doesn't mean that you have to do the whole thing. You can use little building blocks, as long as you apply the components within there, and I'll come back to what the components are. So these are…
356 00:38:43.870 --> 00:38:47.029 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Little things you can use in your meetings. Thinking pairs.
357 00:38:47.490 --> 00:38:54.229 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: You can invite people into pairs. Lots of people are not very comfortable in large groups, and so they shut down.
358 00:38:54.490 --> 00:39:10.240 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: They are either not confident in speaking, or they're just… it's just their preference, you know? Whereas we know that when you create safety, and you put people into pairs, generally they will think better together, and they'll be able to give each other better attention, so we use it in pairs.
359 00:39:11.020 --> 00:39:21.850 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So if you're in a meeting, and the meeting feels like it's stalling, and people just aren't… aren't coming to life, give them a lovely question, and send them into pairs, and ask them to have a think about it.
360 00:39:22.110 --> 00:39:29.070 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And then come back to the main group and share their thinking. And you'll find immediate acceleration in contribution.
361 00:39:30.130 --> 00:39:43.799 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Dialogue is a bit like a thinking pair. We're going to do a thinking pair in a moment, I'll come back to that. Rounds, starting and ending meetings with rounds, using rounds to harvest data, making sure that people know they've got a turn if they want one.
362 00:39:44.270 --> 00:39:51.339 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: But asking them to be succinct when they have a turn, because one of the components of a thinking environment is equality.
363 00:39:51.510 --> 00:39:55.390 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: If we feel equal as thinkers, even if there's a hierarchy.
364 00:39:55.600 --> 00:40:04.080 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: of pecking order status, income, job title, you name it. If we know that each person in the room is there for a reason.
365 00:40:04.390 --> 00:40:13.730 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: and they have an equal chance to contribute, that will change the energy. And one of the things I say to leaders when I work with them is,
366 00:40:14.150 --> 00:40:18.629 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: You need to work really hard not to be the first to always speaking around.
367 00:40:19.520 --> 00:40:24.539 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: You know, it's really helpful when a leader does not be the first.
368 00:40:25.710 --> 00:40:33.190 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And open discussion, which is a free-flowing discussion without the rigor of the round, but with a promise of no interruption.
369 00:40:34.300 --> 00:40:36.579 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, I'm going to invite you to do a thinking pair.
370 00:40:37.900 --> 00:40:44.340 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And this is 5 minutes each way. You've probably done all these kinds of things before in other groups, a listening exercise.
371 00:40:44.500 --> 00:40:51.040 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And it's not a conversation, it's where you each have a period of time to think about a question together.
372 00:40:51.480 --> 00:40:58.700 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And, the, the agreement we ask you to do is that the thinking partner, which is the one doing the listening.
373 00:40:59.060 --> 00:41:02.690 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: agrees to listen, Expectantly.
374 00:41:03.360 --> 00:41:05.300 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Promises not to interrupt.
375 00:41:05.770 --> 00:41:11.410 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And if you feel comfortable, to keep your eyes on the eyes of the person doing the thinking.
376 00:41:11.930 --> 00:41:13.490 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Not everyone will.
377 00:41:13.760 --> 00:41:19.400 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: But we certainly know that when you know you've got attention, provided it's with a good intention.
378 00:41:19.940 --> 00:41:39.120 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: and you know you've got that person's attention, we will think better. There is a massive… there's a biological reason for attention. It's because we are humans, we need attention to survive. If we were just left as babies after we've been born on our own to fend for ourselves in the jungle, we wouldn't last long.
379 00:41:39.310 --> 00:41:44.110 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, but attention is a biological mechanism that persists through life.
380 00:41:44.980 --> 00:41:49.259 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So there's two roles in a thinking pair. There's the thinking partner, the listener.
381 00:41:49.380 --> 00:41:56.360 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: also known as the listener. And your role is to listen with interest, Fascination.
382 00:41:56.800 --> 00:42:00.240 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: In what the person's saying, and what they might say next.
383 00:42:00.800 --> 00:42:07.120 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Because you don't know what they're going to say next, and they don't know either. And neither of you will know if you interrupt it.
384 00:42:08.300 --> 00:42:11.440 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And be aware that you can interrupt it with a frown.
385 00:42:11.830 --> 00:42:19.639 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Or a laugh, or a sneer, or a quick movement, or a look at your watch, any of those things, the brain will receive as a danger signal.
386 00:42:19.710 --> 00:42:32.479 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: this person isn't interested anymore, I'm talking rubbish about changing the subject, you know, that kind of thing goes on. So that's the invitation, and it's only 5 minutes. When I coach, I do this for an hour and a half, so it's a muscle that could be stretched.
387 00:42:33.600 --> 00:42:47.580 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: The thinker is invited to think, and they can think quietly or out loud. Most people think out loud when they're with someone else, and what we do is say to them, you can think about this, freely, knowing you won't be interrupted.
388 00:42:47.700 --> 00:42:50.490 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Because that's the deal, you're not going to be interrupted.
389 00:42:50.920 --> 00:42:56.210 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And the person's just going to listen, and give you their attention, and you can think about this.
390 00:42:56.630 --> 00:42:59.699 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And even if you go quiet when you're thinking.
391 00:43:00.060 --> 00:43:10.290 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Your thinking partner, your listener, is not going to nip in, make a comment, or make it and turn it into a conversation. It's purely a 5-minute fee, and it's going to be 5 minutes for them.
392 00:43:11.360 --> 00:43:16.479 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So this is the question to think about, is what happens to your thinking when you get interrupted in a conversation?
393 00:43:16.740 --> 00:43:18.760 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So we each have 5 minutes on that.
394 00:43:19.310 --> 00:43:21.240 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, Person A goes first.
395 00:43:22.440 --> 00:43:30.150 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And then person B goes. And in between, because we're short on time today, we don't have time for dialogue in between, but we'll come back and do a round.
396 00:43:30.390 --> 00:43:37.630 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, what happens to your thinking when you get interrupted in the conversation? Now, what can typically happen is one person starts talking and thinking.
397 00:43:38.490 --> 00:43:40.050 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And they dry up a bit.
398 00:43:40.620 --> 00:43:49.820 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: often, because we're not used to somebody just listening to us, and they go, oh, I don't know, I think that's all I want to say, then what you can do is just ask them, what more do you think?
399 00:43:50.900 --> 00:43:52.729 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: or feel I want to say.
400 00:43:53.430 --> 00:43:58.190 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Because it shows that you're still interested, and it's one of the components, it's encouragement.
401 00:43:58.510 --> 00:44:01.069 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And courage means to give courage to.
402 00:44:01.180 --> 00:44:03.270 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So you're going to give courage to their thinking.
403 00:44:04.650 --> 00:44:10.680 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And then you swap around. And then you end with an appreciation, which is another of the components.
404 00:44:10.860 --> 00:44:30.410 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: appreciation of a quality that you've observed in the other. Not what they've done, not, oh, I really like what you've said you're gonna do, I really like that. A quality, the kind of thing you might say when someone says, what's Fred like? You say, well, yeah, Fred's a guy, nice guy, if he's got a good sense of humor, Fred's this, Fred's that. So, not what they've done.
405 00:44:31.920 --> 00:44:38.730 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So then, and what we'll do is put a, put a, put a, let's say a 12-minute pair together.
406 00:44:38.900 --> 00:44:43.520 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: 11-minute pair, actually, because I have 5 each way. I'll let you know when to swap around.
407 00:44:44.570 --> 00:44:52.579 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And then I'll let you know when the second five is finished, and then you have a minute to give each other an appreciation of a quality you've observed in the other.
408 00:44:52.840 --> 00:44:55.709 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: When we come back, we're just going to reflect on what that was like.
409 00:44:57.110 --> 00:45:01.200 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: So, what happens to your thinking when you get interrupted in a conversation?
410 00:45:01.760 --> 00:45:03.769 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: And if they need a bit of help.
411 00:45:04.420 --> 00:45:12.159 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: They can usually ask for it and say, well, I've dried up, I'm stuck, I'm done. Just ask them, what more do you think, or feel, or want to say?
412 00:45:12.400 --> 00:45:16.020 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: We found… we've tested these questions over the years.
413 00:45:16.230 --> 00:45:19.400 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: What more do you think Ophelia want to say?
414 00:45:20.340 --> 00:45:23.090 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Does anybody not want to take part in a thinking pair?
415 00:45:27.960 --> 00:45:33.640 Amanda Davis: Linda, I'm happy to if the numbers work out, but I'm, I'm suffering quite a bit at the minute.
416 00:45:33.930 --> 00:45:34.620 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Okay, thanks.
417 00:45:34.620 --> 00:45:37.289 Amanda Davis: I'm happy to if it makes up the pairs, though.
418 00:45:37.500 --> 00:45:41.249 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Great, thank you. Let's have a look at the breakouts, so…
419 00:45:41.640 --> 00:45:45.180 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I haven't got… I haven't got breakouts, because I'm not host.
420 00:45:45.460 --> 00:45:48.840 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I wonder if you could make me host, co-host, please, Graham.
421 00:45:50.550 --> 00:45:51.370 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Excuse me.
422 00:46:02.710 --> 00:46:05.860 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Do you, do you need any guidance as to how to do that?
423 00:46:06.470 --> 00:46:07.100 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Oop.
424 00:46:10.760 --> 00:46:15.529 John Renshaw, Folkestone: I'm still not co-host, or am I there? We got a message, yeah, I don't think.
425 00:46:17.040 --> 00:46:19.390 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Yeah, I haven't, I haven't got co-hosted.
426 00:46:19.720 --> 00:46:21.829 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: You're showing as co-host on my screen.
427 00:46:22.220 --> 00:46:23.050 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Oh.
428 00:46:25.510 --> 00:46:32.990 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Yeah, why have I not got… I haven't got breakouts showing.
429 00:46:33.830 --> 00:46:36.449 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Graeme, are you able to set up breakouts?
430 00:46:37.020 --> 00:46:42.460 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Oh, I've got them more… no, I've just not got… I've got no breakout facility here today.
431 00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:44.580 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Hmm.
432 00:46:45.070 --> 00:46:49.109 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I thought they were built in to every copy of Zoom, but maybe not.
433 00:46:49.840 --> 00:46:50.710 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Not this one.
434 00:46:50.710 --> 00:46:51.380 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: one.
435 00:46:51.630 --> 00:46:55.080 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: No, where would I normally look for it? It's not something I've done before.
436 00:46:55.080 --> 00:46:57.280 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: along the bottom of the screen.
437 00:46:59.060 --> 00:47:06.770 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: It's not under hostels, it should be on its own, as, mmm.
438 00:47:07.870 --> 00:47:10.760 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: You can start a collaboration, is that… that's right?
439 00:47:10.760 --> 00:47:11.710 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: No.
440 00:47:14.270 --> 00:47:16.270 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: I've not come across this before.
441 00:47:16.810 --> 00:47:18.410 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Something new every day.
442 00:47:19.050 --> 00:47:20.610 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: In the land of the web.
443 00:47:22.020 --> 00:47:25.369 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Now, I've got transfer meeting to a room, but that's all.
444 00:47:26.890 --> 00:47:27.630 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Nope.
445 00:47:28.520 --> 00:47:30.750 Linda Aspey - North Cotswolds: Let's just stop the recording and pause…
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