About the session lead:

Manali Shah

Manali is a facilitator and change practitioner with experience across organizations such as BullzI Inc, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, VSO GIVE Network, and Sir Ratan Tata Trust. Her work focuses on enabling alignment and collaboration through purpose, values, vision, and stakeholder engagement. She is certified in Organizational Change Facilitation and has been trained in facilitation and strategic planning by organizations in India and Germany. Manali has been closely associated with U-CAN, contributing to building meaningful collaboration within the network.

About the session:

Based on Nancy Kline’s Thinking Environment, this session explored how creating specific conditions, freedom from interruption, equal participation, and deep attention, can lead to clear, independent, and generative thinking.

Participants reflected on ten behaviors that enable such environments and practiced tools like Thinking Pairs, Dialogue Pairs, and the Time to Think Council. The session helped participants apply these principles to everyday work structures: meetings, conversations, facilitation, and more, making them more inclusive, thoughtful, and productive.