Shared Thinking

Definition

Shared thinking is the practice of deliberately including others' minds in problem-solving and idea development. Rather than leaders arriving with finished thoughts, shared thinking uses strategic questions to pull others into the thinking process, improving ideas and building buy-in simultaneously.

In the Book

In Chapter 1, Maxwell introduces the idea that "any idea gets better when the right people get a chance to add to it and improve it." He cites Thomas Edison's observation: "The ideas I use are mostly the ideas of people who don't develop them," illustrating how leaders can harvest the best ideas from their networks.

Maxwell describes his monthly "learning lunches" where he prepares specific questions and asks people what they are learning, what lessons have shaped them, and what experiences he should consider. He emphasizes selecting the right people for this "table"—those who understand the value of questions, desire others' success, aren't threatened by strengths, and bring out the best thinking around them.

In Chapter 3, when Maxwell asks his team "What do you think?" he does so to gather information, confirm intuition, assess judgment, teach people how he thinks, and process decisions collectively. Mark Cole observed that this question does more for his leadership development than anything else. The key: Maxwell doesn't just ask—he explains why he asked, teaching people his thinking process in real time.

Why It Matters

Shared thinking transforms the leader's role from solver to catalyst. It surfaces blind spots that isolated thinking misses, accelerates learning because multiple perspectives compress what would take one person years to discover, and creates ownership because people invested in building an idea naturally commit to executing it. This mechanism works across domains: startup strategy, medical diagnosis, organizational transformation, creative projects—anywhere complexity and multiple perspectives improve outcomes.