The inner team

The "inner team" intervention was developed by Friedemann Schulz von Thun. He assumes that every person hears several "inner team players or voices" which unconsciously influence that person's actions and repeatedly sabotage the achievement of goals. At the same time, he attributes a positive intention to each team player – an intention that needs to be explored.

In the first step, the coachee identifies the individual voices or team players and gives each of them a name. The coach supports the coachee in identifying their team players by asking appropriate questions. The coachee visualises their team on paper or on a flip chart. In doing so, the core messages of the individual team players are worked out and the head of the team is determined. The head of the team has the task of facilitating the session, giving every team member an equal chance to be heard and finding the right solution for the coachee.

Chairs are then set out for the individual team players, and the team conference begins. The coach leads the coachee to one chair at a time, and the coachee steps fully into the role of the respective team player by briefly introducing themselves and putting forward their opinion, impressions and views on the topic in question. This is done in turn with each team player. The coach notes the most important statements on a flip chart and supports the head of the team in finding a solution. The head of the team asks the individual team members what they would need from the other team members in order to reach a solution that is acceptable to everyone. As soon as a solution has been found that all team members accept, the conference ends.

In a further session a few days later, the coachee is asked once again whether the solution found is still viable or whether further inner voices have turned up as latecomers – in which case negotiations with them may have to be reopened. If all team members agree with the solution, there is a high probability that the coachee will actually put it into practice.

Source: Schulz von Thun, Friedemann (2006): Miteinander reden 3 – Das „Innere Team" und situationsgerechte Kommunikation (Talking with each other 3).