Open my inner team

Do you know the feeling? One part of you wants to risk the new venture, another warns against it, a third would like to call it a day. Friedemann Schulz von Thun described the model of the Inner Team for this (in “Miteinander reden 3”). His reading: this is not a sign of being torn, but the normal state. Our personality consists of several inner team members – the inner critic, the protector, the hedonist or the driver, for instance – each representing its own concerns, values and fears.

Problems do not arise because these voices exist. They arise when the voices go unheard and talk each other round, block one another or quietly take the helm. Work with the Inner Team starts exactly here: the parts are made visible as concrete team members, with a name, a figure and a voice. Who gets to speak today? What is the critic actually trying to achieve, and what is it trying to protect against? Which parts have long been passed over?

Something remarkable shows up regularly in the process: even apparently obstructive members turn out to be loyal helpers with a legitimate concern. Once they are heard, they become cooperative. The aim is an inner team leadership that listens, moderates and then decides – deliberately rather than torn back and forth.

How to work in the editor

Clarify the concern: on the right you enter the question or situation at stake.
Collect the voices: drag team members or suggestions from the left into the outline. Each member gets a pointed name and its core message as a first-person sentence – it appears in the speech bubble.
Set them up: who is loud, who is quiet? Influence can be set from 1 to 5. Who stands at the front, who at the edge? Who is not heard at all and stands outside, as an outsider? Who works with whom, who against whom? Connections are there for that.
Honour the concerns: what good is each member trying to achieve? This question is the heart of the method, and it has a field of its own.
Team conference: “+ phase” copies the picture. The team leadership lets every member speak, opponents listen to each other, outsiders are invited in. This creates a progression rather than a snapshot.
Integration: at the end you formulate a coherent message that takes account of the most important concerns. It can appear beneath the picture.

What else the editor can do

Handling: drag figures and speech bubbles, select several with Shift, zoom with the mouse wheel, duplicate with Ctrl+D, fine-tune with the arrow keys.
Saving as an *.inneres-team.json file with all phases – so you can continue the work in your next session.
Export to PDF, PowerPoint, LibreOffice Impress, Visio, SVG and PNG; the current phase is shown.
Print the record: it brings together the concern, all phases with their picture, the team members with message and concern, plus the outcome and next steps. That is the document you keep.

What it is good for

For decisions where weighing up factual arguments does not help, because the resistance is not factual. For inner conflicts and self-management. For preparing difficult conversations – once you know which of your voices wants to speak there. In coaching, in consulting and equally in self-coaching.

The tool combines well with other methods: inner team members can be set up on the systemic board, found through card work, or assigned to the positions of the tetralemma.

An important qualification

The model is Friedemann Schulz von Thun's; the implementation, suggestions and guiding questions in the editor are my own wording. In coaching, the Inner Team serves as a model for reflection and conversation, not as a diagnostic instrument. Coaching is not psychotherapy (§ 1 (3) of the German Psychotherapy Act) – where inner conflict or distress is severe, please seek professional help.

Your data stays with you

The editor is a single HTML file that runs entirely in your browser. It loads nothing from the internet and sends nothing. What you note about your inner voices is nobody's business but yours – and it stays on your device. In addition, the browser keeps an interim state so that nothing is lost if it crashes. The tool is free of charge and is free software under the GNU General Public License (GPL-3.0-or-later).

If you would rather not sort a question out alone, I am glad to accompany you in personal coaching or business coaching – get in touch for a free initial consultation.

My inner team