Intervision
What is Intervision?
Intervision is case-based peer-coaching and reflection format for the professional setting.
Intervision could e.g. take place among agile colleagues, senior leadership peers or other folks from a reasonably shared professional field.
Supervision and Intervision
Some of you may already know the term supervision which is well-known in Germany but perhaps less so in North America; there is no clear definition but basically it is about one or more supervisors coaching and advising a team or an individual, with a clear mandate for doing so.
Intervision is also intended for reflecting on situations (=cases) from one’s own professional setting – but it takes place as a kind of coaching between peers. So there is no supervisor (with more knowledge/experience or giving advice) and no super-vised participants; just professional people inter-vising each other.
How does Intervision work?
Prerequisites for a successful intervision session
Confidentiality: everything said remains confidential among participants
(sometimes this is referred to as ‘the Las Vegas rule’, especially in Retrospective meetings)People & Roles: 3-5 participants per intervision group (one case provider and 2-4 observers)
Time: a 30-40 minute timebox
participants (usually) share no common/daily working context
(Meanwhile I write "usually", because since I learned about Intervision in 2016 I had lots of good experiences also with company-internal intervision.
So today in 2023 I say: it depends! It depends on your company culture and how it is lived e.g. is there basic trust among the participants? It also depends on the facilitator if they can set and hold the frame for a fruitful collaboration. And mostly it depends if the participants can commit (and trust) the confidentiality rule.)
Example intervision schedule
The case provider outlines the case. (duration: 7.5 minutes)
The observers each share one or two observations they made during step 1, observations referring:
either to the case itself
or to the case provider while he/she/they described the case (no assumptions in the past please!).
The case provider chooses one of the observations from step 2 and:
elaborates on this deeper
or shares everything that comes to his/her/their mind with regard to the chosen observation.
Repeat steps 2 and 3.
Short closing reflection within the whole group.
Closing remarks and tipps
For groups new to intervision, it is very helpful (I'd say: almost mandatory!) that there is a dedicated facilitator of this Intervision process.
The facilitator does NOT take place in the process but cares about:
clarity: the format is clear to everyone (at the start but also in-between when questions arise)
timing: the timings are followed
visualization: the outcomes are visualized (e.g. on a paper wall or a virtual whiteboard)
Further Resources
A bit of history: How I initially learned about Intervision
In October 2016 I was fortunate to be part of the Coach Reflection Day (CoRe Day) in Karlsruhe. It was a day filled with impressions, new ideas, shared experiences and great input.
CoRe days are usually one-day community organized events with a valuable mix of OpenSpace sessions and other peer-based formats like intervision, walk&talks or a community keynote. At CoRe Day Karlsruhe back then, David Schmithüsen and Michael Mahlberg from Cologne hosted an OpenSpace session where they presented the format for intervision they use and also shared the experiences they’ve had so far.
My take-aways from David and Michael's experiences were these:
Usually they “tackle” exactly 2 cases within one two-hour evening session with their agile fellows in Cologne. After the 1st case there is a short break for everyone.
It is important to notice that the 1st case is no longer open for discussion, neither during the break nor within the 2nd case’s session.
Another really important element is that all participants of one intervision group truly do not share a common working context.
Shortly after the CoRe Day 2016, I shared one of my most important impulses back then on my old blog in German. An English version followed just a bit later after Deborah Hartmann Preuss asked me for a translation and I felt truly proud to contribute a tiny part to the international endeavour of sharing the Intervision format.
Originally posted on my old blog on June 22, 2020.
You are looking for an Intervision facilitator for a group, a Team Coach or an individual mentor / coach for yourself?
Get in touch with me!