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.

• 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.)

1. The case provider outlines the case. (duration: 7.5 minutes)

2. 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!).

3. 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.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.

5. Short closing reflection within the whole group.

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)

• Kollegiale Beratung (German), especially in the Medical and Social Work fields

• Agile Intervision - described by Deborah Hartmann Preuss