Inner Team

The Inner Team is a personality model created by Friedemann Schulz von Thun, who lives in Hamburg. The plurality of the human inner life or parts of the personality^[1] (Self) is presented using a metaphor of a team and a team leader. This is supposed to support the self-clarification process and by doing so set the foundation for a clear and authentic external communication. Human communication features an interpersonal and individual side.

Motivation

In the first two volumes of his seminal work Miteinander reden (engl. Talking to each other), Schulz von Thun deals with the topic of functioning communication. His work reveals that one of the most important requirements for clear communication is self-clarification. In 1998, Thun published Miteinander reden 3, which expands his theory of communication to the notion of the Inner Team. By introducing the model of the Inner Team, he wants to provide instructions for self-help.

The Inner Team is a modification of the Parts Party, a method from systemic family therapy, which was developed by Virginia Satir in the 1970s. Additionally, his model draws upon the interacting personality traits withing a human being that, amongst others, have been described by Margaret Paul and Erika J. Chopich.^[2]

The Inner Team Member

The Inner Team and its Team Members are a metaphor that has proven to be useful for self-clarification. Each member of the Inner Team thus represents one inner part or aspect of the whole personality. It is neither a pluralistic subpersonality in the sense of, in turn, multiple personalities, nor is it to be confused with emotions or behaviors. Visible behavior is the result of an inner process. Each Team Member only wants the best for the team manager. Behavior can therefore only rarely be permanently and inevitably associated with one single Team Member.

Team Members differ in various ways: they are loud or quiet, are slow or fast to join the conversation, are dominant with external contacts or only show inwards where they appear as thoughts, emotions, impulses, moods or bodily signals. Between the team members, there too are similar group dynamics to in the external life. In their entirety, they mirror the life experience of a human, including the opinion of parents, friends and significant others, or values of a society of which one feels part.

The Team Leader

The Team Leader, so described by Schulz von Thun, is the High Self, the cohesive entity, which either passively follows the dialogue of its team members or actively interferes, but which always has the last word with externally effective decisions in every case. Many aspects of actual team leadership can be transferred to the Inner Team Leader.

The Inner Team Meeting

If a human being has to make a difficult decision, it more or less consciously has Inner Team Meetings. In reality, mess, inconsistent statements (e.g. bad gut feeling vs. rational argument) and the dominance of the loud, fast, and popular Team Members often shape the consciously controlled Team Meetings. Still, the Team Leader is successful at precipitating a satisfactory decision in many cases, thanks to their practice. For especially difficult or unfamiliar decisions, this does not have to be the case anymore. That is when Schulz von Thun recommends a Team Meeting.

For this, to begin with, those Team Members who want to comment on the question have to be identified. Often, this works amazingly well, if one takes a little time to listen to what is going on inside oneself. Afterwards, each Team Member should have the right to bring forward their message without encountering criticism. A free discussion offers everyone the chance to really meet each other head-on. The Team Leader should pay great attention in order to be able to summarize the controversial questions and positions to it. Here, leadership qualities are especially important. The Team Leaders ought to remain neutral and should value all opinions. On the basis of this, one can think about a compromise, much like in real teams. Finally, the result can be summarized and the approval from all participants can be sought.

This approach has multiple advantages. Because one accepts one's own plurality, it is not necessary to neglect important wants in order to quickly produce an unanimous opinion. A more authentic result often leads to higher complacency. Ultimately, self-clarification helps to understand and cope with later discomfort regarding the question.

Further aspects of the Inner Team

The metaphor of the Inner Team can be utilized even more widely. In Miteinander reden 3, Schulz von Thun also introduces the following concepts:

• Inner conflict management
• non-acceptance of team members and its consequences
• Team building in inner and external contact
• situation-dependent team composition

See also

• Nonviolent Communication
• auxiliary ego
• Ego-state therapy
• Ego images after Eric Berne
• Four-sides model (differences in external communication)
• Autocommunication
• Dialogical self
• Voice Dialogue

Literature

• Friedemann Schulz von Thun: Miteinander reden 3 - Das 'innere Team' und situationsgerechte Kommunikation. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1998, ISBN 3499605457.
• Friedemann Schulz von Thun, Wibke Stegemann (Publisher): Das Innere Team in Aktion. Praktische Arbeit mit dem Modell. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2004, ISBN 3499616440.

External links

• 'Vom "zerstrittenen Haufen" zum "Inneren Team"' - Interview with Professor Schulz von Thun [1]

References