• The consultation takes place on a collegial level and at eye level
• All participants receive impulses and ideas for their own context
• The personal exchange promotes the development and expansion of the professional network
• Simple, cost-effective and practice-oriented method for consulting and further education

• The necessary expertise should be available within the group to deal with the questions and problems.
• If several participants in the group are personally affected by the problem, it is helpful to involve an external moderator or coach.
• Not suitable for private and personal problems and for topics that are taboo in the group

• Trust is the most important basis for collegial consulting. The group members respect each other’s attitudes and behavior, and communication is appreciative. This promotes the willingness to contribute thoughts that the participants would not otherwise express in their everyday professional lives.
• All participants agree on confidentiality. Everything that happens within the collegial consultation is not passed on to third parties.
• The participants must not be burdened by conflicts and conflicting interests.

• Necessary competences and experience for the question
• A question or problem from the professional everyday life
• A moderator who knows the process and can carry it out

The method was developed from various forms of collegial exchange, such as the Balint groups among physicians. In the 1970s, collegial counseling was increasingly used with teachers. In the 1980s, a simple counseling structure was developed for this purpose, allowing the group to consult on cases without the help of a psychologist. From this, various forms of Collegial Consulting emerged, which have become known as “Reflecting Team”, “Collegial Consulting and Supervision”, “Interversion”, “Collegial Supervision”, “Collegial Team Coaching”, “Cooperative Consulting” or “Leadership Group Coaching”. For a detailed description of collegial consulting, see Tietz, Kim-Oliver: Kollegiale Beratung, Problemlösungen gemeinsam entwickeln, Rowohlt, 2003.