Frequently asked questions

A method of eight steps. A team first gets the real issue sharp, solves it down to the core, and learns, shares, and improves in the action. Picture-forming and opinion-forming complete the picture, judgment-forming and decision-making lead to the solution, action and Team Pitstop make it keep working.

An issue is anything a team wants to discuss: a concern, an opportunity, a challenge, or a problem. A problem is a difference between what is and what the team wants. Both concern something the team can influence.

No. Consensus asks that everyone agrees with something. Consent is the lower bound: nobody has a serious, argued objection. An objection is tested: does it touch the shared goal, or is it a preference? Agreement is never inferred from silence.

The document in which a team records what is going on, what has been decided, and why: key points, action list, and discussion record. Continuously updated after every session, instead of a separate report per session.

No, not at the moment of the crisis itself. Issue-Focused Working is not built for action under acute time pressure. It is built for the Team Pitstop that follows.

Not with a team that still has to get used to the method; you then risk the durability of the change. The manager should be part of the team process, not its facilitator. Only when both team and manager are experienced can the manager take over that role.

Yes. The method is identical on paper and digitally: the same eight steps, with or without AI. Metis is not a separate method but a consequence of it.

In Action Learning the problem is the given and the cycle stops at the first action; in Issue-Focused Working the team is the given and the process continues, round after round. From process consultation (Schein) the method takes the stance: the facilitator helps the team see its own problem; the knowledge stays with the team. From sociocracy it borrows only the consent principle, not the circle structure. More on the method page; appendix C of the book lists seventeen adjacent methods.

The method is not tied to a sector or size. Three team characteristics decide whether it takes: four to six people around an issue, interdependence in the work, and a shared task. Does this fit our team?

Yes. The method was developed in Dutch long-term care, but the steps are the same in every sector and country. The book, the training program, the tools, and Metis are available in English. Facilitation in English runs through a partner who works in English; the developer of the method does.

Check-in and the Current Shared Picture from last time, then the issue team works on the step it is in, every step is closed out with consent, and the session ends with updating the Current Shared Picture and a check-out. What a session looks like.

A team that is just starting often takes a full day for an issue, spread over one or more sessions; an experienced team does it in an hour. After that a Team Pitstop every three to four weeks. The number of sessions is in the proposal after the exploratory conversation; count on months before a team holds on to it independently.

You take part as a team member, not as facilitator and not as assessor. You read in the key points of the Current Shared Picture where the team stands and why, without a separate report. Only when both team and manager are experienced can you take over the facilitation.

Metis recognizes the step, guards the order, asks for consent, and keeps the Current Shared Picture. The team contributes, forms picture, opinion, and judgment, takes the decision, and carries it out. The division in a table.

An exploratory conversation of forty-five minutes with a partner. You then receive a proposal with a timeline and the investment. Request an exploratory conversation.

All three, and they belong together. The Team Pulse is step 1 of the method: everyone first writes down for themselves what is going on. The Team Pulse worksheet is the sheet you use to do that step on paper. Metis Team Pulse is the Metis role that facilitates the same step digitally.

The worksheet of step 4, opinion-forming, four questions named after their Dutch initials: current situation, problem, ideal situation, goal. Each team member fills it in alone first and then shares it.

The drawing from step 3 that shows how the complaint, the driver (the real problem), and the bottleneck (the constraining factor) are connected.

Jointly establishing that a step is done before the next begins, tested by consent: everyone is asked “can you move on with this?”

Four ways to get behavior moving when an action keeps slipping: ease, resistance, norms, and motivation. Book, chapter 14.

Three levels of learning: adjusting what you do within the rules (single-loop), examining the rules themselves (double-loop), and shifting the yardstick by which you decide what is good (triple-loop). Book, chapter 13.

Metis Team is the team’s shared digital environment. The Team Pitstop is step 8: looking back every three to four weeks. The Team Scan is one of the four measurement instruments: the same seven safety statements as the team safety measurement, with the sharpness questions alongside, as baseline, interim, and effect measurement across the program, through the trainer-coach and always at team level.

They are the names of the method and its model, from the Dutch original. VGW stands for Vraagstukgericht Werken, Issue-Focused Working. BMOB is the funnel of picture-forming, opinion-forming, judgment-forming, and decision-making. HPID are the four questions of the step 4 worksheet. The Current Shared Picture is a document, not a name, so in English it is called the CSP.

No. Metis is a process guardian, not an answer machine. It guards the steps, asks follow-up questions, keeps the memory, and facilitates the learning process. It never determines the content. What exactly it can do today changes faster than a book; the current description is on the Metis page.

Never. Metis takes no substantive decision on behalf of a team, judges no teams or team members, never sees a similarity between teams as proof of a cause, and does not infer agreement from silence. Those limits are built in.

Yes. Metis works in English and in Dutch; a team chooses its language and Metis follows.

The Metis subscription has the same monthly fee with every partner. For coaching and training, every partner sets their own fee.

Through a certified partner of Vraagstuk Studio, with a Metis subscription. Metis cannot be bought separately.

No. Metis works in a text field in your browser; you type, or you use a voice-to-text tool to speak your contribution. No installation, no code.

In a separate, shielded environment per organization. Only the end client has access to its own data; neither Vraagstuk Studio nor the partner does. Processing in line with the GDPR and a NEN 7510-compliant process (the Dutch standard for information security in healthcare), on servers in Europe, in principle in the Netherlands.

No. The program is open to everyone. The partnership is a separate step, relevant only if you want to work independently with Metis and under the name Vraagstuk Studio for your own clients.

Yes. Book, workbook, and the eight reflection tools are for everyone, and the program is open to everyone. Only Metis and the partnership go through a certified trainer-coach.

Yes, in-house by arrangement. An English-speaking open-enrollment group starts as soon as there are enough participants; enroll to be kept informed.

Yes, all eight. You leave your name, e-mail address, and phone number to receive your result.

Free, via the page Tools and downloads: fill in your name, e-mail address, and phone number and you can download them right away.

You can explore and fill them in yourself at Tools and downloads; you receive the result by e-mail. Interpretation and follow-up in a program belong to the trainer-coach: a certified partner uses them for baseline, interim, and effect measurement, always at team level.