Founded 1998 in Zofingen, Switzerland
The institute behind ReflectIQ.
ReflectIQ takes many people through structured reflection at the same time and shows where their views diverge. The institute develops the platform, sets the standard for facilitators and grants the rights to work with it.
Develop
The platform and its reflection formats. New formats come out of joint projects.
Set the standard
Curriculum and criteria for ReflectIQ facilitators. Training providers teach to them.
License
Licences for organisations and facilitators, rights for partners.
What ReflectIQ is for
The problem
In times of change, the people involved see the same situation differently without knowing it of one another. Decisions are made, reopened, or never turn into action. Interviews and workshops bring this to light, but only in small circles.
What ReflectIQ does
The platform takes many people through structured reflection online at the same time, with ratings and their own reasoning. It shows where views diverge, broken down by team or function. The facilitator sees what was written, not who wrote it.
What stays with people
The platform asks the questions. Interpreting the results, releasing them to the team and deciding the next step stay with the facilitator.
The path in four stages
A facilitator takes an initiative through four stages and chooses the right reflection formats for each. The method is set out in the book «Klarheit entsteht im Handeln» (Clarity emerges in action, in German).
Stage 1
Reflection for Diagnosis
Making differing views visible.
Perspective Shift · Potential Analysis · Confidence Analysis · Viewpoint Check
Stage 2
Alignment on Polarities
How each person experiences a tension, and the shared picture of the group.
Polarity Check with Polarity Mirror
Stage 3
Agreeing the Modus Operandi
A facilitated session in which the team agrees on new behaviour.
With the facilitator
Stage 4
Reflection for Anchoring
Learning from lived behaviour, in recurring rounds.
Reflection for Anchoring
ReflectIQ is more than a path in four stages
With the existing formats
Certified facilitators
Change over time
Repeat the same format at intervals and see how the situation shifts. During the decommissioning of the Mühleberg nuclear power plant, the confidence index rose from minus 2 to plus 47 per cent over two years.
With formats of their own
After the further training in format development
Facilitators with further training develop formats of their own for their business ideas, together with the institute. How new formats come about →
Try it
Decision Fog Quick Diagnosis
A format by Hermann Ladner, developed together with the institute. A leader checks a situation of their own for decision fog. No facilitator needed, 10 to 15 minutes.
For organisations
You always work with ReflectIQ through certified facilitators. There are four ways to obtain the platform.
The first initiative through the facilitator
The facilitator brings the platform with their subscription. This covers one initiative per organisation, for six months at most.
Purchase order for one initiative
The sponsor orders the platform from the institute through your purchasing. It covers that initiative.
Client licence
Your organisation licenses the platform for a fixed term. It covers every initiative that certified facilitators run with you.
Facilitators of your own
You have your own people trained. With a client licence, you then use ReflectIQ yourselves.
Ask us to suggest a facilitator
Describe your situation briefly. The institute will suggest a certified facilitator who fits your industry, language and region.
Facilitator training
The training leads to certification in three levels. Certification is per format; learning happens in supervision on your own cases.
Where the path begins
The path begins with an awareness training. The institute advertises it openly or runs it within an organisation; organisations with certified facilitators of their own also run it themselves. Participants receive a confirmation, wherever the training took place.
This confirmation is the requirement for enrolling in the foundation training. The reason is methodical: the foundation training explains what was experienced in the awareness training. Without the experience, the explanation refers to something you have not met.
Comparable experience can be recognised. The institute decides case by case; the recognition takes the place of the confirmation.
If you would like to see first how decision fog shows in your own situation, start with the quick diagnosis. It takes ten to fifteen minutes and needs no preparation.
Ask about an awareness training →Start the quick diagnosis →
Awareness training in your organisation
The institute combines the awareness training with a leadership event or a network meeting in your organisation. Once your own people are certified, they run it themselves. No client licence is needed for this.
Ask about an in-house training →Level 1
Awareness training
Recognising decision fog in your own organisation.
Level 2
Foundation training
The method, based on the book, without the platform. With a final exam and the badge «Methodological foundations». It does not yet entitle you to run a format on your own.
Level 3
Format training
The individual reflection formats, in the system. Certification per format; once certified, you run the format on your own.
Then: further training in format development, for a business idea of your own on ReflectIQ, like the Decision Fog Quick Diagnosis. How new formats come about →
Next programme in Switzerland: starts in December 2026, run by the Life Institute.
Request training information →
Training for a target group
From the building blocks of the awareness and foundation training, the institute puts together trainings for a specific role or industry and the situations in which it gets stuck.
One example is the programme for mayors on leadership amid new majorities and expectations.
A target-group training does not lead to certification. It shows how decision fog can be recognised in your own field and what helps. It is run by a certified facilitator.
For associations, professional bodies and education providers: the institute puts together a training for your members.
Ask about a training →Become a partner
ReflectIQ grows through partners who take responsibility for a market, for training or for delivery, or who have access to a professional group.
Country partner
For organisations taking responsibility for ReflectIQ in a country or language region: sales, a network of facilitators, licences.
Arrange a conversation →Training provider
For education providers who run the facilitator training to the institute’s standard.
Ask about accreditation →Delivery partner
For consultancies with many certified facilitators who run initiatives and build up supervision in-house.
Arrange a conversation →Association
For associations, professional bodies and professional organisations with access to a professional group.
The collaboration starts with a training for your members, put together from existing building blocks and tailored to the situations in which your members get stuck. It needs no development and no rights agreement.
If your field turns out to have tensions of its own that no existing reflection format captures, the institute develops one together with you. It stays with you for as long as you want.
Running it requires a certified facilitator. You can have your own people trained or obtain facilitation through the institute.
Arrange a conversation →Developing new formats
New reflection formats come about in three ways.
An organisation brings a question. The institute develops a format from it that is available to every certified facilitator. The organisation works on its own question with the institute and is the first to use the result.
Facilitators with the further training in format development turn a business idea of their own into a format. Method and template stay with the institute, the subject matter with the person who developed the format. Both decide together whether and when the format joins the general catalogue.
An association develops a format for its field. It stays with the association for as long as it wants.
A badge exists once others are trained on the format. It states who may run a format on their own. As long as that is only the person who developed it, there is nothing to certify.
The institute settles the rights in writing before development begins.
In addition, the institute is looking for pilot organisations for formats in development.
Currently: Reflective Learning, for learning and development teams and training providers who want their training to have more effect.
Apply as a pilot organisation →The institute
Life Institut AG was founded in 1998 by Hermann Ladner in Zofingen, Switzerland, and holds all rights to ReflectIQ.
The institute assures quality through supervision: anyone running a format they are not yet certified for works under supervision. The institute reviews ongoing initiatives by sampling.
For school-leaving, bachelor and master theses, the institute makes ReflectIQ available on request.
Working with leadership teams since 1998, among others at
Contact the institute
We reply personally, usually within two working days.