The Enneagram in Business

8/14/2019 The Enneagram in Business

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On the Job With the Enneagram

Tom CondonThere is an old story about a man who finds a bottle on a beach. He uncorks it and out

comes a genie who offers the man a choice between a colossal amount of money or infinite

wisdom. The man thinks hard for a few minutes and then chooses infinite wisdom. Days laterseveral friends of the man see him sitting on a park bench shaking his head and talking to

himself. Knowing he now has infinite wisdom they move in closer to hear what he is saying.

Over and over they hear him repeat: I should have taken the money, I should have taken the

money.

Integrating the wise with the profitable is the chief reason for learning about the

Enneagram and introducing it into the culture of your business or organization. Although the

name sounds exotic the Enneagram is something very practical a psychological system that

describes nine basic personality styles and their very different ways of seeing the world. The

Enneagram is about people how we are the same, how we are different, what makes us tick.

It describes personality styles in a penetrating way, detailing the inner workings, thought

patterns and basic beliefs of each one. No style is presented as better than another, and each

has a range of healthy and unhealthy potentials special strengths, talents and advantages as

well as limits, pitfalls and blind spots.

Like the people it portrays, the Enneagram is complex, subtle and dynamic. The system

pinpoints our unconscious worldview and self-image, our inner motivation and habits of

processing information. Newcomers to the Enneagram often recognize themselves and their

friends with a clarity that amazes them, while those who use the system over time are struck by

how endlessly revealing it is. The Enneagram will help you understand current and past

relationships and make it easier to avoid conflicts at work and at home. It will also clarify a

lifetime of intuitions and lessons youve learned about human nature and explain why you work

well with some people and have trouble with others.Learning about your own personality style will help you better define your own strengths

and weaknesses, both on the job and at home. It gives you a powerful tool to assess how your

unconscious assumptions and reactions contribute to or impede your continuing success.

Learning about your own personality style will also help you loosen rigid stances, shed old

defenses and free you to react to new challenges in new ways.

On the Job

In businesses and organizations the Enneagrams insights have dozens of positive uses

from understanding relationships to improving communication to handling difficult people.

Learning to recognize the influence of personality styles in your workplace will help you resolve

conflicts, reduce office politics and manage people well. It is especially useful in teamwork,where group members can learn to non-defensively appreciate each others differences and

take responsibility for their individual blocks and limitations.

Within an organization, some personalities are driven by power and control while others

are reform-minded. Some are like missionaries for their own cause, trying to force their

standards on others within the company. Others are followers or idea people or strong at sales

or focused on procedure. When you know someones personality style, you can accurately

predict how they will act and interact with other styles. More important, you will understand why


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they do what they do, their unconscious motivation and probable concerns. You may discover

that someones behavior that you always took personally never was personal; they were just

acting blindly out of the premises of their world view.

Who Uses the Enneagram

Businesses and organizations who successfully employ the Enneagram generally haveseveral things in common:

* They are seeking to change or want to better integrate the ability to change into their

company culture. This can be prompted by new market pressures, a need to internally

reorganize, to correct an old ineffective way of functioning or for leadership, team and staff

development.

* Someone progressive and influential usually the head of the company or a department

has already been exposed to the Enneagram and sees the systems potential value to their

employees and coworkers.

* Management is willing to go first, to lead by example by revealing their Enneagram styles

and possibly exposing their struggles and issues. This is not always easy to do, especially in

large corporate settings, but it is essential. Otherwise the system can seem like an intrusivetool imposed from above.

* The company or organization is people and service oriented. They could manufacture

chemicals or widgets but still have an ongoing clientele whom they must please and satisfy.

The Enneagram helps them communicate better and more accurately define and respond to a

customers precise needs and criteria.

* The organization may want to pass along the benefits of a system like the Enneagram to

their long time customers or distributors who in turn use it with their organization or sales

force.

* The organization is not service oriented in that they dont work with customers directly but

still want a framework of self understanding to get along well with each other.

* The company culture equates self-knowledge with professionalism in the sense that

being professional means putting your ego aside and getting out of your own way.

* Believing that positive personal change has positive professional impact, the companys

policy is to invest in its people. Giving employees tools to improve their overall quality of life is

tied to heir developing a self-responsible sense of leadership on the job. Often there is an

entrepreneurial element in the company culture and standing opportunities for promotion and

job migration.

Applications

Over the years Ive had the occasion to consult, coach and train for a variety of businesses,

from software companies to banks to manufacturers. Along with the Enneagram I employmethods from various disciplines related to promoting organizational and individual change.

While every job is a custom job depending on the character of the organization and its needs

at a point in time there are many ways to apply the Enneagrams insights. Some brief

examples there are many others:

Team Building. On its own the Enneagram is a poor hiring tool. There are too many other

variables in evaluating a prospective employee relevant experience, specialized training, who

the person is, how they relate to others, their degree of emotional intelligence and social skills.


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With established employees, however, the Enneagram is a big help in understanding group

dynamics and creating teams for problem solving and developing new projects. It is very good

for assessing strengths sometimes evoking latent ones and matching people with jobs that

take advantage of their natural abilities. Although there are plenty of exceptions, certain

personality styles are often simply better at certain tasks.

Take Brainstorming, the group creativity technique designed to generate ideas for solving aproblem. It generally has four steps: researching and defining the problem, coming up with the

ideas, critically rejecting most of the ideas and then implementing the few remaining good ones.

These four steps match closely with Enneagram styles Five, Seven, One and Three (see

descriptions below). Assigning people with those styles to take charge of those steps generally

makes the technique more effective and powerful.

After employing the Enneagram to choose team members or assign roles you can also use

it to keep the team focused on its goal as well as resolve disputes and overcome inhibitors.

Among other things, the Enneagram helps team members speak the same language and stay

mindful of each members unique contribution.

Decoding Behavior. Someones outer behavior is obviously motivated by their inner

beliefs and imperatives, and this is particularly evident when that behavior is dysfunctional orprovokes conflict in the workplace. Understanding the Enneagram gives you a secret decoder of

the motives behind peoples behavior; it functions sort of like a pocket translator. When style

number Eight acts aggressive it probably means they unconsciously feel vulnerable. When style

One becomes judgmental they are often secretly attracted to what they are judging. When style

Three becomes competitive and rivalrous they are almost certainly worried about their self worth

and are trying to conceal their insecurities. Understanding the Enneagram helps you listen with

a third ear and speak to the concerns behind someones difficult behavior.

Coaching. I call coaching therapy without jargon or tears. In a business context the

purpose of coaching is generally tied to someones work-related goals. Often there are inherent

limits on how overtly psychological a coach can be. Instead of probing someones childhood

for an understanding of their present day patterns of reaction a valid, logical approach for

most psychotherapists a business coach is comparatively indirect, focused on changing

behavior and producing tangible results.

The root of most problem behavior, however, is usually buried in a clients emotional history,

related to old defenses that once were necessary and now produce difficulties. The Enneagram

provides coaches and their clients with a non-threatening framework for delving deeper without

requiring that the client has psychological self-knowledge or prior experience with therapy. It

essentially says: You are not your behavior. You have a pattern just like everyone else. It is

normal to have themes and challenges in your life. Some of them do indeed come out of

childhood and can be altered if need be. Used gently, the Enneagram can make self-

exploration safer and offers a way to be honest without making clients feel defensive.Personal Change. Even without personal coaching, learning about the Enneagram at work

invariably has a positive spillover effect into peoples personal lives. Some of the nicest

moments for me as a consultant have come when someone says, with real feeling, that learning

the Enneagram has improved their marriage or their relationship with their children or changed

their life in other meaningful ways. They got more than they expected; something they were

required to learn at work had great side benefits at home, improving their quality of life in major

ways. And, of course, this invariably results in a happier professional life.


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Business Profiling. Learning the Enneagram will also help you identify the personality

style of the organization you own or work for. Organizations, like people, develop basic beliefs

and values both conscious and unconscious that support its collective worldview and drive

its behavior. In most organizations a specific personality style will unconsciously predominate;

usually it is the personality style of the founder or owner. Marc Andreessen, founder of

Netscape, captured this idea when he wrote: Companies are like organisms. Its as if you tooka DNA sample from the chief executive and blew it up to monstrous size. The founder and the

company all share the same strengths and the same weaknesses.

At times, Ive used the Enneagram to create a psychological profile of a business to

determine how well it interacts with its customers and performs the functional imperatives of

doing business. Understanding the Enneagram style of your organization will help you identify

the assumptions and procedures that everyone takes for granted and either support or sabotage

the organizations success.

I have occasionally been stunned by how directly a companys problems mirror the

unhealthy expression of its owners Enneagram style. To get the business on a corrective

course I approach organizational change in the same way I would work with an individual, using

the interventions and methods for change that work best for that particular style.Training and Support Materials. The Enneagram is easy to learn but takes time to

master. It has often been helpful to develop support materials as part of a coaching-training

package so that people can absorb the information over time at their own pace. I have existing

books plus audio and video products that I can drop into the mix but many times businesses

have requested additional material that specifically applies the Enneagrams insights to their

unique personnel and clientele.

Ive found that a customized manual is a great way to both address this need and engage

all parties concerned. The format of the manual includes lengthy descriptions of each

Enneagram style, combined with information gleaned from an onsite assessment of the

business and interviews with executives, managers and employees. The manual is then

circulated and additional feedback from all involved parties is incorporated into the finished

product. The result is an in-house reference guide to using the Enneagram on the job dense

with information, reminders and recommendations that employees can reach for when they

need to.

Other possibilities: In a company with a large, experienced sales staff we collected the best

sales peoples stories the metaphors and anecdotes they used to make points when talking to

customers. We then created a cross referenced library of stories grouped according to their

relevance and appeal to different Enneagram styles as part of an effort to create training

materials for future trainees.

When the budget has permitted I have also worked with businesses to help make

instructional videos using the Enneagram. For example, we filmed panels of people with thesame Enneagram style, speaking to various facets of the business and describing how their

style influences their performance.

Bad News and Good News

When people first identify their personality style it can be a shock. For starters, it means

that the way we see reality isnt reality and that our most cherished assumptions about the world

are relative. Some of our more deeply held beliefs may be more like neurotic defenses than true


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ideals. The Enneagram names our illusions and shows us our personal foibles in unflattering

detail. In addition, the system implies that our personal limitations are entirely our own creation,

that we engineer our difficulties and get in our own way.

After the shock comes the good news: you dont have to take your own behavior so

personally. Character flaws that seem ingrained are shared by many other people and have an

understandable internal logic and subjective purpose. Since your limitations are your owncreation then you have more power than you realize; on some level you are making choices and

can learn to make new ones. You also have an array of abilities and aptitudes that are natural to

your Enneagram style. Even the limitations of your style suggest ways to work with it, marking

out an obvious path to growth, self-development and greater emotional intelligence. In this way

the system functions like a treasure map, offering many clues about where to find your gold.

And as a guide to understanding human behavior and motivation the Enneagram simply has no

peer.

The Enneagrams Nine StylesBelow is a short sketch of the Enneagrams nine personality styles. If you are new to the

system bear in mind that this is very provisional and basic. More detailed descriptions are

available on the download page of my website (http://www.thechangeworks.com/ordering/

maillist.html). There are also many resources in Danish that can be found through http://

butik.indsigtforlag.dk/ and http://www.enneagramforeningen.dk/

Ones

Variously called Reformers, Crusaders, Perfectionists or Judges. People who compare

reality with what should be and generally have a set of standards by which they evaluate

themselves, the behavior of others, and the world around them.Healthy Ones specialize in accurate moral perception and objective evaluation. They can

be ethically discerning, dispassionate and fair. They are often hard-working and morally heroic,

willing to sacrifice a great deal for principle.

When less healthy, Ones may be repressive, critical and perfectionistic. They practice

dualistic thinking and reduce complex situations down into black and white choices. Ones

attempt to be good which leads to rigid behavior, obsessive worry and internal fighting with

their bad desires. When insecure or feeling criticized, a Ones defensive reaction is to start

judging. They dont accept reality as it is and dont think you should either. Very unhealthy Ones

can be intolerant and hypocritical.

Twos

Variously called Helpers, Givers, Pleasers or Caretakers. People who see the world

interpersonally and define themselves through service to others. Twos are most apt to conceive

of life as a fundamental give and take between people.

Twos have a well-developed capacity to emotionally identify with the needs of others. When

healthy, they do this willingly, as an act of compassion. The high side of this style is expressed

through authentic, selfless concern, exceptional ministerial skills and the capacity to truly give.
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When less healthy, Twos begin to repress their own true needs and form codependent

bonds with others. Flattery, manipulation and seduction may be used by a Two in the service of

getting others to respond to and define them. The compulsive need to give grows stronger and

is laced with selfish hostility. Unhealthy Twos can pridefully exaggerate their importance to

others and be deeply deluded about their own motives.

Threes

Variously called Performers, Achievers, Motivators or Administrators. People who measure

themselves by external achievement and the roles that they play. Threes identify with images of

success and productivity, often expecting to be loved for what they do rather than who they are.

When healthy, Threes are often highly accomplished and practice a credo of excellence

and professionalism in whatever they do. They learn fast, make good leaders, and do well in

high profile, socially established occupations where performance is measured by results.

Healthy Threes are organized, flexible and industrious and can be skilled teachers and role

models.

When less healthy, Threes become overidentified with their social roles and masks,

measuring their inner worth solely by their external achievements. They may think ofthemselves as high-performance machines whose purpose is to speed from task to task,

securing outcomes before dashing on to new finish lines. Unhealthy Threes can slip into

impersonations of success, and, to that end, be manipulative, heartless and deceitful.

Fours

Variously called Artists, Tragic Romantics, Creators or Individualists. People who live

principally in their feelings, moods and emotional imaginations.

Healthy Fours tend to be idealistic, have good taste and are great appreciators of beauty.

They filter reality through a rich, subtle subjectivity and often have a highly original point of view.

Creative expression and the pursuit of self-knowledge are strong priorities. Healthy people with

this style excel at articulating subjective experience, and can be eloquent advocates for the

value of inner life. They make fine artists, novelists, psychotherapists and teachers in this

regard.

When less healthy, Fours defensively turn inward, using their imaginations to romanticize

other times and places. They can become whiny and critical, full of lament and nostalgia, finding

fault with the world while doing nothing to change it. Their true originality turns into a neurotic

pseudo-uniqueness. Unhealthy Fours can also be competitive, moody, hypersensitive, self-

critical and morbid.

Fives

Variously called Observers, Thinkers, Watchers or Experts. People who pull back from theworld and live in their minds, in contrast to Fours, who live in their emotional imaginations.

Healthy Fives often have a well-developed ability to analyze and synthesize knowledge.

They may be perceptive, wise and objective, displaying an ability to stay centered and logical

when others around them are losing their heads. This style is frequently associated with

knowledgeable competence and, sometimes, genius. They can be sympathetic listeners, able to

view events from a distant perspective so as to avoid getting personally upset.


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When less healthy, Fives can slide from nonattachment into disassociation, the inner state

of being cut off from feeling. They may defensively withdraw and hoard what little they have in

order to need less from others. Fives can hoard time, money, space, land, information, or

emotional availability. When very unhealthy they can be pointedly antisocial, internally empty,

unpredictably aggressive and phobic.

Sixes

Variously called Loyalists, Devils Advocates, Questioners or Doubters. People who are

especially aware of lifes dangers and the hazards that may lurk beneath everyday

appearances. Six is the most explicitly fearful style in the Enneagram.

There are two kinds of Sixes: phobic and counterphobic. Their reactions to being fearful are

so different that outwardly they seem like separate Enneagram styles. Phobic Sixes can be

charming, modest and meek whereas counterphobic Sixes may appear tough, challenging and

aggressive.

Healthy phobic Sixes are usually committed to a group, tradition or cause beyond

themselves. They fulfill their promises, work hard, and are honorable, protective friends. They

are often very funny and have vivid imaginations. Healthy counterphobic Sixes can be physicallyadventurous, highly skilled and have a real gusto for living. If they participate in a tradition, they

typically play the role of constructive gadflies, serving the tradition by stirring it up.

When less healthy, phobic Sixes can become more blindly dutiful even as they assume less

personal responsibility. They might subtly shift their power onto an outside authority and then

start to chronically worry and feel helpless. They can tyrannize with their weakness by placing

strict limits on what they will risk or try. When deeply unhealthy they can be cowardly, petty,

paranoid, intolerant and dogmatic.

Unhealthy counterphobic Sixes often have an edgy, restless quality and tend to hide their

insecurities behind cool or tough masks. They may be openly rebellious towards authority and

their preoccupation with risk can degenerate into recklessness. Although they may accuse

others of abusing power, unhealthy counterphobic Sixes generally act much worse than those

they vilify. They can also be argumentative, unstable, suspicious and self-destructive.

Sevens

Variously called Epicures, Generalists, Adventurers or Dreamers. People who seek out

multiple choices and positive futures.

Healthy Sevens have a stimulating, optimistic outlook and can enthusiastically appreciate

lifes gifts, even the little ones. They possess an endearing blend of charm and curiosity; they

can be creative, outgoing, generous to friends, and progressively interested in new horizons.

They are usually highly resilient and bounce back well from loss and calamity. They willfully

manage their fears by focusing on the positive and imagining future plans, options andpossibilities.

When less healthy, people with this style are prone to escapism, trying to avoid the pain in

themselves and others. They may control and sublimate their fears by running away into

appetites. These can be for food, drugs, ideas, activity, people, new experiences, etc. Unhealthy

Sevens can grow obsessed with grandiose visions and inflate themselves narcissistically. They

refuse responsibility for their actions and resist all realistic constraints on their behavior. To this

end, they can be impatient, chaotic and aggressively hedonistic.


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Eights

Variously called Bosses, Leaders, Confronters or Dominators. People who need to be

strong and prevail over circumstance.

Healthy Eights are often dynamic and independent. They can demonstrate the virtue of

power, how to wield influence for constructive purposes. Many Eights are natural leaders who

inspire others, protect the weak, and strive for justice. They have the courage and will toimplement new ideas and bring an energetic, lusty gusto to whatever they try. They are often

protectors of the small, helpless or inarticulate.

When less healthy, Eights cover up their vulnerabilities with aggressive displays of strength.

They overidentify with being powerful as a way to deny their softness and survive in a world that

they think is full of dangers. They may also have a tendency to excess- staying up late, doing

too much, driving too hard and indulging in addictions. When deeply unhealthy, denying their

vulnerability becomes an obsession and Eights can be grandiose and destructive, bullying,

vengeful and ruthless.

Nines

Variously called Peacemakers, Mediators, Negotiators or Preservationists. People with thisstyle tend to self-efface, to blend with and accommodate their environment while playing down

their own presence.

When healthy, Nines possess a deep personal modesty and an elegant simplicity of

thought. They are even-tempered, stable, unassuming, nonjudgmental and comfortable with

who they are. Healthy Nines often have a cheerful optimistic outlook and are gently dynamic,

suffused with a highly integrated sense of self and implicit mission.

When less healthy, Nines begin to merge blindly with the wishes of others and the roles

their environment wants them to play. This tactic requires that Nines suppress their rough edges

and conceal any part of themselves that might seem disagreeable. In the process, they erase

their own needs, priorities and ambitions.

The more Nines absent themselves from their own life, the more passive, unfocused and

ambivalent they become. They can then sink into depressed self-neglect and a kind of lazy

oblivion that is an imitation of death.

Tom Condon

Tom Condon is an internationally recognized Enneagram trainer and author. He has taught over800 workshops in the United States, Europe and Asia. He is the author of over 50 CDs, DVDsand books. Tom offers specialized training, consulting and coaching for businesses andorganizations in the United States, Europe and Asia. His decades-long background in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and the Enneagram blends powerful communication methodswith a deep understanding of interpersonal dynamics. His trainings and consulting apply these

disciplines to team building, effective management, enhancing communication and improvedleadership.His website: http://www.thechangeworks.com email: [email protected]
http://www.thechangeworks.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.thechangeworks.com/http://www.thechangeworks.com/

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The Enneagram in Business