The Enneagram is a profound, elegant, and very pragmatic approach to understanding people and their relationships. Based on classical sources,  it describes nine basic world views, nine different ways of doing business in the world. Each of the nine styles has its own natural gifts, limitations and blind spots; each has its own distinctive ways of thinking, acting and being.

The Enneagram teaches us in practical ways to see the world as others see it. You can then appreciate what others value and what they do not, and why they think, feel and act the way they do. When you know the Enneagram style of the people in your life, you can respond to their intent, instead of getting caught in their sometimes difficult or confounding behavior. You can nurture their fundamental strengths, and know in what situations they are likely to be rigid or unskillful. You can serve up your words and wisdom in a way that it can be heard, and you can inspire them from the inside out.

When you know your own Enneagram style you can get out of your own way. You can make conscious choices instead of acting on automatic. You can draw from each of the nine styles as appropriate. Most importantly, you can act with passion, compassion and clear intent.

"Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions," said the philosopher Bertrand Russell, "which move with him like flies on a summer's day." The Enneagram lays bare the unconscious assumptions that drive the way you see yourself, do your work, relate to your colleagues, and make decisions. Instead of operating on automatic, from "comforting convictions," you can, with clear intent, invoke your reservoir of talents and skills.

The Enneagram teaches that we engage events with our own style:

(for a fuller description, click the number)

ONES want to get things right and they want to teach you to do the same

TWOS want to help others and be acknowledged for their importance

THREES want  to work hard, accomplish much, and succeed

FOURS want to explore their uniqueness and creativity

FIVES seek the information and wisdom they need to be masters of their universe

SIXES loyal to their team or ideals,  worry about what can go wrong, who can be trusted and who will do them in

SEVENS seek the full range of upbeat possibilities, plans and experiences

EIGHTS want to exercise power and dominion and to protect those in their charge

NINES want to empathize with all the players, and make sure everybody is included and all views are heard

   Though none of the types is bad in itself, being unconsciously wedded to an Enneagram style limits flexibility, imagination and choices. Caught up in habitual ways of perceiving, we miss important pieces of the whole. Knowing your vantage point and the positions of those you work with builds more than perspective: It clears the mind so that discernment is possible. It loosens the heart to the experience of others. It focuses the will, so that you can get out of your own way and act with concentrated intention, power and effectiveness.

© Michael J. Goldberg, 2007

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