Matt Schlegel

Online Enneagram Workshop: Coping with Corona

April 16, 2020 by Matt Schlegel Leave a Comment

How are you coping with shelter-in-place? Join us for an online conversation in which we will share ideas and learn from one another. You will gain an appreciation for the approach each Enneagram type is taking to manage through these challenging times. Knowledge of your Enneagram type is helpful, but not required.

Workshop Details

Date: Tuesday, April 21

Time: 7:30pm to 9pm (Pacific)

Access: Direct Message me for access to the web conference link.

Also, you can find more details here.

Hope you can make it—we want to hear your stories!

Solving Problems? What’s Your Leadership Word?

April 14, 2020 by Matt Schlegel 2 Comments

Everyone has a go-to response when faced with a problem. Does your mind jump directly to a solution? Perhaps you stop and reflect on the problem. Or does your body just move into action. In a word, what is your go-to response?

Sequential Problem-Solving Steps

My word is WHEN. When can we get started? When will we be done. My mind gravitates to when questions. But is that the right question to be asking? That depends on where you are in the problem-solving process.

There is a natural order to problem solving — a sequence of steps that occurs as you move from the beginning point of problem identification to the end when the problem is solved. The Enneagram informs us of a problem-solving strategy that consists of 9 steps, which I detail in chapter 2 of Teamwork 9.0.

Problem Solving 9 Steps

In a word, the nine problem-solving steps are as follows:

1 – Why?

2 – Who?

3 – What?

4 – Good?

5 – How?

6 – When?

7 – Ready?

8 – Go!

9 – Okay?

Each of us reacts differently when faced with a problem. Most often the reaction takes the form of a question — for instance, what should we do? — though for some the reaction is action and for others a feeling. We all want to play to our strengths which leads to a natural tendency to skip steps. The benefit of using a systematic problem-solving methodology is that it helps avoid skipping steps and, thereby, increases the overall effectiveness of the solution. Systematically going through all nine steps will yield the best results.

Problem Solving Methodology

1 – WHY? – The starting point of problem solving is identifying that there is a problem—why something is wrong and why it needs to be corrected. Asking these questions of multiple people, you will discover various perspectives on the problem. Recording these problem perspectives and describing how things should be once the problem is solved informs the WHY of problem solving and establishes the problem-solving objectives. The WHY serves as the purpose of your problem-solving effort.

2 – WHO? – The problem necessarily impacts someone, especially problem solving in business. The second step is determining who. Who does the problem affect? Who can help solve the problem? Who may be affected by the solution? These people form the group of stakeholders who join you on your problem-solving journey.

3 – WHAT? – There are often numerous problem-solving approaches. You will generate ideas, and these ideas comprise what you will consider as possible solutions to the problem. Enlisting a diverse group of people to join you in idea brainstorming is how your problem-solving initiative can lead to new ideas. In this step, problem solving and creativity intersect.

4 – GOOD? – Every idea will generate an emotional response—your first reaction. This reaction happens immediately, without thinking. That idea is great! Or, that idea sucks! This is the step in which each idea is run through your emotional filter to eliminate bad ideas and retain good ones. If you wonder whether problem solving is a soft skill, step 4, which requires an examination of our emotional reactions, implies that the answer is yes!

5 – HOW? – Any promising idea needs to be vetted, and this is the step where you analyze and determine how an idea will actually solve the problem. Ideas are run through a logical filter, out of which comes the most promising ones—your Plan A and Plan B. Step 5 is the time in problem solving for analytical skills and critical thinking. While data analysis may have been required in step 1 to understand the problem, it may also be required in step 5 to assess the efficacy of the proposed solution.

6 – WHEN? – This is the planning step in problem solving, when you sequence all the required actions into a plan. You take all the information collected in step 5 and synthesize that into an action plan that achieves your problem-solving objectives. In short, WHO does WHAT by HOW and WHEN to address WHY.

7 – READY? – Once your plan is formulated you need to check in with all stakeholders to ensure everyone is on board. Depending on the scope of the problem, you will need everyone’s support, time—energy—resources, in many dimensions, physically—mentally—emotionally, to execute the plan and solve the problem. If you’ve kept everyone in the loop up to now, you will be in good shape to get the buy-in you need to proceed. Step 7 is the final decision-making point before moving into action.

8 – GO! – Finally you get to action. This is the step in the problem-solving process where you actually solve the problem! Up to this point it has been all talk. Now you execute the plan and achieve the goal—problem solved!

9 – OKAY? – After step 8 you may think you’re finished, but there’s one last step: the final check-in with all stakeholders to ensure that the problem was actually solved to everyone’s satisfaction. If you took the time in step 1 to document the goals and outcomes, those details will serve as your checklist. Sometimes the unexpected happens and new problems arise in step 9—that takes you back to step 1.

People form teams to solve problems, which is why problem solving is important in the workplace. These nine steps help you organize your problem-solving team to systematically address the problem.

Socratic Teamwork

Notice that eight of the nine steps can take the form of a question? Questions stimulate conversations in which your team can share perspectives and discuss ideas. Questions form the basis of the Socratic method, a technique to stimulate dialogue, creativity and critical thinking. Organizing questions in this nine-step sequence will promote the conversations that will guide you and your team on your problem-solving journey.

Problem-Solving Skills and Leadership

What are your problem-solving skills? I am a planner, so my favorite problem-solving step is step 6. Each of us are naturally drawn towards the steps in problem solving that play to our natural gifts and strengths. Having a diverse workgroup with a range of skills makes your problem-solving team more effective—everyone using their unique strengths as your team moves through each problem-solving step. During the step that overlaps with your particular strengths, you can assume a leadership role for the team.

What are your go-to problem solving words, and how are you delivering problem-solving leadership for your team? Answering these questions, you may discover your own personal purpose in problem solving.

YOU BLEW IT! – How do you respond when you’ve made a bad decision?

April 10, 2020 by Matt Schlegel 2 Comments

You made a mistake. Sure, everyone makes mistakes. But, you? You’re not everyone. You NEVER make mistakes. Or, at least you avoid admitting it. How do you respond when you’ve made a mistake? How do those around you respond?

Follow Your Gut

How do you make decisions in the first place? Intuitive decision makers follow their gut. Have you had the experience of waking up in the morning with a fully formed idea? Some people have their epiphany while taking a shower. Some people have epiphanies all day long! Your subconscious noodles on a problem you’re facing, and your intuition presents a solution. Often the solution just feels right.

Some leaders will direct their team based on their intuition, frequently without vetting their ideas. Teams working under this leadership style often simply respond to the direction—they will have learned the futility in trying to reason with the leader’s intuition. That said, a friend of mine shared an important tip for dealing with this leadership style.

The 24-Hour Rule

When faced with direction from the intuitive leader that may take the team off-track, my friend will quietly respond with one sentence in the following form, “If we do this, then that could happen.” Then he shuts up. He has discovered that about a day later, the intuitive leader will revise the direction in a manner that avoids the outcome my friend presented. The leader provides no explanation nor offers any reflection, only new direction. The leader’s intuition has spoken. And, the leader never had to admit a mistake.

Victim Complex

How do data-driven decision makers deal with a bad decision? This decision maker will recognize the mistake and will have a reason. “There are new circumstances.” Or, “there is new information.” Often, the leader will blame a person or entity for the situation and claim to be the victim.

Data-driven decisions are necessarily based on historical evidence. The data is derived from something that already happened. These decision makers will make the best possible decision based on the available data. Their trap is that they may not consider alternative scenarios outside of the data set. The decision is perfect if everything goes perfectly. When it doesn’t, there must be blame.

Plan B

One way to overcome an acute reliance on past data is to have a Plan B. Taking the time to imagine scenarios in which your plan does not proceed perfectly, forces you to envision alternative futures and ascribe possibilities to those futures. Doing so prepares you and your team for inevitable adjustments to plans and gives your team the mechanism to make those adjustments without feeling victimized.

How would you characterize the decision making style of your team and how do you adjust when things don’t go as planned?

FAQ: Enneagram — Team Effectiveness

April 7, 2020 by Matt Schlegel 3 Comments

What’s the definition of the Enneagram?

The Enneagram is commonly used as a system that describes personal dynamics, behaviors and motivations. It has become popular among people who are interested in making their life better, both personally and professionally. The system describes nine core types of people and is helpful to better understand yourself, others and your inter-personal interactions.

What’s the Enneagram’s origin?

The Enneagram origin as a system of personalities was precipitated by Oscar Ichazo in the 1950s in his work Enneagram of Personality and later by Claudio Naranjo in the 1970s. The Enneagram draws on the wisdom of ancient traditions. For instance, the Enneagram is thought to be reflected in Plotinus’ 3rd-century work, The Enneads.

Russian born George Gurdjieff introduced the Enneagram diagram or Enneagram symbol to the West in the early 20^th century. Gurdjieff saw the Enneagram was as a tool to describe dynamical flows associated with the nine Enneagram energies. It is thought that Gurdjieff coined the term Enneagram from the Greek ennea = nine and gramma = figure.

Inspired by Gurdjieff, German psychologist Klausbernd Vollmar describes the connection between energy flows and personality in his book, The Secret of Enneagrams. Vollmar’s work inspired me to draw the connection between the Enneagram and team-based problem solving that I describe in my book, Teamwork 9.0, with the goal of using the Enneagram at work to improve team effectiveness.

Why are there nine Enneagram types?

This question speaks to Enneagram validity. The most satisfying answer I have found to this question comes from Peter Savich in his Enneagram book Personality and the Brain. Savich theorizes that the two parts of the brain that drive the behaviors associated with the Enneagram are the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.

In our bi-cameral brain, there are two sides of each part, and each side is responsible for a different response. For instance, the amygdala is our fight-or-flight processor and the pre-frontal cortex is our optimism-pessimism processor.

Just as each of us can be right handed, left handed or ambidextrous depending on the asymmetric dominance of our motor cortex, the amygdala has three dominances and the prefrontal cortex has three dominances: 3 times 3 equals 9. In other words, the various combinations of dominance between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex yield the nine Enneagram types that we observe.

What are the nine Enneagram personality types?

It’s inadequate to describe the nine types with one-word labels. That said, the one-word labels are useful when first learning the system since the words provide a reference to a certain personality archetype.

Type 1 – The Perfectionist

Type 2 – The Helper

Type 3 – The Achiever

Type 4 – The Romantic

Type 5 – The Observer

Type 6 – The Questioner

Type 7 – The Adventurer

Type 8 – The Asserter

Type 9 – The Peacemaker

I provide a brief overview of the nine Enneagram types in chapter 1 of my book Teamwork 9.0. You can access that chapter for free here.

One of my favorite Enneagram reference books is The Enneagram Made Easy by Elizabeth Wagele and Renee Baron. I borrow the descriptions above from their book.

How do I discover my Enneagram personality type?

There are many quizzes available that guide you towards your dominant type. I find that the quizzes are better at informing you which type you are NOT than which type you ARE. Therefore, the quiz can be used as a process of elimination. Take a quiz, eliminate the low-scoring types, and keep the high-scoring types. Read more about each high-scoring type to determine which one matches you most closely. If you have friends or family who are familiar with the Enneagram, they may also be willing to give you some suggestions.

Enneagram personality test free of charge: www.enneasurvey.com

Using this Enneagram assessment, you will see your Enneagram results immediately after you take this free quiz.

How do you use the Enneagram in business?

There are workflows associated with teamwork, and there is an order in which that work occurs. Reflecting on Vollmar’s writings, it occurred to me that the Enneagram can be used to describe the sequential order in which business teams coalesce to solve problems. The Enneagram energies, one through nine, reflect the steps in that sequential order. Chapter 2 of Teamwork 9.0 describes this sequence and is a way you can use the Enneagram for business. Here is a summary of the steps:

Step 1: Problem-Goal — Identify the problems and define the goals.

Step 2: Stakeholder Identification — Recruit a committed team

Step 3: Ideation — Generate ideas for solutions.

Step 4: Emotional Reaction — Assess reactions to each idea.

Step 5: Logical Analysis — Study and score promising ideas.

Step 6: Planning — Select the most promising idea and build an action plan.

Step 7: Promotion — Passionately promote the plan and get approval to proceed.

Step 8: Implementation — Execute the plan and solve the problem!

Step 9: Integration — Confirm the problem is solved with all stakeholders.

I elaborate on these steps in this video:

What are Enneagram Wings?

Every Enneagram type has a range of behaviors and the Enneagram system has several explanations for this range, one of which is called Enneagram wings.

Every Enneagram Type has two wings, the types on either side along the circle. For example, Type 6 wings are Type 5 and Type 7.

There is a convention to denote the wing of each type using a “w.” For instance Type 6 with a 5 wing is denoted 6w5. Likewise, for the 7 wing it’s 6w7.

One way to use the wings is to describe the tendency of each type towards being introverted or extroverted.

_Type_	_Introverted_	_Extroverted_
1	9	2
2	1	3
3	4	2
4	5	3
5	4/6*	4/6*
6	5	7
7	6	8
8	9	7
9	1	8

*Note: it’s a tough call for me to determine whether the naturally introverted Type 5 would be more introverted with a 4 or a 6—likewise for the extroverted 5.

What are the intrinsic motivations of each Enneagram type?

Type 1: Getting it right.

Type 2: Receiving appreciation.

Type 3: Receiving recognition for accomplishments.

Type 4: Immersing oneself in emotional stimulation.

Type 5: Feeling safe by collecting resources.

Type 6: Avoiding risks.

Type 7: Being liked.

Type 8: Securing control of their environment.

Type 9: Reducing conflict in their environment.

Here’s a graphical depiction of the nine Enneagram motivations:

I elaborate on the nine distinct motivations described by the Enneagram in this video:

What are the blind spots of each Enneagram type?

This question really deserves a detailed answers for each type. In one sentence I would say, …

Type 1: Too much focus on problems and what is “right”, and not enough on people.

Type 2: Minimal sense of other’s personal space and thinking they know better what a person needs than the person themselves.

Type 3: Lack of awareness of people’s feelings and minimization of others’ personal situations.

Type 4: Overemphasis on feelings and minimization of logic and reason as a guide.

Type 5: Fear of being “wrong” inhibits making a decision or taking action.

Type 6: Immersion in everything that could go wrong makes it difficult to get enthusiastic about what can go right.

Type 7: Inability to deal with negativity.

Type 8: Lack of care about consequences of their actions on others.

Type 9: Inability to assert themselves and what is right for them.

Can the Enneagram be used for rapport building?

Yes! I elaborate how to build rapport with each Enneagram type in this series of blogs:

Rapport building with Enneagram Type 1

Rapport building with Enneagram Type 2

Rapport building with Enneagram Type 3

Rapport building with Enneagram Type 4

Rapport building with Enneagram Type 5

Rapport building with Enneagram Type 6

Rapport building with Enneagram Type 7

Rapport building with Enneagram Type 8

Rapport building with Enneagram Type 9

Also, I explain how to build rapport with each Enneagram type in this video:

What is the difference between the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®?

While both the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) demonstrate that there exist a multiplicity of personality styles, I find that the Enneagram speaks better to how the behaviors of a given personality type can change over time. Also, the Enneagram is more than a personality system–it can also serve as a problem-solving framework, the topic of my book Teamwork 9.0.

I elaborate on some of the differences between the two systems in this blog post: https://evolutionaryteams.com/whats-the-difference-between-enneagram-and-myers-briggs/

What is the connection between creativity and the Enneagram?

In chapter 5 of Teamwork 9.0, I describe how each Enneagram type accesses inspiration and action along the paths of integration and disintegration. They say the necessity is the mother of invention. Well, being in need can certainly put us in a state of stress along our path of disintegration and can be the source of inspiration for some Enneagram types. I elaborate on this idea using the concept of the Creativity Seesaw as we rock back and forth between inspiration and action in our creative process. I elaborate on this idea in this blog: https://evolutionaryteams.com/the-nine-creativity-gifts-creativity-and-the-enneagram/

What are the nine creative types described by the Enneagram?

In this series of blogs, I describe the creative process for each Enneagram type:

Enneagram Type 1 Creativity – Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things. – Michelangelo

Enneagram Type 2 Creativity – Create with the heart; build with the mind. – Criss Jami

Enneagram Type 3 Creativity – Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. – Thomas Edison

Enneagram Type 4 Creativity – Everything you can imagine is real. – Pablo Picasso

Enneagram Type 5 Creativity – Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought. – Albert Einstein

Enneagram Type 6 Creativity – The creative adult is the child who survived. – Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

Enneagram Type 7 Creativity – You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have. — Maya Angelou

Enneagram Type 8 Creativity – Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things. – Ray Bradbury

Enneagram Type 9 Creativity – But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. – Martin Luther King Jr.

Can the Enneagram be used as a change management process?

Yes! The numbers associated with each Enneagram dynamic represent the order in which that dynamic comes to play during transformational changes. Any organization or team that is adapting to a changing environment can use the Enneagram as a tool to manage through the change. Chapter 2 of Teamwork 9.0 elaborates on this nine-step change management process. You can find a summary of the process here:

https://evolutionaryteams.com/change-management-and-the-enneagram/

No Toilet Paper? What’s the Problem?

April 2, 2020 by Matt Schlegel 4 Comments

Recent stories of toilet paper hoarding remind me of my own toilet paper apocalypse and the lesson I learned from it. On a 3-day visit to a remote atoll in French Polynesia, I awoke on Dec. 17, 1977 at the home of my host family—nature was calling…

First Problem: Where’s the bathroom?

Noting that there was no bathroom in my host family’s home and not being able to speak either French or Polynesian, I expressed my needs to the family using my charade skills. They understood and pointed me towards the lagoon.

I walked down the path to the beach and from there I could see out in the shallows an outhouse on stilts just above the water line. I waded through the warm water to the facility and opened the door.

Second Problem: Where’s the toilet paper?!

Back I went, wading through the water and then back up to my host family’s home for another round of charades. This one was more difficult, but after a while they produced a somewhat small, waxy piece of tissue paper. That would have to do.

Precious tissue in hand, I waded out to the outhouse, climbed into the structure, and sat down on the roughhewn wooden seat. It was at that point I noticed some French newspapers placed next to the seat. My 13-year-old brain thought, “it’s awfully dark in here to read a newspaper.”

Ask the Right Question

Later that day, reflecting on my morning adventure and anticipating a similar dilemma the following morning, I asked myself, “If toilet paper is not available, how is everyone dealing with this common problem?”

Reframe the Problem

At that point, I realized that my problem was not a lack of toilet paper but the need to clean myself. Once I had reframed the problem, my mind instantly presented new ideas. For instance, I realized that the newsprint in the dark outhouse was not for reading. Also, I realized I had access to a warm-tropical-water bidet. There were many ways to solve my problem!

Not Invented Here

Sometimes we become wedded to a certain idea or way of doing things. Especially when we are faced with the stress of solving an urgent problem, we suffer from the myopia of amygdala hijack. Taking a moment to understand the underlying root problem, you are apt to open yourself to new ideas and new perspectives.

How do you develop a rich set of diverse ideas for consideration to solve the challenges that you face?

Online Enneagram Workshop: Coping with Corona

Solving Problems? What’s Your Leadership Word?

YOU BLEW IT! – How do you respond when you’ve made a bad decision?