Enneagram

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!

— Benjamin Franklin

Once you have verified that you have a viable solution, you can  plot the path that takes you to your goal. In Step 6 of Enneagram Change Management you develop the plan that solves the problem. You optimize the path considering all important metrics — time, cost, quality, resource availability, etc. You anticipate risks and work to minimize and mitigate them.  In Step 6 you are looking into the future, into your crystal ball, envisioning the successful solution to the problem and all the steps that will get you there.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

Enneagram Type 6 is at the core of the Head-Thinking-Anxiety center; as such, 6s will actively pursue minimizing their anxiety. Uncertainty and risk increase anxiety the most for Type 6s. Therefore, they naturally prepare for the future by planning ahead and seeking to minimize risk.

Type 6s can look at a number of scenarios and, using their anxiety level as a guide, instinctively spot the one with the fewest unknowns, the fewest pitfalls, and the highest likelihood of success. Using the pro/con analysis generated in Step 5, the 6 can assess each scenario and plot a path into the future to foresee likely outcomes. They can predict which ideas have the clearest path to the goal, because those ideas cause the 6 the least amount of anxiety. This Type 6 dynamic comes into play in Step 6 of problem solving.

The Path of Least Danger

Having worked through the logical analysis of Step 5, the team will have reached a general consensus as to which ideas are the most viable and favorable for getting to the goal. This is the indication that your team has naturally arrived at Step 6, the Planning step. You can treat these favorable ideas as the framework for your solution—the skeleton, as it were. Now it is time to add the meat.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!

In this step, the meat includes all the details associated with associated with following the plan to achieve the goal. What resources are needed? How much do those resources cost? Who needs to be involved, and when? What is the schedule for implementation? All these details need to be mapped out for presentation to the stakeholders responsible for allocating those resources. Enlisting the help of a team member with project management skills makes sense at this point in the process. It is exactly this skill set that comes into play in Step 6.

Plan A/Plan B

At this point, you still may have a couple of viable paths to get to the goal. You may want to split your problem-solving team into smaller groups of advocates for each viable idea and let each group build a plan. As the details are fleshed out, you will see which idea has the shorter schedule, which has the lower cost, which requires the fewest people, and which has the fewest uncertainties and risks. With that knowledge, the team can develop a Plan A and a backup Plan B.

In Step 6, you will have decided the one or two ideas or sets of ideas that get you to the goal and solve the problem. You will have put together a detailed plan to implement the ideas. The team is now prepared to present the plan to the stakeholders and sponsors, especially those who can allocate the resources necessary to make the plan come true. Now is the time to promote the plan!

Does your team take the time to plan the path to your goal?  Do you anticipate and mitigate risks? Do you have a fallback plan, a Plan B?

[Video Transcript]

Step 6 is where your team takes the most promising idea and builds a project plan that gets you all the way to the goal. Who does what and when? Type 6 is often called the questioner. Their brain is constantly asking questions. What if this happens? What if that happens? They’re constantly on the lookout for pitfalls and developing strategies to avoid them. In Step 6 of problem solving, you’ll want the team to build a low-risk plan that gets it to the goal. The plan can include risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans.

Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, click on the thumbs-up button, subscribe to the channel, and get notifications of future episodes. If you have a question, please leave it in the comment section, and I’ll get to it as soon as possible. Thanks again.

Analysis Is the Critical Starting Point of Strategic Thinking.

— Kenichi Ohmae

Every idea has its pros and cons. Each idea needs to be analyzed and compared with others to determine which are best—those ideas most likely to successfully solve the problem and help the team reach its goals.  Enneagram Change Management Step 5 moves into the analysis phase of problem solving in which the team thoughtfully considers all ideas and develops the pro-con, cost-benefit analysis of each.  This analysis will form the basis for decision making in the next step.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

The transition to Step 5 represents a movement away from emotion-based processing towards logic-based thinking. Enneagram Type 5 is in the Head-Thinking-Anxiety center and the Enneagram dynamic best suited for data collection and detailed analysis.

Recall that Enneagram Type 5 is the internal anxiety type concerned with accumulating resources. This behavior extends to collecting information, making the Type 5 dynamic ideally suited for gathering all the data necessary to properly analyze each idea. With the data at hand, your team can perform cost-benefit analyses, generating the facts crucial to deciding which ideas are most viable for achieving the objectives and solving the problem. During Step 5, your problem-solving team must move into the Type 5 dynamic, carefully and logically analyzing all the promising ideas.

Analysis, Not Paralysis

Most ideas have their good points and bad points, their pros and their cons. It is important for you to move your problem-solving team quickly through the assessment of these pros and cons. If you call a 100-minute team meeting and you have 12 big ideas to examine, keep the pro/con analysis of each idea to 8 minutes. You will find that your team is usually able to discuss the important points of each idea in those 8 minutes. If some are left unsatisfied with the time limit on the discussion, encourage them to elaborate their ideas in a follow up email. By moving to each idea in turn with a fixed time limit, you can avoid getting caught up in minutiae and digressions.

Remember, some of your team members will excel during Step 5 and will want to explore the nuances of each idea. Conversely, others will find this detailed analysis tedious and boring. You want to strike a balance to ensure that the analytical folks have a chance to show off their stuff, while moving quickly to get through all the ideas and keep your entire team engaged.

Recall that in the Ideation step (Step 3), I suggested that you ask participants to set aside their negative reactions to ideas. During the Logical Analysis step, you take the opportunity to revisit those negative reactions. Encourage those who have strong feelings about any idea to communicate their thoughts and feelings at this point.

In the time since team members had their first emotional reaction to an idea, the intensity of that reaction will have subsided. Anyone who had a strong negative reaction will now be in a better state to calmly explain it. I find that letting some time pass is an effective way to rationally explore the emotional reactions to ideas without letting those emotions rule the process.

After spending a few minutes on an idea, would you feel like you had done a proper analysis? Of course not! Often, the team will not have all the information necessary to adequately analyze each idea during the meeting. In order to perform a proper analysis, ask for volunteers. The biggest proponents and/or opponents of a given idea will be usually be eager to collect any additional information the team feels it needs. If the need arises, I may call a separate meeting so the team can review the pros and cons of each idea to everyone’s satisfaction.

At the end of Step 5, your problem-solving team will have a rich set of ideas, with the pros and cons for each idea spelled out. The analytical folks on the team will have chimed in and provided the data and assessment that the team needs to move forward. You are now ready for Step 6, the Planning step, which I affectionately call “finding the path of least danger.”

Do you take the time to carefully analyze the positive ideas generated by your team?  Do you have the team weigh in on all the pros and cons from their diverse perspectives?  How do you avoid overanalyzing ideas and falling into paralysis by analysis?

[Video Transcript]

Having a handful of positive ideas to explore, it’s now time to turn to the left brain activities, starting with analyzing each idea for feasibility. Enneagram Type 5 is often called the analyzer. In Step 5 of problem solving, you want to perform pro/con and cost benefit analysis of each idea. Out of this step comes the top one, maybe two ideas to solve each problem that the team is pursuing.

Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, click on the thumbs up button, subscribe to the channel and get notifications of future episodes. If you have a question, please leave it in the comment section and I’ll get to it as soon as possible. Thanks again.

Thus the man who is responsive to artistic stimuli reacts to the reality of dreams as does the philosopher to the reality of existence.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

If throwing spaghetti against the wall is Step 3—Ideation, seeing what sticks is Step 4, your feelings about the idea. A positive emotional reaction is like the emotional glue that makes the spaghetti stick to the wall.  In practice, your reaction happens instantaneously upon hearing the idea… That idea is fantastic! Or, that’s a terrible idea! Every idea runs through an emotional filter, the output of which are the positive ideas that your team will have the emotional energy to pursue.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

What is the first thing that happens when you hear a new idea? You have an emotional reaction. That idea is great! Or, that idea sucks! People inevitably have an emotional reaction to any idea. This emotional reaction corresponds to the dynamic of Enneagram Type 4. The reaction happens subconsciously and instantaneously, and can guide much of our thinking thereafter. These first reactions are important to problem solving, and the team needs to pay attention to them.

At the beginning of the ideation session (Step 3), I explain the first-reaction phenomenon to the participants and acknowledge that they will likely experience this. I instruct them that if they have a positive reaction to an idea it is OK to express that. On the other hand, if they have a negative reaction to an idea, then I ask that they hold their thought and think about why they are having that negative reaction. Once they understand why, then I suggest that they redirect that negative energy in a positive direction and imagine an idea more suitable to them. I encourage them to simply share their new idea with the group without objecting to the previous idea.

Think of this technique as idea jujitsu. In other words, have team members re-channel the negative energy from their reaction into a positive idea they can share with the group. This technique is related to the spirit of “Yes, and…” described above, and will maintain the flow of fresh, new ideas. In this way, the team can maintain a high energy level and a positive tone for the duration of the ideation session.

Since emotional reactions to ideas are instantaneous, in practice I find it necessary to conduct Steps 3 and 4 (Ideation and Emotional Reaction) simultaneously. By having team members process their emotional reactions during the ideation session, I find that the group will naturally migrate towards the promising ideas, those ideas with a positive emotional response. The group will tend to elaborate on the ideas that generate the most positive energy. That positive energy will carry into Step 5, in which the team carefully scrutinizes the most promising ideas.

How do feelings about ideas play into your decision making? Do you assess the positive or negative emotional energy associated with each idea?  Do you ensure that that there is enough positive energy behind the ideas you want your team to pursue?

[Video Transcript]

Anytime anyone expresses an idea, you’ll have a reaction. That idea is great or that idea sucks. You can’t help yourself, it happens naturally and instantaneously. Enneagram Type 4 is sometimes called The Artist. They are the type most in tune with the emotional impact of any idea. In step 4, you want to determine the set of ideas that are most favorable to the team. These are the ideas that have the most positive emotional energy, energy your team will need to carry the project through to successful completion. I usually use a simple vote on each idea to make this determination. The combination of the idea, step 3 and reaction, step 4 reminds me of the saying, Throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks.” It’s this combination that allows your team to come up with the ideas that they want to pursue.

Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, click on the thumbs up button, subscribe to the channel and get notifications of future episodes. If you have a question, please leave it in the comment section, and I’ll get to it as soon as possible. Thanks again.

Thus the man who is responsive to artistic stimuli reacts to the reality of dreams as does the philosopher to the reality of existence.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

If throwing spaghetti against the wall is Step 3—Ideation, seeing what sticks is Step 4, your feelings about the idea. A positive emotional reaction is like the emotional glue that makes the spaghetti stick to the wall.  In practice, your reaction happens instantaneously upon hearing the idea… That idea is fantastic! Or, that’s a terrible idea! Every idea runs through an emotional filter, the output of which are the positive ideas that your team will have the emotional energy to pursue.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

What is the first thing that happens when you hear a new idea? You have an emotional reaction. That idea is great! Or, that idea sucks! People inevitably have an emotional reaction to any idea. This emotional reaction corresponds to the dynamic of Enneagram Type 4. The reaction happens subconsciously and instantaneously, and can guide much of our thinking thereafter. These first reactions are important to problem solving, and the team needs to pay attention to them.

At the beginning of the ideation session (Step 3), I explain the first-reaction phenomenon to the participants and acknowledge that they will likely experience this. I instruct them that if they have a positive reaction to an idea it is OK to express that. On the other hand, if they have a negative reaction to an idea, then I ask that they hold their thought and think about why they are having that negative reaction. Once they understand why, then I suggest that they redirect that negative energy in a positive direction and imagine an idea more suitable to them. I encourage them to simply share their new idea with the group without objecting to the previous idea.

Think of this technique as idea jujitsu. In other words, have team members re-channel the negative energy from their reaction into a positive idea they can share with the group. This technique is related to the spirit of “Yes, and…” described above, and will maintain the flow of fresh, new ideas. In this way, the team can maintain a high energy level and a positive tone for the duration of the ideation session.

Since emotional reactions to ideas are instantaneous, in practice I find it necessary to conduct Steps 3 and 4 (Ideation and Emotional Reaction) simultaneously. By having team members process their emotional reactions during the ideation session, I find that the group will naturally migrate towards the promising ideas, those ideas with a positive emotional response. The group will tend to elaborate on the ideas that generate the most positive energy. That positive energy will carry into Step 5, in which the team carefully scrutinizes the most promising ideas.

How do feelings about ideas play into your decision making? Do you assess the positive or negative emotional energy associated with each idea?  Do you ensure that that there is enough positive energy behind the ideas you want your team to pursue?

[Video Transcript]

Anytime anyone expresses an idea, you’ll have a reaction. That idea is great or that idea sucks. You can’t help yourself, it happens naturally and instantaneously. Enneagram Type 4 is sometimes called The Artist. They are the type most in tune with the emotional impact of any idea. In step 4, you want to determine the set of ideas that are most favorable to the team. These are the ideas that have the most positive emotional energy, energy your team will need to carry the project through to successful completion. I usually use a simple vote on each idea to make this determination. The combination of the idea, step 3 and reaction, step 4 reminds me of the saying, Throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks.” It’s this combination that allows your team to come up with the ideas that they want to pursue.

Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, click on the thumbs up button, subscribe to the channel and get notifications of future episodes. If you have a question, please leave it in the comment section, and I’ll get to it as soon as possible. Thanks again.