Enneagram

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

— Linus Pauling

With your committed team assembled, it’s likely everyone is bubbling with ideas about how to solve the problem.  When tackling a big problem, it serves your effort to have the richest possible set of ideas to explore and consider. Include a diverse set of contributors who will approach the problem from as many angles as possible. Step 3 in Enneagram change management is ideation. Making your ideation session fun — perhaps fueling it with caffeinated drinks and sweet pastries — you can generate a lot of ideas in a short time.  I encourage participants to withhold any judgement and negativity, and use improv techniques like “Yes, and…” to generate as many ideas as possible. If your problem is the elephant in the room, one idea is to eat the elephant. How do you do that? One bite at a time!  Keep all ideas—big, small, funny, serious, practical and incredible—there will be time for sorting through them all later.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

Now that you have described your problem in detail, envisioned your goal, and assembled your committed team, you are ready to explore ideas for solving the problem.

By the time you arrive at this point in the process, your team members will likely already have begun chiming in with ideas about how to solve the problem; that is one natural indication that you have arrived at Step 3, the Ideation phase of problem solving. In this step you capture briefly as many ideas as possible in what I call the Ideathon, described below. No idea is “bad” or “impossible.” An idea is just an idea. In practice, I find that the more generous you are in allowing and capturing ideas, the more it inspires your team to generate even more ideas. So be a generous listener and capture them all.

Everyone has ideas, so what makes the Enneagram Type 3 dynamic particularly suited for this step? Remember, the 3 is the core type of the Heart-Feeling-Emotion center, and so suppresses emotion. For those of us who do not suppress emotion, our emotions act as filters on our thoughts. We judge emotionally whether an idea is “good” or “bad.” Our emotional connection with others might inhibit the expression of an idea for fear of how they may respond.

Imagine if you had no emotional baggage associated with any particular idea. Imagine if your ideas weren’t influenced by what others think or how they might respond. Imagine a space where you could express any idea that came to mind, without inhibitions. This is exactly what’s required at this point in problem solving, and that is the space of the Type 3 dynamic.

When generating ideas to solve a problem, what techniques do you use?  How do ensure a rich, diverse set of ideas from which to consider and choose?  Do you include all stakeholders when generating ideas?

[Video Transcript]

Your team will have many ideas for how to solve the problem. Step 3 is when you capture all the ideas. Enneagram Type 3 is called the achiever. They’re constantly looking for ideas that will lead to success. Each team member may have a different idea of what success looks like. You’ll want to understand each member’s perspective. It’s important in this step, not to react negatively to any idea. You want to create a positive environment and encourage everyone to contribute and capture all ideas.

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When you’re surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible.

— Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO of Starbucks

The word commitment comes from the Latin committere – “com” meaning with or together, and “mittere” relating to the word “mission” and meaning to release or to send.  In other words, commitment speaks directly to a team on a mission with common cause. Often overlooked in problem solving and change management is the emotional aspects – Who cares about solving the problem? Who cares about making transformational change? Step 2 in change management is developing your team of problem solvers emotionally and passionately committed to the shared future envisioned in Step 1.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

The next step in your problem-solving initiative is to pull together the team of people committed to solving the problem and realizing the vision of the beautiful world. Enneagram Type 2s are attuned to understanding the emotional connections that people have with the problem and with one another. They intuitively know who will benefit by eliminating the problem and thereby who will have an emotional stake in the problem-solving effort. Step 2 in the problem-solving process involves tapping into Type 2’s dynamic and recruiting team members who are passionate about solving the problem.

A few days after the Step 1 kickoff meetings, I hold a Step 2 meeting. I review the goals the team formulated and ensure that everyone is satisfied with the scope and wording. This process can take a little time; I wait for the team to get it just right.

Next, press your team to think through who they need to accomplish the goals. This activity is the heart of Step 2. Who needs to be involved in the initiative, from beginning to end? Were other people identified during the Step 1 meetings who are impacted by the problem in some way? If so, you should consider including them on the team. Is certain expertise required to solve the problem? If so, you should enlist the help of those experts. Will there be an impact on the workflow of any group or groups while solving the problem? If so, make sure those groups are represented. How about a need for systems or IT infrastructure? If yes, include an IT representative as part of your group.

Simply put, ensure that the people who need to be involved in both designing the solution and living with the results are represented on your team. These people are your stakeholders.

When building your change management team, do you consider the emotional connection each team member has to the problem and the mission? Do you consider the emotional impact of the problem on all stakeholders? How do you create impassioned commitment on your team?

[Video Transcript]

So who cares about the problem? Step 2 is where you identify the people who have an emotional connection to the problem. Enneagram Type 2 is often called The Helper. They understand the emotional desire to solve problems and want to chip in and help. In Step 2, you establish your team of committed stakeholders, those that will help solve the problem. This is your problem solving team.

Thanks so much for listening. If you like this, please leave a comment and share it with others. And please subscribe to the channel and stay tuned for the next episode. Thanks again.

A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.

— Charles Kettering, inventor and head of research for GM

Not everyone perceives a problem similarly.  Like the elephant in the room, each person may experience the symptoms as distinct problems.  By having people realize that they in fact share the same problem – it’s the elephant in the room(!) – the group transforms into a team with a shared purpose to solve the problem.  The first step in any transformational change management process is clearly describing the shared problem and visualizing the world in which the problem is solved.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

A large problem can seem like an elephant. Some people will describe the smell. Some will describe the noise. Some feel like they are being crushed or squeezed. People focus on the symptoms and effects—how they personally experience the problem. At some point, your team members begin to appreciate that although the symptoms they personally experience may be different, the root cause of the various symptoms is the same—there is an elephant in the room. Once the team recognizes that they all share a common problem—a common enemy, so to speak—the team shifts from focusing on one another to focusing on that common enemy.

The flip side of the terrible world in which everyone is suffering from their big common problem is the beautiful world that they imagine is possible once the problem is vanquished. Once everyone has had a chance to describe the problem in the first meeting, I adjourn the group and reconvene on the following day. At the second meeting, I ask every stakeholder in turn to describe that beautiful world and how it will improve their situation. This technique is called visualizing, and it creates a focal point for the group as they work through the subsequent steps in the problem-solving process.

How do you instill mission and purpose into a group of people to solve a shared problem?  Do you carefully solicit the perspective of each team member? Do you collectively create a vision of the world once the problem is solved?

[Video Transcript]

What’s the first step in problem solving? It’s realizing that you have a problem. Enneagram Type One is often called the perfectionist. They’re often the first type to point out that things aren’t right, aren’t as they should be. They also have a clear vision for how things should be. In problem solving, describing how things shouldn’t and should be corresponds to problem definition and goal. Problems and goals are two sides of the same coin and the first step in problem solving.

Thanks so much for listening. If you like this, please leave a comment and share it with others. And please subscribe to the channel and stay tuned for the next episode. Thanks again.

Did you know that the Enneagram can also be used as a change management system? Many know the Enneagram as a personality system, but that is just scratching the surface of this remarkably powerful tool.   In this video, I explain how I discovered the Enneagram approach to change management and organizational problem solving.  I have used this approach with clients, and it is so effective and powerful I was compelled to write the book Teamwork 9.0 and share how the Enneagram serves as a change management system.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

My exploration of Enneagram-based problem solving began with a simple question: The Enneagram numbers imply an order, so why is the Perfectionist the 1, the Helper 2, the Achiever 3, and so on? The order seemed arbitrary. For instance, why couldn’t the whole circle be rotated so that the Perfectionist is Type 3? I asked one of my Enneagram mentors, who told me that the specific order of the Enneagram types is important and referred me to a book by Klausbernd Vollmar.

Vollmar’s book, titled The Secret of Enneagrams: Mapping the Personality, asserts that the Enneagram describes flows of energies. He goes on to explain that there is a specific sequence to those energy flows in the numerical order of the Enneagram types.

Having a background in science and engineering, I have used many different problem-solving methods; for example, the scientific method. I noticed a pattern between the steps in problem-solving methods and the numerical order of the dynamics of the Enneagram. The Enneagram numbers describe the order of the steps by which humans solve problems. With that epiphany, the number assignments on the Enneagram now made perfect sense.

Using the language of problem solving, the dynamics associated with each Enneagram type can be described as follows:

Step 1: Problem-Goal. Identify the problems, 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 of the ideas.

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, get approval to proceed.

Step 8: Implementation. Execute the plan, solve the problem!

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

Using the Enneagram as a framework for solving problems highlights how each Enneagram type is attuned to a particular step in the problem-solving process. There is a one-to-one mapping between the Enneagram types and the steps in the process. It seems that humans instinctively know how to solve problems as a team, and the Enneagram describes that methodology.

Do you use a structured approach to organizational development and organization change management?  How does your change management approach link team members’ interpersonal dynamics with the change management process?  How have you incorporated continuous improvement into your change management system?

[Video Transcript]

I had a question. Why is the Enneagram Type 1, the 1? Why is Type 2, the 2? And so on. Why couldn’t Type 1 be the 7, and Type 5 be the 3? It turns out that the number assignment is not arbitrary. There’s a specific reason for that order. The numbers represent the order of a process. In fact, it’s the order in which humans solve problems. The problem solving nature of the Enneagram is described by the outer circle. Each of the nine Enneagram dynamics describes a specific step in problem solving. This use of the Enneagram is not commonly known or understood, which is why I was compelled to write my book, Teamwork 9.0, and share my discovery with you here.

The aspect I love about this problem-solving framework is that there’s a direct link between each step in problem solving to a specific personality dynamic that is particularly suited for that step. Now more than ever, organizations are being challenged with threats that require everyone in the organization to collaborate and find new ways to survive and thrive working on the business, not just in the business. Using a step-by-step approach to problem solving, you can get your team to focus on the challenges and invent a new path forward.

Thanks so much for listening. If you like this, please leave a comment and share it with others. And please subscribe to the channel and stay tuned for the next episode. Thanks again.