Team Effectiveness

Enneagram Type 7s are the honeybees of the Enneagram. Rather than pollen from flowers, they pick up ideas from people as they go from person to person throughout the day. The creative process for Type 7 is like making honey!

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have. —  Maya Angelou

Inspiration—Action

Enneagram Type 7s are continually looking for the next fun thing to do which makes this type very open to ideas for new things to try out. This process of collecting ideas resembles behaviors of Type 5 along the 7s path of integration.  The 7 can stay in this state as long as everyone is happy and having fun.  When things become less positive, the 7 becomes determined and focused on restoring positivity. That determination can resemble behaviors of Type 1 which lies on the 7’s path of disintegration.  Type 7s creative process tips back and forth between collecting ideas and promoting ideas.

Creativity Seesaw

Enneagram Type 7 brings tremendous positive energy to problem-solving teams.   In Chapter 5 of my book Teamwork 9.0—Successful Workgroup Problem Solving Using the Enneagram, a playground seesaw represents the back-and-forth motion between inspiration and action for each Enneagram type. Each type has a distinct seesaw on the playground. The seesaw’s fulcrum represents each Enneagram type’s intrinsic motivation, and higher fulcrum height represents higher motivation and deeper swings between inspiration and action.  Type 7 is in the Enneagram’s Thinking or Head Center, the underlying issue for which is anxiety.  Type 7’s anxiety levels depend on their relationships with those around them, and specifically on whether or not those relationships are positive.  To minimize their anxiety levels, Type 7s strive to create a positive environment so that they can be liked.

Enneagram Type 7 Motivation:  Being Liked

As the 7 engages with others, they seek to make those around them happy. Type 7s are talkative, charming and amusing. They are always on the alert for ideas to make others happy.  They collect these ideas and talk about them with others to see which ideas get the most positive reaction.  This processing of ideas can very much resemble the thoughtful behaviors of the analytical Type 5, and the 7 has access to this dynamic especially when their anxiety levels are low.

Enneagram Type 7 Inspiration: Collecting and Synthesizing Ideas

Enneagram Type 7 Action: Dogmatically Promoting Their Ideas

Anxiety levels increase for the 7 when there is negativity in the environment, especially if someone is unhappy with them.  This negativity prompts the 7 to reach into their beehive of ideas and start promoting those ideas that will restore a positive attitude towards them.  They can become quite determined in their pursuit of positivity, a dynamic that can resemble the doggedness of Type 1.  As the 7 succeeds in restoring a positive environment, anxiety recedes, and the cycle begins again, back and forth on their Creativity Seesaw.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. – Steve Jobs

Type 7s often do not know from where a specific idea came. Like the honey in the beehive, it is often the amalgam of many different ideas picked up over dozens of conversations. As the 7 is constantly engaged with people, they are continuously synthesizing and promoting fun ideas, making people happy, all of which results in them being liked.

How do the 7s in your life come up with ideas?  How do they react to negative situations?  When do you experience them sharing ideas to get you excited?

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For more details on each Enneagram type’s creative style, see the following series of blogs:

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.

Enneagram Type 6’s thoughts continually drift towards the future, alert to possibilities and a source for ideas and inspiration. These thoughts provide a distinct flavor for Type 6’s creative process.

The creative adult is the child who survived. – Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

Inspiration—Action

Enneagram Type 6 has easier access to inspiration when stress and anxiety recede.  In this state, the 6 has more perception of others and can perceive possibilities that work for everyone, much like the dynamic of Type 9 along the 6’s Path of Integration.  On the other hand, as stress and anxiety increase, the 6 can become singularly focused on their to-do list and highly productive as they check off action items, looking much like Type 3 along the 6’s Path of Disintegration.  Motion along each path gives the 6 access to both inspiration and action.

Creativity Seesaw

Creativity is essential for problem solving and each step in a problem-solving process benefits from a distinct creative style.  In Chapter 5 of my book Teamwork 9.0—Successful Workgroup Problem Solving Using the Enneagram, I use a playground seesaw to illustrate the swings back and forth between inspiration and action for each Enneagram type and to show how each type contributes to problem solving.

Intrinsic motivation underlies each Enneagram type’s creative drive and can be likened to the seesaw’s pivot point—the higher the motivation, the deeper the swings between inspiration and action.  Being at the core of the Enneagram’s Thinking or Head types, the underlying issue for Type 6 is anxiety.  Type 6s address their anxiety by anticipating and avoiding danger and risk in the future—avoiding risk motivates Type 6.

Enneagram Type 6 Motivation:  Anticipating the Future to Avoid Risk

Immersed in their thoughts about the future, the 6 is continuously thinking, what if this happens or what if that happens.  From these questions emerge ideas to systematically mitigate or avoid potential risk for themselves and for others in their orbit, finding ways for everyone to feel safe.  As a sense of safety pervades, anxiety recedes and the 6 moves along their path of integration. In the integrated state, the 6 exhibits an attentiveness to others’ safety which resembles Type 9’s attentiveness to the peace and harmony of others.

Enneagram Type 6 Inspiration:  Envisioning Systems that Reduce Risk for All

Enneagram Type 6 Action: Anxiously Working Their To-Do List

Once the ideas for reducing risk and securing safety emerge, the 6 can become highly focused.  Until the 6 implements the ideas and secures safety,  anxiety levels remain higher serving as a source of immense productive energy.  High anxiety levels represent movement along the path of disintegration, and in this state the 6’s intense focus on getting things done, even at the expense of consideration of others, can resemble the Type 3s focus on achieving goals and realizing success.  The rise and fall of anxiety levels represents movement on the paths between Type 9 and Type 3 dynamics and provides the 6 with both inspiration and action on their Creativity Seesaw.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. – Henry David Thoreau

Not only do Type 6s scan their space for possible dangers, they also scan time, the future. Their minds can resemble a simulator imagining all different possibilities and what-if scenarios.  When 6s are relaxed and not on high alert, they are free to let their minds wander. From these daydreams about the future come inspiration for the 6. Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series.  I can hardly imagine a more suitable creative pursuit for Type 6 than being a science fiction writer dreaming and writing about the future. And her quote, “The creative adult is the child who survived,” reveals Le Guin’s childhood obsession with avoiding risk and danger and surviving—classic Type 6!

Do the Enneagram Type 6’s in your life dream about the future?  Sometimes do you wonder if they are “present?”  Do they get anxious and hyper productive when alerted to a possible risk? How do they exercise their creativity to systematize safety?

Want More?

For more details on each Enneagram type’s creative style, see the following series of blogs:

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.