4 Benefits of Bringing The Enneagram To Your Workplace
Maybe you read about it on CNN Business or know a friend’s company that uses the Enneagram, but you’re wondering, “Should I bring the Enneagram into my organization? Does it really make a difference? What are the outcomes?”
Well, the short answer is… yes, you probably should. Hundreds of companies around the U.S. and more around the globe are finding that this tool leads to higher workplace satisfaction, productivity, and collaboration. This bears out in our experience where our findings indicate that the Enneagram is the single most beneficial tool for the long-term health of multi-level organizations.
Typically, the results we see come about through repetitive coaching with one of our trained Enneagram professionals, but you’re likely to experience at least a small amount of these benefits just by knowing and integrating the Enneagram’s awareness practices into your work and company.
From an organizational perspective, here are the benefits we see from introducing the Enneagram:
Helps team members through conflict
Aids employees and execs to find greater meaning and productivity in their work
As a managerial connection point
Breaks leaders beyond their current molds
Let’s go into each of these below.
The Enneagram as conflict tool
Because the Enneagram maps personality according to desires (each type is articulated based on a primary motivator and fear) we find that the Enneagram is a laser-precise tool for getting down to core issues quickly. This is especially useful in conflict situations. Conflict often arises due to miscommunication, value differences, or personality dynamics, so having the Enneagram in an organization’s toolbox creates a structure under which honest, vulnerable conversation can occur—if the Enneagram is introduced quickly and appropriately when the conflict occurs.
To give an example, conflict might be occurring between two members of a team. When guiding dialogue under the framework of the Enneagram, the mediator is often able to ask how their ennea-type shows up at work and eventually get down to a statement such as, “Because of my 5 energy, I can often feel exhausted or overwhelmed by certain social situations I’m thrust into.” An individual with another personality type might say something like, “Because I have so much 3 energy, it feels really difficult to slow down at work and think about the details of my tasks instead of speeding through them as quickly as possible.” In conflict scenarios that can take months, getting someone to say these types of things after a handful of sessions is pure magic. As people own their part, the conflict diminishes. And the Enneagram is perfect for providing this framework where individuals can own their personality’s particular strengths and weaknesses and talk about them in a neutral, non-blaming way.
The Enneagram for higher workplace satisfaction and productivity
We know from Harvard Business expert Dr. Amy Edmondson and dozens of studies on “psychological safety” (including a 2017 Gallup report ) that, as employees feel more understood and cared for at work, their presence and commitment improve as well. The 2017 Gallup study estimated that productivity in these environments increases by 12%, not including less turnover and a host of other benefits.
While any kind of employee development typically promotes psychological safety purely because you’re investing in your employees, we find that nothing quite has the heft of the Enneagram, and we think this is due to the dynamic nature of the personality framework. The Enneagram encourages understanding and compassion and shows how any personality has its strengths and weaknesses.
Not only that, but we often find an integrated approach to the Enneagram helps executives, employees, and other team members know what each individual is looking for from others (encouragement, space to share, space to work on a project by themselves, etc.) according to their Enneagram type. As this understanding is discussed among a team and multiplied throughout an organization, we’ve truly seen entire corporations transform within a few months. Team members might start organizing projects differently or even create practices that cater to their teammates more. This leads to more camaraderie and also a willingness to engage and even disagree in healthy ways.
The Enneagram as managerial aid
Management work is hard, costs your organization a lot, and employees often don’t communicate their needs in ways that are actionable or understood, forcing managers to do a huge amount of their work in the dark.
By pinpointing desires and fears (and with the help of a simple tool like the Enneaflip), the Enneagram rises above other workplace personality tests by allowing managers to discuss deep needs with employees. These conversations are part of the psychological safety mentioned above. However, we often find that the benefits are especially pronounced for managers who find a whole new way to approach team members, do check-ins and discuss workplace needs. With the Enneagram providing a kind of safety net, managers are better able to talk about what really matters to employees. The Enneagram won’t solve all your managerial needs ( we do recommend, you know, asking employees just normal human questions that aren’t entirely Enneagram-related) but in our work, we find managers particularly desperate for the help that the Enneagram personality framework offers.
The Enneagram as a way to help leaders reach the next level
In the famous words of Marshall Goldsmith, “What got you here won’t get you there,” and one of the reasons we specialize in the Enneagram is because we’ve seen it be especially useful in helping leaders step beyond their current level of development. This is largely because the Enneagram provides a map of a fully rounded human personality to strive toward, and which we will never reach.
This makes the Enneagram unique among personality frameworks because it sets an infinite horizon in which the story of growth is never complete. This horizon is important in order for leaders to continue in their path toward success and deeper impact. Moreover, the Enneagram not only provides this horizon, it also charts a path towards growth which you can follow, no matter how far along you are on your leadership journey.
Often this process looks like helping a leader know their Enneagram type (or even potential Enneagram type), getting them to self observe the ways in which certain aspects of reality are heightened or neutralized based on those patterns, and then prescribing daily life tools which help them show up to work or life in refreshed, more creative, and more dynamic ways. The best part about this process is that the Enneagram does most of the heavy lifting, it just takes an outside eye to know how to properly implement the steps.
There you have it. We see tons of benefits for company culture with the introduction of the Enneagram. Moreover, this transformation tends to be carried with individuals for the rest of their professional lives, meaning it creates lasting value for your company’s executives and employees.
