Europe
The Enneagram in the Czech Republic
In Czech companies, the Enneagram is used in interviews, personal coaching, team coaching, team building, and emotional leadership. There are courses on how to use the Enneagram in feedback, conflict resolution, and communication, as well as special open-business courses, where participants are taught how to use the Enneagram in business. Human resource managers are also learning and using the Enneagram.
The Enneagram is a methodology for changing people's habits to form their personal and professional future. We also use the Enneagram for individual emotional training, teaching the ability to process through negative feelings and transform them. The Enneagram helps us to find a way to change habits and it is a method for everyday conscious working, conscious presence, and conscious decision making.
For emotional and social competencies and personal development, the Enneagram has been used in basic and secondary schools in the Czech Republic. A project involving training 6000 teachers over two years in various EU locations was concluded successfully last year. The next step is family and parents‘ Enneagram education.
There is also a new re-skilling program, LOR (Lectors for Personal Development), that was successfully launched just this year. They are learning about the Enneagram, basic levels of emotional intelligence, coaching, and bodywork.
In the Czech Republic, we are having excellent results in increasing consciousness and changing lives.
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The Enneagram in Denmark
The Enneagram is used in Denmark in both private businesses and in businesses and institutions within the public sector. The use of the Enneagram in Denmark started in the nineties when consulting companies and HR consultants brought home the first information from conferences in the USA. Up until that point, the Enneagram was primarily known for being applied to personal development.
The Danish corporate world and public institutions have a tradition of using various personality systems, primarily based on C.G. Jung's typologies. But today, the situation is very different. A new generation of leaders and HR employees recognises the potential of the Enneagram, one reason being the pedagogic and equal approach of the Enneagram that goes well with the Danish culture.
The first large companies to use the Enneagram in connection with organisational development were pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies, IT companies, and a few industry businesses; these were companies and businesses where top management had focus on value-adding management and motivation based on the theory that not only leaders but employees in the entire organisation can be motivated to show increased self-management and sense of responsibility via insight into and an understanding of how to communicate and work together constructively.
Today, the Enneagram has been integrated in the programs of large international as well as small Danish companies and organisations within the public sector, in their work with organisational development processes such as leadership development, change management, teamwork processes, sales, and communication. This work is often carried out in cooperation with external consulting or training companies, for private businesses, unions, or enterprises within the public sector. At the European Enneagram conference held in Denmark in 2008, Danish and international speakers expressed a particular focus on business workshops and it showed clearly that the interest in the use of the Enneagram is undergoing a positive development.
The use of the Enneagram within Danish businesses is expected to grow even further in the future as the Enneagram goes well together with the Danish culture and attitude that employees do not necessarily have to fill in a test but can, via dialogue and feedback, get a better insight into their own self and others.
The Danes are very process-oriented people who create results via dialogue and cooperation, trusting and respecting their colleagues to do the same. This is the attitude that Danish export companies take with them when they go into the world, and this is where the Enneagram can help bring new colleagues from different cultures together to work towards common goals via the shared language and understanding offered us by the Enneagram.
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The Enneagram in Finland
In Finland, we have been using the Enneagram system in organizations for over 15 years. Over that period of time, we've been working in a large number of companies, but particularly in health care and other public sectors. These Enneagram-based programs have been a part of wider organization effectiveness programs focusing on how to develop conscious and effective leaders and to enhance high-performing teams.
Many people first become acquainted with the Enneagram on a private basis – for example, a number of people have been exposed to the Enneagram through coaching or personal development programs and then decide to bring the system into their organizations. In addition, there have been courses throughout the country for life coaches, business coaches, and young leaders who will guide the future success of our companies.
Because Finland is a relatively open and receptive society, the Enneagram is well received once people become familiar with it. The enthusiasm among people here is vivid and a sign of that is that Finland has the biggest Enneagram Association in Scandinavia.
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The Enneagram in France
In France, more and more companies are using the Enneagram. A great deal of work has been achieved during the past 15 years, when it was first discovered by French people and applied in their personal lives, but later used by companies who understand the variety and effectiveness of the Enneagram's business applications.
French culture can be described like this: "All of us – we are all so very different that nobody can understand me and nobody can put me into a sort of box." The focus on individuality is an important part of French culture in general and the French managerial culture in particular. This is in contrast to Americans, who are more team oriented – though still individualistic – and regularly work with others in a pragmatic way.
Relationships are more complex than in the United States. French people are more closed and reserved, and the organizational hierarchy is still very often more of a "military" or "top-down" style. As a result, there was some initial reluctance among French companies to embrace an empowering system like the Enneagram, but it is now gaining acceptance because companies in the United States and other European countries have had such positive results using it. In addition, the French are well educated and exploratory, and it is obvious that organizations must change the way they do business as well as how they develop employees and leaders if they want to be competitive globally and locally, and that the Enneagram is a excellent way to do this.
In Paris, many French and multi-national firms are using the Enneagram in a variety of business applications such as teamwork, leadership, coaching, feedback, and conflict resolution, and many are using it on an ongoing basis. The Enneagram was originally introduced to several different companies by consultants, coaches, and trainers whom these organizations trusted based on prior successful work, and these organizations are now using the Enneagram in a wide rang of applications. For example, a high-end luxury firm has been using the Enneagram more and more, starting with their French operations and now spreading it to their organization in other parts of the world.
In the western part of France, companies were seeking a new and effective method in order to increase respect for people at work and to make it easier for people to understand one another. They discovered that the Enneagram could be used to improve leadership, create better relationships, and foster team development. They find the Enneagram to be concrete, practical, efficient, and effective.
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The Enneagram in Germany
by Ulf Tödter
Interest in the Enneagram was awakened in the early 1990s by the bestselling books of Rohr & Ebert and Palmer. Shortly afterwards, people began to receive training in teaching and using the Enneagram in professional contexts. Since then, over 200 people have completed accredited training.
These trainings encouraged participants to introduce the Enneagram to support the development of entire organisations as well as teams, especially in the non-profit and social sectors (e.g. hospitals and nursing homes) or in networks of professionals.
It reached the profit sector shortly afterward, but its use was sporadic for several reasons:
- Books about the professional use of the Enneagram, written by foreign authors in the late nineties, vanished pretty quickly from the market
- Recently, new books by German authors have filled this gap, promoting the use of the Enneagram in specific applications (understanding people, authenticity in leadership, social skills for leaders, project management, simplify your life, no more excuses, etc.)
- New learning materials and teaching tools for specific professional uses have been recently developed (Lapid-Bogda, Tödter/Salzwedel/Werner, and others)
The German culture exhibits several characteristics of Enneagram Type Six. We are careful people and check something in detail before we are convinced. The time seems to be ripe now for a broader application of the Enneagram in the profit and non-profit sectors – the new materials facilitate the matter and the first feedback is encouraging.
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The Enneagram in Ireland
The Enneagram is delivered to a wide number of companies and organizations across may different sectors, from the large multinational to local service outlets. A number of organizations in the banking and finance area have received specific programmes and workshops covering such topics as teambuilding, stress management, and conflict resolution. These have taken place in both the larger retail banking organization as well as smaller specialized finance companies. Applications have been either cross-functional, team, or issue specific.
In the health sector, specific work-related Enneagram workshops have been used for personal development, enhancing better team functioning and improving communication skills. Common applications have been staff in-service training as well as senior management team effectiveness.
Trainings and workshops are delivered in the more traditional industries including publishing and manufacturing, as well as the IT, pharmaceutical, and sustainable energy sectors. Areas of application have included team development, conflict management, and leadership.
A number of educational bodies have received either one-session workshops or ongoing courses including the Irish Management Institute, NUI Maynooth, and other third level institutions and second level schools. The Enneagram is now appearing in the curriculum of leadership programmes, in particular the Burren Leadership forum. Business Coaching training organizations are now embracing the Enneagram and include modules in their programmes for certifying Business coaches.
The Enneagram is part of the curriculum for training workplace mediators by the Institute of Public Administration. Workshops in the application of the Enneagram in conflict are now approved by the Mediators Institute of Ireland for CPD among it members.
In the future, the trend is for the Enneagram to be more widely used in organizations for both individual and team development and applicable in specific areas such as marketing, performance management, and conflict management. In addition, trainings for business coaches, mediators, and HR specialists will be developed, thus allowing a wider diffusion of the Enneagram as a widely used method for self and team management.
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