Excerpt from Bringing Out the
Best In Yourself at Work: How to Use the Enneagram System for Success
(McGraw-Hill 2004)
No one knows the precise origins of the Enneagram,
though its roots appear to lie in Asia and the Middle East and date
from several thousand years ago. The word Enneagram derives from the
Greek words ennea ("nine") and gram ("something written
or drawn") and refers to the nine points on the Enneagram model. The
Enneagram system offers profound insights into the nine very different
ways in which people feel, think, and behave.
Various parts of the Enneagram have been articulated by Gurdjieff, who
was prominent in Europe beginning in the 1930s; by Oscar Ischazo, from
Bolivia, who has been working since the 1950s to refine the system;
and by Chilean-born Claudio Naranjo, M.D., whose Enneagram work became
well known beginning in the 1970s, when he began teaching the system
in Northern California. From the foundational work of these three teachers,
others have made major contributions to our understanding of the Enneagram
system, among them, Helen Palmer and David Daniels, Don Richard Riso
and Russ Hudson, Kathy Hurley and Theodorre Donson, Tom Condon, and
Jerry Wagner.
The Enneagram
Far more than just a psychological framework,
the Enneagram is a key that can open the door to a deep understanding
of the self and the connections among personality, psychological development,
and spiritual transformation. Although the Enneagram is not a religion,
it has a spiritual as well as a psychological foundation. It parallels
many aspects of Christian mysticism, the Kaballah, and Sufism and attracts
people of all religions. Most other personality systems, by contrast,
have only a psychological basis. While the Enneagram may be used solely
as a psychological tool, many prefer to use the system with the psychological
and spiritual elements intertwined.
Bringing Out the Best in Yourself at Work: How to Use the Enneagram
System for Success makes no distinction between the psychological
and spiritual dimensions of the Enneagram, as the psychological and
spiritual issues for a particular Enneagram style are, in essence, the
same. Initially, the descriptions of Enneagram styles may appear more
psychologically than spiritually oriented. However, once you have gained
the self-insight that comes from understanding your position on the
Enneagram and are engaged in the actions suggested for your style, you
will find that you are growing in both the psychological and spiritual
arenas. While your psychological growth will enable you to function
more effectively on a day-to-day basis, your spiritual development may
emerge in a variety of ways, depending on your own inclination and receptivity
-- for example, increased knowledge and acceptance of who you are and
greater compassion for others. In addition to psychology and spirituality,
the Enneagram is being used in an expanding variety of other applications.
Applications
of the Enneagram
The Enneagram is currently being applied
in many fields and disciplines, among them business, education, psychotherapy,
entertainment, medicine, sales, and law. In business, for example, an
increasing number of organizations are using the Enneagram in both training
programs and organizational change initiatives because the Enneagram
system provides a thorough foundation for understanding why people actually
behave in the ways that they do. Among the organizations making use
of the Enneagram are the Walt Disney Company, Silicon Graphics, Kaiser
Permanente Research Center, the Federal Reserve Bank, the CIA, and Rational
Software. These and other companies and institutions use the Enneagram
in the areas of communication skills, conflict resolution, coaching,
leadership development, team effectiveness, strategic planning, and
organizational culture change.
Many additional applications exist in different industries. In the legal
field, the Enneagram is used in situations that include jury selection,
case presentation, the development of legal arguments, the development
of teams to represent particular clients, mediation, leadership in law
firms, and relationships between lawyers.
In sales, the Enneagram helps salespeople to improve both their presentations
and interactions with customers. Sales personnel use the Enneagram to
minimize their own style-based barriers when delivering sales presentations
to customers, to understand their strengths, and to tailor their communications
to the Enneagram styles of their key customers.
Healthcare professionals use the Enneagram to improve their interactions
with patients and their working relationships with other health professionals.
In addition, the Enneagram is currently used to help patients deal constructively
with important health issues such as chronic pain, stress reduction,
death and dying, medical treatments, and health prevention.
The Enneagram is also being used in the arts, entertainment, and sports
sectors. For example, screenwriters and novelists use the Enneagram
for developing their characters while directors use it with actors —
both in casting and interpersonal effectiveness. Major athletic teams
use the Enneagram with individual players, teams, and coaches to improve
their self-awareness and interpersonal interactions.
Because the Enneagram is both very powerful and easy to use, it is becoming
increasingly popular internationally. The Enneagram describes people
of every culture accurately; while there may be cultural nuances to
the actions of individuals who come from different countries or races
but have the same Enneagram style, the underlying personality dynamics
and motivations remain the same across cultures. The same is true for
gender: men and women of the same Enneagram style may display some gender-influenced
differences, but the pattern and dynamics of the style remain unchanged.
