1. What can the Enneagram do for my organisation?
The Enneagram makes explicit the fact that people are different and different personality types need to be managed differently. The idea of "personality type" must be taken into consideration in every area of the workplace if organizations are to be as effective and productive as they could be. The Enneagram helps everyone understand that there are nine different points of view, nine distinct sets of values, nine different communication styles, nine ways of solving problems–and so forth–that are all equally useful and valid. All of the types have something necessary to contribute to a thriving, balanced work environment.

2. How is the Enneagram different from the Myers-Briggs system?
The MBTI is a useful tool for indicating a person’s mental preferences: it addresses how a person is likely to approach a problem. While this is useful, the Enneagram goes beyond the MBTI to provide invaluable information on core motivations. The Enneagram addresses not only how each type approaches problems, but why they take a particular approach. It also makes clear what drives each type of person, how each type goes after different goals, how each type reacts to stress and conflict, and how best to communicate with each type. The Riso-Hudson approach to the Enneagram also helps managers recognize when each type is getting more stuck–or when they are becoming more high-functioning. In short, the Enneagram is a more complete and more in-depth approach to the human component in management than any other system for dealing with personality styles and issues.

3. In what specific areas can the Enneagram be used?
The Enneagram is a dynamic tool for enhancing communication on every level of an organization. It "lubricates" all interactions throughout the workplace. Moreover, it helps retain valuable employees by increasing job satisfaction and productivity. It can be used for executive search to find the right person for the job–and for executive coaching to help people work at the highest level of their capacities. The Enneagram is particularly valuable for team building, team development, conflict resolution, negotiation, and leadership development.

4. How do people find out what type they are?
They can take an in-house course on the Enneagram from a Riso-Hudson trained consultant and read the descriptions of the types. A shorter method is to take the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI, Version 2.5) online or in booklet form. The RHETI is the only independently scientifically validated Enneagram-based test available. It is a questionnaire composed of 144 forced-choice statements, and is the most reliable Enneagram test now available. The person’s basic type is almost certain to be one of the top three scores. Further, beyond indicating the person’s basic type, the RHETI produces a full-spectrum profile of all nine types, showing the relative strengths and weaknesses of each type in the person.

5. What is the Riso-Hudson Insight Approach^sm
The Insight Approach^sm emphasizes clarity, specificity. comprehensiveness, and depth of Enneagram information. Don Riso and Russ Hudson feel that the power of the Enneagram lies in the ability to bring precision and insight to management problems, not vague generalities. The Insight Approach^sm also describes healthy, average, and disruptive level attitudes and behaviours for each type, an extremely useful feature that is not addressed by the MBTI or by other approaches to the Enneagram. The Insight Approach^sm is available only through professionals certified through The Enneagram Institute.

6. What are some businesses that have used the Enneagram?
The following organizations have used the Enneagram–Adobe, Amoco, AT&T, Avon Products, Boeing Corporation, The DuPont Company, e-Bay, Prudential Insurance (Japan), General Mills Corporation, General Motors, Alitalia Airlines, KLM Airlines, The Coalition of 100 Black Women, General Mills, Kodak, Hewlett Packard, Toyota, Procter & Gamble, International Weight Watchers, Reebok Health Clubs, Motorola, Prudential Insurance, and Sony.

So many practical applications are possible with the Enneagram because it is a framework that clarifies the mutually sustaining, self-balancing components that are part of any complex process. Whenever we wish to understand any process more clearly (and why any course of action does or does not work), we can use the Enneagram as a guide.

For example, to start and operate a successful enterprise, one needs vision and confidence (Eight), the ability to bring people together and to listen to them (Nine), ethical standards and quality control (One), the ability to serve people and anticipate their needs (Two), promotional and communication skills (Three), a well designed product and a sensitivity to its emotional impact on individuals (Four), technical expertise and innovative ideas (Five), teamwork and self-regulating feedback (Six), and energy and optimism (Seven). Thus, each type, seen metaphorically, is a necessary component of the whole, and without it, something important will be deficient or even entirely missing. This kind of analysis can be made on many different conceptual levels for an amazing variety of phenomena.

We can use the Enneagram to understand a multitude of business applications, relationships, parenting, cultural differences, and personal growth. We can also use the Enneagram to gain more insight into academic psychology, philosophy, education, biography, the arts (and the styles of composers and creative artists), mythology and the study of archetypes, religion and mysticism, prayer and ascetic practices, spirituality and spiritual direction, psychological testing, brain chemistry, casting and acting, advertising, sales, marketing, and all forms of communication, various kinds of therapy (and the personalities of the psychologists who created them), marriage, career, and legal counselling, sports coaching, lawyer and jury selection, politics (and the character of officeholders and those running for office), and various dimensions of cultural studies. These are just some of the areas in which people are either currently applying the Enneagram or seeking more information about how to do so.

No matter how we use the Enneagram, we need first and foremost to discover our own personality type and (where possible) to ascertain the types of those we are dealing with. If the Enneagram is to be used for personal growth, relationships, therapy, or in the business world, one's primary personality type ( and those of others) must be accurately assessed. The Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (version 2.5) provides a reliable, independently scientifically validated tool for that purpose. But we must remember that discovering our type is only the first step in the process of self-discovery and working with this system. Finding our type is not the final goal but merely the starting place for one of the most fascinating and rewarding journeys of our life.

Organizations around the world are demanding more accurate information about the needs of clients and employees—and how best to communicate with them. Many are also interested in developing a more humane and person-centred approach to the workplace so that they can attract and retain valuable employees and achieve peak productivity. If we want to maximize our productivity in the workplace, we need to learn how to manage ourselves and how to manage different types of people. The Enneagram is uniquely suited to meet these needs—and many more—in the business world.

The key to success in any venture is the ability to communicate with others, to inspire them to share your vision and goals, and to provide clear direction and keep things on track through clear feedback. Yet communication is often difficult if personality type is not taken into account because people tend to believe that others think the same way they do and that others have the same motivations, values, priorities, and reactions as they do.

Even if we understand that different people need to be managed differently, without an adequate idea of what those differences actually are, it is difficult to manage people more effectively. Once type differences are taken into account, however, solutions grow out of insights about the nature of each type, its habitual reactions, and its motivations. When type is taken into account, communication becomes exponentially more effective and people can recognize and make the most of human diversity. The Enneagram helps managers and personnel at every level understand that there are nine different points of view, nine distinct sets of values, nine different communication styles, nine ways of solving problems—and so forth—and that they are all equally useful and valid. All of the types have something necessary to contribute to a thriving, balanced work environment.

By understanding personality types, we can speak the language of others, which may be very different from our own. Real communication is then possible, and we are able to deal more even-handedly with conflicts, ineffective work habits, office politics, and different management styles, among other important work issues. The Enneagram lubricates all interactions in the workplace by giving people a common vocabulary and frame of reference. Moreover, it helps retain valuable employees by increasing job satisfaction and productivity. It can be used in an executive search to find the right person for the job—and in executive coaching to help people work at the highest level of their capacities. The Enneagram is also particularly valuable for team development, conflict resolution, negotiation, and leadership development.

Furthermore, the Enneagram helps us see our own personality dynamics more clearly. Once we are aware of the importance of personality types, we see that our own style will not be equally effective with everyone. Thus, one of the most useful lessons of the Enneagram is how to move from a management style in which others are expected to mould themselves to our way of thinking and values to a more flexible management style in which we act from an awareness of the strengths and potential contributions of others. By doing so, we help others become more effective themselves—and as a result, harmony, productivity, and satisfaction are likely to increase.

The following brief descriptions of the nine types emphasize how they appear in the business world. (We also use different names for some of the types, since in our experience, these are more acceptable in the business world.) You may be able to identify yourself or someone else through this brief "paragraph test," and you can use the descriptions to corroborate what you have found by taking the full RHETI. Needless to say, these brief descriptions are by no means complete—but they are a good place to see the utility of the Enneagram in this context.

The following Personality Grid^sm shows how all nine types take on specific Interpersonal Roles. As the Grid indicates, the nine types can be divided into three groups of three: those whose "social function" is as a soloist, an initiator, or a co-operator. These three groups are further subdivided into three groups depending on those whose concern is primarily focused on developing the self, on looking to the future, or on influencing others. The words in parenthesis describe the principal asset or talent each type attempts to bring to the workplace. The italicized title is a healthy role of the type.

The Interpersonal Roles Personality Grid^sm

Each type also has less-than-optimal aspects to it, and these characteristics could also be added to the above Personality Grid^sm to indicate more disruptive qualities.

In all of the following "Disruptive Roles," people become more defensive about their identity and more willing to get into conflicts with others to maintain their sense of self. It is when people get stuck in these roles that much of the ego-centric posturing and "game playing" found in organizations takes place. People then find it increasingly difficult to put their own ego agendas aside for the common good or to cooperate with others in the organization.

The Disruptive Roles Personality Grid^sm

Information about various aspects of the personality types could continue to be listed in a series of Personality Grids. However, the nine personality types are not static categories but are related to each other in revealing ways and can be arranged around a circle. We can also draw lines between the types to represent the connections between them—and the Enneagram symbol results.

The Enneagram not only delineates the nine basic personality types but the internal lines indicate potentials for further adaptive and defensive behaviours for each type. This dynamic quality is unique to the Enneagram, and makes this system extremely helpful in interpersonal and business settings. Beyond its usefulness to managers, the Enneagram brings depth and clarity to executive development, leadership, team building, customer service and sales—as well as many other areas of personal and organizational life.

One of the most practical uses of the Enneagram is to help managers be more insightful about the problematic qualities that the different types bring to the workplace. For example, the following "Enneagram of the Dysfunctional Workplace" clarifies some of the troublesome influences of each type, particularly as pressures build and people operate in more disruptive ways. Naturally, the different types need to be managed differently if they are to resolve these negative tendencies.

Through the clarity and comprehensive of The Insight Approach^smthe Enneagram can serve as a guide to a wide range of management applications such as team assessment, team building, coaching, executive development, and dealing with downsizing issues, to name just a few.

The Levels of Development

The Level of Development are an original contribution of Don Riso and Russ Hudson not only to the Enneagram but to general psychology. The Levels allow for a more useful and growth-oriented understanding of the idea of personality type by adding a "vertical" dimension to the "horizontal" distinctions that the Enneagram makes. The Levels have been praised by consciousness pioneer Ken Wilber as the most important dimension of Enneagram work today.

The nine personality types can be understood as a "continuum" of nine internal stages, each with specific behaviours and motivations. Everyone moves "up" and "down" the Levels of their type continually. Much like a thermometer measures the temperature of something, the Levels of Development measure the level of health, maturity, and openness to reality—among other qualities—for each type. Having an "internal thermometer" of each type’s degree of flexibility and maturity enables managers and HR professionals to see how well people are functioning and to design interventions that will be most helpful for the individual.

The nine Levels themselves have overall themes, the understanding of which helps people see their behaviour more objectively. For instance, for each of the nine personality types, the themes of the Levels of Development are:

Copyright, 2001, The Enneagram Institute                              All Rights Reserved

The above information may seem abstract—until it is applied to each of the individual personality types. The following traits for Enneagram Type Eight, The Challenger give an idea of how this approach can be used for coaching people to "move up the Levels."

The traits listed here for each Level are highly abbreviated. There are actually clusters of dozens of related traits at each Level as well as the specific motivations that form the backbone of each type. See Personality Types for the most complete descriptions of the Levels available.