Heavy research

Some folks like academic "hard data" research and would like to see the Enneagram "scientifically" validated. Here's how one guy did it.



Using the Enneagram to help organizations attract, motivate, & retain their employees
by Hebenstreit, R. Karl, Ph.D., Alliant International University, San Francisco Bay, 2007 , 128 pages; AAT 3294292

ABSTRACT (abstract summary is below)

This study used an on-line survey to evaluate various hypotheses around differences in decisions to join, stay with, or leave organizations being explained by differences in Enneatype. 87 completed surveys were collected July-August 2007 and data was analyzed using Cronbach's alpha (reliability), ANOVA and Tukey tests (chance), and Fisher exact tests (links to MBTI). The results supported several of the hypotheses, revealing that some statistically significant (p < 0.05) inter-Enneatype differences exist in decisions to join, stay with, and/or leave organizations:

Enneatype 1s differed from 4s and 8s in valuing supervisory integrity more when having joined organizations. They also differed from 3s and 4s in that dimension having chosen to stay with their current companies. Enneatype 6s differed from 4s in their higher valuation of trust in leadership having decided to join organizations (as did 1s, 5s, 7s, and 9s). A collaborative work environment was more important for 9s than 4s remaining with past employers. Sufficient time off was valued more by Enneatype 5s (and 6s) than 3s having chosen to stay with past employers. Enneatype 6s (along with 1s and 2s) valued trust in leadership more than 4s having chosen to stay with past organizations. Additionally, Enneatype 1s differed from 3s in valuing the aggregate literature review-based factors more having chosen to stay with their current employers. Further analysis by subtype revealed statistically significant differences between social and sexual counterparts in the former's higher valuation of innovative work when joining and remaining with past organizations. Social subtypes differed from self-preservation peers having chosen to stay with past employers based on collaborative work environments. Sexual subtypes differed from social subtypes in their valuation of supervisory support having decided to stay with past employers, and from both other subtypes when factoring in interesting work. Other statistically significant results (0.05 < p < 0.08) were also revealed that require further research with larger populations. The results of this study validated many of the findings and predictions of the literature and Enneagram theory. These findings should provoke corporate action to integrate the basic motivations of the Enneatypes into the workplace to attract, retain, and motivate their diverse workforce.

So there!

Get together to get it together

Beginning with, or least powerfully augmented by, the Bush administrations deliberate frightening of America (Time magazine's cover headline: Be Very Afraid! and the degree of fear calibrated yellow and orange), the culture, normally a style Three on the Enneagram is showing some signs of a slide to side Six.

With style six comes explicit fear and a distrust of authority (11% congressional approval).

What is encouraging in the underbrush however, is how often the purveyors of bad news who are just warning us based on data tell us that the best way we can survive the coming hard times is in community.

When the US was more confident, the cultural ideal was "independently wealthy." But if the planet is overheating and government is corrupt, lots of luck with that strategy. The strategy most often suggested is "grassroots" and "local initiative" and "shared burdens" -- the high side of style six. Sixes are the most loyal and most communal of all the styles. Strength in numbers and all that.

So if you read or watch the news, and are getting frightened, do what healthy sixes do: form community.

When I was editor of the Enneagram Educator, I was working for the National Catholic Reporter, so I had a lot of subscribers who were sisters. I did a survey and 40% of those women who live in and love community were Sixes. Figures.

Supply and Demand

The underlying principle of economics is the assumption of scarcity. Things are as valuable as they are scarce. The law of supply and demand.
That metaphor works well for our ego states, too. Every Enneagram style is an experience of deprivation, of shortage. The more entranced we are in our ego style, the less grateful we are for what we have and the more conscious we are of what we don't have and our need to have it.

So one way to discern your style and your relative freedom within it is to ask, "What is missing from my life?" If you really want to shake things up inside, follow up with, "And this thing(s) missing from my life -- how do I keep it out?

Parallel universe

It is Sunday. If you watch political "debates," you see what the Enneagram theory elucidates. People live in different worlds. When one person starts talking, the other person takes exception to every sentence because the assumptions behind the sentence is unacceptable.
For example, Republicans believe (and it has the power of religious belief), that "government is the problem." Non republicans (democrats, independents, people who read books), don't accept that.
But every ideology is something like an Enneagram style. It operates out of a "model of the universe." In certain Enneagram styles, the universe is really dangerous; in others, it is not. The world is different.
Take a less incendiary example: for some people UFO's are just not real because, in some sense, they simply are not (and maybe CAN not) be part of their world. For others, they keep scanning the sky because "they've seen 'em." My mechanic, a hard hat realist, has seen UFO's. The pharmacist, a no-nonsense realist, knows they don't really exist.
I'm a theologian. In my universe, let's talk about divine intervention. The Rapture - devoutly believed by many bumper-stickered native-- it is not going to happen. I know, because in my world, in my model of the universe, it just is not going to happen. I'm as sure of my belief as they are of theirs.
Every Enneagram style has a set of beliefs about what is/is not going to happen because that's the world is.
The smaller your world, the more rigid your beliefs. Except mine. Rapture is NOT going to happen.

Court Jester

Steven Colbert testified before congress yesterday, doing what a Seven does best: delivering important information in a manner that is entertaining but has a bite.
Colbert stands in the tradition of a great 7ish archetype: the court jester. It was the job of the jester to entertain the king but also to tell the king some things he probably did not want to hear.

The jester was often called a fool. Be that as it may, Colbert is foolish and he is no fool.

Infinity and beyond

You never get enough of what you really don't want. One of the characteristics of an Enneagram ego style is excess. Freud noted that all neurotic desires are infinite. This explains why, some people can not get enough money. In the US, the top 1% have 38% of the wealth and the top 20% have 84% of the wealth and are lobbying--bribing-- to have their taxes reduced and are sheltering their money in the Cayman Islands. The Wal-Mart family has as much money as 120 million Americans (that's one third of the population).
Individually and collectively, egotism leads to excess. That's why, when I want to determine an Enneagram style, I ask, "What do you do, voluntarily (that's important - that it be voluntary) too much of? Work too hard, eat too much, surf the net too much, watch TV too much, shop too much -- it can be anything. The reason it is excess is because you're doing it instead of getting what you really want. You shop because you want personal power, or because you want to think you're beautiful or you want to take revenge on your spouse by spending the money--our excesses can disguise our real wants. Our desire for more is not targeted at what we really want.

Necessity

Necessity is the mother of invention - and the sister of creativity. Necessity is a form of vacuum, an awareness of "not" -- not working, not pleasant, not available -- not something important.

As such it is a precondition of learning, and creativity can be thought of as learning that comes from within. (That's why it is called inspiration at times).

A young man went to the old Confucian master and said he wanted to be his student. The master politely agreed and told him to come to his house the next morning at tea time. When they sat down, the master began to fill the younger man's cup. But after the cup was full, he kept on pouring. When the young man protested, the older man said, "Well, this is like our situation. You come to me for wisdom, but you are already so full of yourself that there is no room for me to give you anything."

But when we are in pain or confused or consciously ignorant--some kind of emptiness-- then we feel the necessity that is the mother of invention and the sister of creativity. I have learned that this necessity comes from two directions: a pull into something new or a kick, strategically placed, to suggest I leave something old. From either direction, I feel a certain urgency - a necessity.
So where are you empty? Your Enneagram style, with it's tight focus on one thing, usually omits looking or sensing other areas. Look at the "low side" of your enneagram style and you will see your empty area - a source of creativity.

The mother of invention

Before Wikipedia there were linguistic insights so profound and widely applicable that they became aphorisms. The reason they stick in our language is that all of us are smarter than any of us--the principle behind wikipedia.

Necessity is the mother of invention. It is only when we are aware of what we don't have that we invent something new. Pain works quite well. If I am in pain doing something, it feels necessary to do something different.

Once I am aware of what I don't have, what the vacancy is, what I don't know, what I fear, then I can do something different. When it becomes emotionally necessary to make a change, I make the requisite invention. Complacency is the mother of paralysis. As you become aware of your enneagram energy, you become more aware of what you're missing.

The people have spoken by keeping this principle alive in the treasury of sayings: Necessity is the mother of invention.

Religion undefined

The Enneagram is widely used for spiritual growth. Saturday I'm going to spend a day with a liberal protestant church integrating the Enneagram with the scriptures.
You will notice that most Enneagram authors, while deeply, passionately at times, concerned with spirituality, do not use it in conjunction with "organized" religion.

Christian religion in the United States is "generally" not spiritual. It gives people something to belong to, some have virtuous outreaches and missionary work that combines social justice and proselytizing.

But there is very little healthy, mature religion. The sermons are largely moralistic, much of the religion in Christian book stores is the "gospel of gain" (sometimes called the prosperity gospel) like the prayer of Jabez. Much catholic piety is stickily sentimental, especially the writings about Mary.

The right-wing Christians are a vicious lot, by and large, at least as they show up in state and national politics. I'm not concerned with them. Of greater concern is the run of the mill church goers. They could really profit from the enneagram, but they really don't have a spiritual matrix that could assimilate the Enneagram.

Environment, really local

Marshall McLuhan, the 60's media guru had a principle that modern business and hospital research confirms. First, you create an environment, and then the environment creates you.
Look around your office/home/car. It reflects you, of course, but it also creates you. For example, every file that needs attention --filing, answering, filling, reworking-- is a not only a drain on your energy, it also functions as your mother or father or teacher, whoever had the job of getting you to do what you didn't want to.

Yes, each file is a visual nag: "don't forget to do me," "don't forget this has to be done," "don't forget your deadline for this." You may think you grew up and left home, but you brought the nagging of your parents and teachers with you. You hired piles of paper to nag (the kinder word is remind) you to get your work done.

Wouldn't it be nice to grow up and not have anyone--or any thing -- tell you to clean your room?

It would also be nice to understand that imposing order on your office restructures you inner life a bit. Think of it as very cheap therapy.

What you see is what you get

My friend, Tom Condon, sent me the results of an experiment of how our perception influences us. Remember, the starting point of the enneagram is our focus of attention.
Closing the Gap: How Desire Affects Perceptions of Distance
When we judge distance, desired objects seem nearer
By Valerie Ross

We often assume we see our physical surroundings as they actually are. But new research suggests that how we see the world depends on what we want from it.

People see desirable objects as physically closer than less desirable ones, according to a study in the January issue of Psychological Science. When psychologists Emily Balcetis of New
York University and David Dunning of Cornell University asked people to estimate how far away a bottle of water was, those who were thirsty guessed it was closer than nonthirsty people did. This difference in perception showed up in a physical challenge, too. People tossing a beanbag at a $25 gift card were, on average, nine inches shy, whereas people aiming for a gift card worth nothing overshot by an inch.

As the brain evolved, people who saw distances to goals as shorter might have gone after what they wanted more often. This error in perception was actually an advantage, leading people to get what they needed—and, perhaps, survive more often than their more accurate counterparts. “Seeing water as closer when you’re thirsty might make it a little more likely you’ll try to go get it,” Balcetis says.

What are you looking at?

The Shadow rules

An Enneagram style has a shadow. That shadow is not an evil thing, it is just the opposite of what your usual habits are.
The shadow can be very strong. For example, some Enneagram students and teachers see the humorist Bill Maher as a 7. He is a really strong and funny style One. He is angry and vents his anger against all sorts of stupidity. One of his books is called "New Rules," a giveaway of the inner structure of style One.
But he has a strong connection to his 7 shadow, so he is funny and entertaining, usually a hallmark of a 7. Listen carefully and you'll hear him angry and that anger is home base.

Burning Books

A moderately to seriously deranged pastor (Jones) in Gainesville, Florida got the world's attention by threatening to burn the Koran. Everybody from Obama on down paid attention to this pathetic pastor. Why?
Why should burning the book be any more worthy of the world's attention than our killing of more than a million people in Iraq to get their oil?
Because it was a symbol. We are not a rational race, we operate off symbols. We scream in delight at football games, we pay exorbitant sums for cars that will go fast on roads that are choked with traffic that won't let us go fast.
We live by symbols. The Koran is such a symbol.
So when we wish to make a change in our life, one of the things that works best is to make a small symbolic change. If you want to stop procrastinating, do one small thing you've been putting off.
If you know the Enneagram, do one small activity that is typical of your stress or security point. For example, if you are a Two, your connecting points are 4 and 8, so do one small aesthetic thing that is self-nurturing: buying flowers or decorating your office or learning to knit. Abstract resolutions like "I'm going to take better care of my self," are useless. New Year's resolutions usually fail for this reason.