Why "Advancing the Enneagram"?

Note: This newsletter will focus exclusively on the Enneagram model of personality styles and its applications in organizations. If you are interested in the Enneagram, please subscribe. If you are interested in leadership in general, you can subscribe to my "Awareness to Action Newsletter."

A lot has changed since I first started studying the Enneagram in 1994.

Some of those changes have been for the better, some have not…

Back then, there were only a handful of books, the occasional set of cassette tapes, and a handful of live trainings by a small number of early pioneers in the field. I read every word I could find and traveled great distances to study with some of the leading teachers in the field.

The Enneagram was almost unknown. When I would introduce the Enneagram to my clients it was always the first time they heard the word.

Today, things are different. I recently did a corporate workshop for young leaders where one-third of the participants had already heard about the Enneagram. Instead of having to scour used bookstores for nearly impossible-to-find Enneagram books, you can just pull out my iPhone, and open a browser and be presented with thousands of websites, videos, podcasts, self-published books, and Instagram accounts expounding on the model.

Back then, there were clear and distinct schools of thought and approaches to the Enneagram, rigorously thought through and responsibly transmitted.

Today, people seem to talk about the Enneagram as if there is a generic and universally agreed-upon approach to the system. People present themselves as Enneagram teachers with little knowledge of the system in general, let alone being aware of the roots of what they teach and how it differs from other approaches.

Pop-up Ennea-gurus start Instagram pages that amass tens of thousands of followers, conduct 12-hour online “Enneagram coaching” certifications, and appear on local news channels describing “the perfect Valentine’s Day date for?each Enneagram?[sic].”

It’s a depressing trend—the oversimplification and generification of the Enneagram.

There is another equally frustrating trend: The sometimes-intentional and sometimes-unwitting rewriting of the history of the Enneagram of personality to make it look like an “ancient personality system” with a body of consistent dogma that dates back thousands of years and passed along via secret mystery schools of which some teachers imply they are the current guardians. Let’s call it the over-aggrandizement and calcification of the Enneagram…

Both trends pose a risk to the future of the Enneagram of personality as a tool that can help people make transformative changes in their lives.

The oversimplification of the system risks making it a frivolous fad—the current New Age-y, pop-psych trend that will help people “find their number.” Such people will quickly grow bored with the Enneagram and forget about it before they experience all it has to offer.

The over-aggrandizement of the system leads to claims about the history and mystical capacities of the model that will make any but the “true believers” roll their eyes and dismiss the system out of hand.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of people doing really good work with the Enneagram of personality. However, the growing number of people I encounter who are familiar with the Enneagram are not always exposed to those teachers. Further, an increasing number of the people I encounter in academia, business, and the mental health professions already have a negative view of the Enneagram, seeing it as either superficial or fantastical.

Whereas I used to be able to present the Enneagram to open-minded people without having to defend it, I now have to increasingly explain that what I do (and what many others do) is neither trite nor ridiculous.

This need not be the case.

It is possible to approach the Enneagram in a way that is living, evolving, logical, consistent with science and good psychological practices, and, most importantly, transformative in practical, real-world ways.

The focus of this LinkedIn Newsletter will be on business applications of the Enneagram, specifically specific approach to it—the ATA (Awareness to Action) Enneagram.

I will also be

·????? Exploring the Enneagram in a serious, rigorous manner and showing that it is a system with applications in almost every field.

·????? Examining how we can advance the Enneagram both theoretically and in how it can be applied in areas where it is still unknown or underused.

I should clearly state some assumptions that will guide my posts. My perspective is that…

·?????? …there is no “THE Enneagram of personality,” there are various of models of the system from varying perspectives and with varying degrees of rigor and usefulness;

·?????? … there is no “one-true” body of Enneagram teachings fixed in time and there should not be; any body of knowledge must be living and evolving as we deepen our understanding and learn from experience in applying our ideas;

·?????? … even though it is an evolving model, the evolution must be rigorous and lead to models rooted in a deep knowledge of and due respect for what has come before;

·?????? … that the ultimate benefit of the Enneagram is not simply to help us see ourselves in a new light and categorize others, but to empower practical growth and improved skillfulness in living life;

·?????? … that while people deserve respect and kindness, ideas do not; ideas deserve robust critical analysis and sacred cows will not be respected.

I hope you’ll subscribe and join me for the ride.

If you have questions about or objections to anything I write, let me know so we can continue to learn together. Interested in going deeper into ATA Enneagram theory? Visit me on Substack at: https://mariosikora.substack.com/.

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