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You're listening to the Enneagram at Work Podcast, a show about understanding people at work, including yourself. I'm your host, Sarah Wallace, and I'm looking forward to diving into this week's episode with you. Are you someone that you would describe as detail-oriented? Do you tend to look to procedures and processes when you're looking for how to do something? Do you tend to be drawn to the fundamentals? Would you consider yourself maybe more cautious or conservative than some of the teammates around you? Do you find yourself ever being a devil's advocate when a new idea is shared? Can it sometimes be hard to accept or navigate a change? And when it comes to uh maybe experimenting with new ideas, would you rather not and just stick to the proven methods? And do you find that you're pretty good at predicting future problems? Now, if you answered yes to a lot of these, you may be a preserving teammate. Um, if you answered yes to some of these, you still may be, you may not. Um, we're gonna talk more about it in detail today to hopefully um get you closer to deciding, yes, this is definitely my instinctual bias, or no, not at all. And in fact, uh not only is this not me, I can't, I can't hardly stand this energy. And so we're gonna talk about that. So you may see yourself, you may see a teammate wherever you are, but I ask that you stick around because we have started a series um as of last week. So in episode 133, if you haven't listened to that already, we are diving into instinctual bias biases. And uh these are three kind of flavors, three subtypes of each of the nine. And this explains a lot. This can explain why we can have 10 threes in a room, and and several of them will look different. Um, and it can also give us just a better understanding of who somebody is. So we have the type, and that will that will be very helpful in understanding somebody. But we also, when we layer in these instinctual biases, this just gives us a deeper, richer understanding and it gives us some additional language to be able to um identify what uh you know we need for ourselves, advocate for ourselves, and better understand why we might have friction with another coworker or why we maybe really need to work together in certain situations because we are bringing such different um skills and just viewpoints to the table. And so last week we went through all three of these instinctual biases. If you didn't catch that one, it's episode 133. Um, it, you know, we talked about how each of us has a bias towards one of these three. Of course, we will be able to see ourselves in some way in all three of these, right? It's not all or nothing. Um, but there tends to be one that we have the most bias towards, um, or a bias, I guess. And we we went over those last week, and then we zoomed out though, for that overview. We zoomed out and looked at what does this mean maybe for my department? Um, what does this mean for the organization or the industry that I'm in? Um, and start to identify kind of a zoomed out approach. And then starting today, um, we're going to be taking each of the instinctual biases and diving in a bit deeper so that you can um diving a bit deeper on an individual level so that you can start to see individually how you fit into the department, the energy of the organization or the industry, um, and just understand yourself and your workplace dynamics a bit better. And we are starting with our preserving teammate. And these teammates tend to be drawn towards the fundamentals, kind of the nuts and the bolts of issues when it comes to business and organizations. They tend to be a little bit more cautious, a little bit more conservative, maybe a little bit more risk adverse in general. Um, they want to make sure that all the administrative issues are in order and that the procedures are being followed. They can be resistant to change and new ways of doing things. They often will prefer that proven method. Well, this has worked in the past. Let's just kind of stick to that. Um, you might find them uh, you know, plain devil's advocate, challenging new ideas, new initiatives. Um, and you know, they may resist change in general a bit, um, really drawn towards traditions and could struggle in a fast-paced environment where things are always changing. So this is probably not going to be the person that necessarily thrives in a startup department or a startup uh company. Not to say that they can't, that just may not be their first choice. Um now, when it comes to strengths, these teammates are excellent at organizational skills. We talked about the nets and bolts. They can develop and follow structures, procedures, processes, right? We need those. We need those. Um, they have uh immense attention to detail. They um are cautious and conservative. And so they're going to, you know, ask the questions, the important questions. They're not going to just blindly jump into it because everybody's excited about an idea. Well, if I know more about it, um, they do have just a natural ability to predict potential problems, what might go wrong. Um, and they tend to be really good at preserving the nest, the quote unquote nest. So ensuring that, you know, they're safe and secure, the their team is safe and secure. Um, everybody who, you know, on the in the department, on the team, um, they're taken care of. And somebody is, you know, taking responsibility for what needs to be done to ensure that everybody is, you know, safe, secure, whether it's their their job, um, physically safe, financially safe. Now, sometimes these leaders, and we're gonna talk more um uh in just a minute why, these teammates um have some potential vulnerabilities, and we all do. We're gonna get into them all um throughout the week um or throughout the next few weeks, but sometimes they may hold back a little bit. Um, they may neglect the the self-promotion, the charisma, the the the sizzle is what you might we might call it, um, to promote themselves, to stand out from the crowd, um, to be recognized for a job well done. A lot of times this is the type that kind of feels like, well, I I think that my work speaks for itself. And I think that I should be, you know, promoted, I or I should get the raise purely based on merit alone. And we know that that's that's just simply not how um it works in a lot of these companies, um, or just really the world, right? We got to let people know about all the amazing things that we're doing. Um, they can be a little over the top when it does come to risk aversion in order to maintain that security or the tradition or the way things have always been done. And so, you know, evolution, um, evolving, making things better, doing things a new way is, you know, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Um, they can there are a lot of good, a lot of progress can come from that. Um they may struggle in their career advancement because of that lack of self-promotion. They may not be the best networkers either. And so that may hinder their um ability to advance in their career, to do, to make the sales, um, to make the connections. And they will um, we talked about maybe struggling a bit in like the faster changing environments, they're probably gonna be a little bit more comfortable in organizations that um are a little bit more stable and appreciate that those processes and order. And so uh this does not mean that just because somebody struggles or doesn't love it that they can't be good at it. It's just again, these are kind of some common strengths and common uh potential struggles for uh the preserving teammate. Now, something to be aware of, then this applies to all the subtypes or all the instinctual biases, is that we are going, we're gonna look, we're gonna break it down what it means to to be a preserver. What does it look like to preserve? Um it's important to remember though that just because we do this or we think about it a lot doesn't necessarily mean we're good at it. It can, but it doesn't mean we're necessarily good at it. It just means this is our priority, this is the thing we're kind of most sensitive to. Um and that once we have all of our basic needs met, this is where our our attention will go. And this is an important um I think consideration because of course, if you don't have enough food to eat, if you don't, if you don't have your shelter, if your your health, uh, you know, if if if you're sick in the hospital, um of course you you may be you know exhibiting a lot of these preserving um behaviors. Um so we're gonna what we wanna keep in mind though is that after our basic needs as a human being are met, now where does our attention go? Once we have the the freedom, the you know, we've freed up um our attention, where does our attention go? And it may stay here with the preserving, or it may go to the navigating um activities, it may go to the transmitting activities. We're gonna take a look at that. Um, as a reminder, what we are covering today is the um terminology and the descriptions from the awareness to action Enneagram. And this is a model that here at Enneagram MBA we have adopted. Um, and it it works and it and it makes sense so much um in the um groups and the settings that we're in, you know, corporate different organizations. Um it's just it's uh I really, really like it. And so I'll link below where you can learn more about the awareness to um action enneagram, but just to kind of let you know where these terminol term see, where this terminology and this uh these descriptions come from, because you may have heard preserving, if you're familiar with the Enneagram, be referred to as the self-preserving or self-preservation subtype. Um, and we're gonna talk about this, but preserving is so much more than just preserving for yourself. Um so this is this can be uh these instinctual biases can be used uh to really understand the the culture and really shape the culture of your team, your department, your organization. And um I I love this part of of the Enneagram. Um here at Enneagram MBA, we do kind of a three-part, three model. Uh or our model consists of three parts of the Enneagram, and it's the nine types. And um, when we do, you know, a two-ish hour presentation um or workshop, we'll we'll just focus on the nine types. Um, when we're working with a half day, we'll bring in that second layer, which is the connecting points. It gives a lot of guidance on growth opportunities, growth paths based on your Enneagram type. And then when we have a full day, we're able to bring in this last piece, which is the instinctual biases, and do some education and some um exercise and implementation ideas um around around that. Um, and so we have uh two full day workshops coming up uh here. And so this has been something that um just a planning content slides, printing guidebooks that has been on my mind uh that I've been working a lot on. I thought, well, let's just let's just share it with um you here over here as well, and uh start bringing this piece of your Enneagram journey, um, bringing this into your Enneagram journey to hopefully give you some additional um self and others awareness. So, with that said, we have a lot to cover. We're gonna go through um the subcategories of the preserving um instinctual bias. We're gonna talk about what it looks like to sometimes to make yourself suffer and potentially make others suffer, what growth looks like. And then we're gonna look at each of the nine Enneagram types and overlay the preserving energy. So, what does it look like to be a preserving one? What does it look like to be a preserving two? Um, and the intention of this is just to give you a deeper understanding of what a specific type might look like. And if you're on the fence between maybe two or three types, um, hopefully that will also give you be a starting point at least to give you some additional clarity and things to think about. And then, of course, we'll be going, we'll be doing that um with all the nine types next week with the transmitting and then the following week with the navigating energy. So shall we dive in? Okay, so with the preserving energy, we have three categories that it's made up of. We have security, we have well-being and resources, and we have maintenance. Now, at the end of the day, this type is really focused on nesting and nurturing. And so these three categories, though, will give us some additional um things to think about. And just because uh maybe you're not great or pay attention to one of the categories doesn't necessarily mean that you're not a preserver, and vice versa. Just because you focus on one thing doesn't necessarily mean you're a preserver. So being a preserver doesn't mean that you naturally will be great at all three of these categories, um, but it will just give you some additional things to think about and consider. Um, so at the end of the day, we've talked about it the preserving energy is about nesting and nurturing, and they want to make sure that they're secure, that their, you know, their well-being is in check, they have enough resources and they're maintaining and taking care of those resources. They want this for themselves and they want it for others. Now, this doesn't mean that they want it for everybody in the whole world. They are very discerning about who they let in to their circle, to their their pack. Um, but it is very much, am I okay? And are the people that I that I could care deeply about, are they also okay? Um looking at the security category, there's three subcategories underneath that. We have safety. Am I safe? Are the people around me safe physically? Are our jobs safe? Um, you know, how how how are we doing there? Um, and then relationships also can can fall under that security. Um, preservers will use their relationships um to help them feel secure. Um, people, those people will give them kind of a sense of security. And so that's why sometimes if you've been around the Enneagram and have heard the term one-to-one, um, that tends to be associated with the transmitting energy, which we'll talk about next week. However, um it probably more accurately falls under the preserving because that one-to-one connection um is so important to them. They they want to make sure that they're taken care of and their people are taken care of. Uh, relationships are very important to our preservers. And then the last one um is risk avoidance, but I think a better term might be management. Um, they're not necessarily avoiding risk at all the time. Um, it's more just a very intentional, considerate uh, you know, look at the risk. They're gonna really pay attention to that and to determine should we try, should we do this? And then if we do decide to do it, how are we gonna manage it to make sure that we end up okay at the end? The second category is that well-being and resources. And so this includes comfort. And this might be, you know, am I warm enough? Am I cool enough? Am I uh sitting in a comfortable chair? Are my sheets comfortable enough? Um, one of the instructors at Awareness to Action brought up this chair example, and she is associates um with the navigating bias where she's really attuned to, you know, office politics, group dynamics, hierarchy management. And so when she walks into a meeting, she tends to kind of look at those dynamics and decide, you know, who do I want to sit next to? Who do I want to network with? Who do I want to talk to? Where do I want to be? Um, how do I want to position myself? How do I want to be seen in this room? And so she'll choose a seat accordingly. Whereas somebody with preserving energy might take into account instead the level of comfort. So, you know, uh, the chair back here in the back of the room is maybe more comfortable, or the air conditioning isn't blowing on me here in the back. I'm gonna choose this site. So that's a you know, a simple example, not not, you know, 100% true across the board, but it just is something, it's an example that I thought was good to show, you know, a navigator might sacrifice comfort for those navigating activities, maybe like networking in this situation, whereas a preserver is more likely to sacrifice those networking or navigating opportunities for the sake of being comfortable. Um also underneath the subcategory is supply. Do I have enough? Do I have enough food? Do I have enough resources? Office supplies, money, whatever that supply is. Do I have enough batteries? Uh, do I have enough? And then the last one is health. And you know, we gotta remember that of course, every single one of us is wants to be healthy. Nobody is walking around, or probably nobody, like, I don't care about my health, or I I want to be unhealthy. Um, nobody is thinking that. But in under this category, it's just again, you you prioritize it. So again, this might look like, oh, I could go to a networking event for work, um, or I could go to the gym. I can only do one, I only have enough time. Um, or I could, you know, do something with my my friends and be a part of my book club group, or I could go to the gym. And so, you know, it it will vary, but again, just kind of being aware of um, yes, health is important to all of us, but for a preserver, they're really paying attention to it, they're prioritizing it, um, they're checking their heart rate and their blood pressure, and they got the wellness watch on, and they got the sleep monitoring and um, you know, tracking their blood levels and maybe get a blood test done. And, you know, just they want to know like how how how am I doing? And then also, again, this includes the health of the people around them as well. So, you know, wanting might be wanting their their mom to go go to the doctor and you know, get that, get that back checked out or whatever it might be, but they're just really um prioritizing paying attention to those. Um, another way to kind of think about this too is just your your level of sensitivity to some of these issues. So going back to that that comfort example, it's like nobody wants to be uncomfortable, but a preserver might just be more sensitive to being uncomfortable, whether it's the air blowing on them or the chair not being comfortable, whatever it might be. Um, whereas a navigator in that example is just gonna be a little bit more sensitive to the group dynamics and be honed in on that and make decisions from that place. Um, the last category we have is maintenance. And the subcategories under here are tending to the nest. And this could be, you know, your home, your bedroom, your office, um a you know, a space that is yours, like whatever that, whatever that is for you. Um, and it's going to look very differently, potentially. Um, but that that focus and that level of sensitivity is going to be there. Now, you could be a preserver and have a lot, a lot, a lot of stuff in your nest. Um, you know, make sure you have the backups and you you got uh photos and mementos and you know all all those stuff and we're gonna talk about traditions in just a second here. Or you could be a preserver that is is a minimalist. Um either way, the point is that your attention is on the nest, very much on that nest. Um, repair is under this maintenance. Do I have the tools? Do I have backups to maintain the resources that I do have? And then lastly, we have traditions, um, family traditions, holiday traditions, but also traditions at work. You know, we always do our all-company meeting like this each year. We always do our department retreat this way, and we always run our meetings this way, uh, we always onboard someone this way. And um pictures could also be a way of preserving moments that sometimes is listed as an example for our preservers. Um, the point is that they they appreciate that consistency. So it's like kind of going back to that idea of proven, well, this is a proven method. It's like, well, this has worked in the past. Why would we do it a different way? Why, why switch it up? Why, why take that risk? So curious where you see yourself uh in in some of these behaviors, if this is really resonating. Um, you know, I know for me, as not a preserver, there are some things that, you know, I'm like, oh my gosh, that just sounds so boring, or that that is so hard. I feel so drained when I do that. So, you know, if that if that's how you're thinking about some of these things, probably not a preserver. Um, but you probably work with a preserver, or it'd be interesting to think about does your department have some preserving energy? Last week we talked about the legal team, the finance team, accounting, maybe HR compliance team, um having a lot of this preserving energy. Or if you're in the you know, the finance industry, the um pharmaceutical industry, the uh banking uh investment insurance uh company or industry, there's gonna be a lot of these, uh, this energy. And so, you know, just to kind of be aware of and understand your, you know, your relationship with that, if that happens not to be you, or if it does happen to be you, there's still a dynamic there as well. Now, with each of these instinctual biases, there is a way that we can drive ourselves crazy, and there can be a way that, or there is a way that we can uh drive other people crazy. And uh the first one, how we might make ourselves suffer or drive ourselves crazy, has to do with this idea of being conservative, but also being indulgent. And so this is about how we there's different ways to get the same need met. So, an example that I've heard before is this idea of a new mattress for our preservers. So, preservers, they they tend to be good at preserving real resources, so preserving money, being very, very responsible and cautious and considerate with how they spend their money. Want to make sure that they have enough. And so there's that conservative, but at the same time, I really want to be comfortable. And I want to make sure that I get a good night's sleep when I'm taking care of my sleep hygiene. And so there's this kind of push-pull. Do I get this expensive but very nice, comfortable mattress? And one of them, they're almost kind of competing, but at the end of the day, it meets a you know, a similar preserving need. Um, something I was thinking about when I was preparing for this episode was was my dad. You know, he's never taken an Enneagram test really, but I I see so much of this preserving energy in him. Um, you know, we uh growing up, we only were able to ever get waters. He wasn't gonna spend the money on on drinks at dinner, um, you know, getting a Coke or soda at dinner. Um, just very, very conservative with his resources and with his money. And as he's gotten older, um, still very much that way, but he has found some things in life that have made his life a little bit more comfortable. And one of those things are um hokas, the hoka shoes. I think he has, I don't know, I think he has four or five, maybe six different pairs. He has the boots, he has, you know, leisure shoes, he has walking shoes, he has trail shoes, and he walks a ton. Like this man will sometimes walk a half a marathon in a day. Um, he's actually, I think, walked a 26 miles in in one day. Um it doesn't happen regularly, but that's the this is the kind of person we have here. So he does walk a lot. So it would make sense to invest in a more expensive pair of shoes. Um, but I know for a while it was kind of a it was kind of a hard sell. He just thought, you know, oh, any ten of shoes will work. But then once he tried these, he loved them, they felt great. Uh, they were able to keep up with his miles and miles. So um I thought, oh gosh, this reminds me of that being indulgent versus some of this conservative energy. And we can drive ourselves crazy, um, kind of with that push-pull. Now, the other way is how we might make others suffer or how we might drive them crazy. And it has to do with this idea of being really nurturing, wanting to make sure everybody is taken care of, has their resources safe, is secure, have what they need to maintain this level of comfort that they are comfortable, um, while also maybe being selfish. And preservers probably wouldn't view themselves as being selfish. This is probably something that others might experience them as. But the selfishness comes from, but I want to make sure that I have enough. And if I don't have enough, you know, I might have to pull out of some things, or I might not be able to give to everybody, or I need to make sure that I'm taken care of before I can take care of anybody else. Like these people probably won't have an issue with the whole, you know, put your own mask on first. Um, where there are some types who may think, oh, I want to take care of everybody else first. This type tends to let me make sure all my needs are met so that I can then help other people make sure their needs are met. But I can't do that if I'm not taking care of myself. So it's this kind of push-pull of nurturing versus selfishness. And we can kind of see both. Again, it's kind of the competing, competing interest. So it's all for the same ultimate goal of this preserving energy, but how we go about meeting that, there's gonna be different ways to do it, and they might almost be competing with one another. Now, with each instinctual bias, there is a specific way or order um that all three, the other two get expressed in addition to the dominant one. And there's different zones. And we're just gonna we're gonna touch on this today because I do think that it gives you at least um some actionable information to start considering and and to start kind of planning some action around if this happens to be yours and something you want to work on. Um, I think later we'll we'll dive into this in more detail because I don't want to make this, you know, a two-hour episode. Um, but there is something called the pattern of expression. So it has to do with, okay, if you are a preserver, we already talked about how we're gonna do all three of these. We're gonna preserve, we're gonna navigate, we're gonna transmit. Um, but according to what instinctual bias you are is going to um give you some insight as to how each of them, these will be expressed. And so before we talk about the preserving pattern of expression, I just want to take a quick step back and go over the pattern of expression in general. So, in general, we have our zone of enthusiasm. And so this is the domain, this is the instinctual bias that we are most driven by. This is what we're talking about. We see as most important, we tend to feel alive, engaged in. Um, we can absolutely overdo it, but it's the one, it's it's what we're talking about here. Um, so if you are a preserver or really sensitive to nurturing and nesting, your zone of enthusiasm is preserving. Now, the second one down is called the zone of inner conflict. And this has to do with maybe, maybe you actually um are more aware of these behaviors, and maybe you do them more than you realize because maybe you feel like you're not good at them, or you feel like you should be doing more of them, um, but maybe you feel insecure or uncomfortable to it. And so there's this conflict. Maybe you're drawn to it, but you feel insecure about it. Um, you want to do more of it, or think you should do more of it, but you're worried you're not gonna do it well. So this is one where you might end up thinking a lot about. Um, and so that's why it's called this inner conflict. You're gonna have a lot of conflict, inner conflict around doing these things. Um because you're you're you're worried you're not gonna do it right, but you think you should do more of it. And then the last one is the zone of indifference. So this one tends to, you know, be a little bit, I don't, I don't know, just you're not gonna have a lot of interest here in this category most of the time. Um, you probably won't talk about it a lot, you're probably not gonna pay a lot of attention to it unless you need to, or unless you decide to force yourself to do more of it, to think more about it. And so for preserving, their zone of enthusiasm, enthusiasm is preserving. Their zone of inner conflict is navigating. And so this is one where they might think, gosh, I, you know, I maybe should do more of this, but I worry if I'm doing it right, or I don't necessarily feel comfortable networking, um, you know, uh paying attention to these social dynamics. I would rather just focus on the processes and procedures, but I feel like, you know, but uh then again, I need to to make sure my job's safe, to make sure I'm advancing in my career. And so they can absolutely do it. They just kind of have this push-pull with this navigating energy. And then the last one, the zone of indifference, is this one tends to hold little interest to you, is the transmitting energy. And so, you know, attracting and bonding, kind of being uh, you know, larger than life, wanting to leave a legacy, um, having low inhibition uh versus kind of risk aversion or risk management, almost the opposite. And this is where uh preservers some can sometimes almost get frustrated with transmitters because they think, you know, oh, my work should speak for themselves itself. But then here I have this transmitter who maybe isn't doing the work as well as I am, who isn't following the processes and procedures, who's not following the chain of command, and they're the ones getting promoted, they're the ones getting recognized, they're the ones getting the race. And so the work of the preserver in these situations is to look at the uh zone of of indifference and look in this case, transmitting, and you know, are are there things that maybe you need to be doing to help you stand out more at work so that your your hard work does get recognized? Um do you need to be speaking up and and you know, touting your own accomplishments or your team so that they're getting recognized? Um, maybe you know, it your career path is stunted maybe due to lack of self-promotion. So, what do you need to do to advance your career and do a little bit more self-promotion? Um, the other thing to consider is, you know, things are changing. You know, there may be something changing within your department and your organization. Um, and that may be a struggle for our preservers, for our transmitters. They love the new, they're they're excited by you know, fast-paced change things changing quickly. And so, what can you kind of take from that to enhance your career, to enhance yourself as a teammate, um, as a as a leader in the workplace? Um, a lot of times preservers are really drawn to the nuts and bolts and then may neglect that sizzle. And so, are there areas in your life that you need to be adding more sizzle? If everything's going perfect at work, then don't mess it up, right? Keep it going. But if there's something you wish would change, this would be a place to start. Do I need to add more sizzle? Or where do I need to add more sizzle? And with that, we're gonna wrap it up for this episode. I know I told you we were gonna overlay the preserving energy with each of the nine types, and we will, I just want to make sure that it doesn't get buried at the long at the end of an extra long episode, and so that people have a chance to listen to it, that you have a chance to listen to to it and get to it. So I think what I'm gonna do is split this up into a two-parter. So we've done the introduction to the preserving energy, we've we've given ourselves some action uh things to to think about, how we might want to make changes if if we need to. And then next week we'll pair each of the nine types with this preserving energy. Um, I do really love this instinctual bias piece of the of the Enneagram. And if you have a full day to get to all three sections, great. If you don't and are also loving the instinctual bias part, sometimes I know my instructor said that sometimes they won't even teach the nine types, so just start with this. Um, you know, I have mixed feelings about that because I think the Enneagram is the Enneagram because of the nine types, but I do see that angle because there's only three. There is so much powerful insight, actionable things to start incorporating. Um, so if you have two hours, if you have four hours, if you have a whole day, great. Um, and are wanting to incorporate this, we'll find a way. This topic also makes for a really great part two or a specific leadership training uh for people who have already been introduced to the Enneagram and are wanting to dive deeper. Um, you know, this ends up being a really great team topic, and it ends up being a really great leadership topic. So keep that in mind as you look ahead at 2024 and start planning your all company meetings, your leadership development, your team trainings. Um, this could be something that really is impactful and helpful. Um, that and it goes beyond just that day. So, with that, um, all of those workshop options um are over at our website, enneagrammba.com. And then I hope to see you back here next week as we dive into all nine types and what it looks like to be a preserver for each of those nines. And um, I look forward to that, and then we'll uh start with the transmitting uh deep dive the following week. So, as always, thank you for being here and I hope to see you back here soon.