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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. Welcome back to another episode here on the Enneagram at Work Podcast. I am your host, founder, and CEO here at Enneagram MBA, Sarah Wallace. And you may or may not have noticed, depending on when you're listening to this, but this episode is being published late and it has bothered me all week. As someone who identifies as an Enneagram type seven, I have a little chip on my shoulder, uh, maybe, you know, trying to prove to myself and others that, you know, sevens have a reputation for for sometimes struggling with commitment and consistency and routine and that definitely can show up in my life. And with this podcast, I have just been so diligent and so focused and made it such a priority to make sure every week that it is out on time, every Tuesday morning. Now, sometimes, you know, I'm recording it the the day before. Uh, sometimes I'm recording it maybe six weeks before. Uh, and I I love, I love it when I can do that, but it's not always possible. But it's always out. And I have recently ran into some tech issues getting logged in and just having issues with the third-party login. And I'm of long story, long session with the support desk, and I'm still locked out. So um, until that is resolved, and I don't know if it will be resolved, I have had to find another recording platform and uh I'm giving it a try here. And I so far I love it. So hopefully um it works out, and I we can, you know, get back to our our regularly scheduled programming over here. But we'll I'll we'll figure it out. I'll figure it out. So if you happen to listen to this on a weekly basis, uh I know I'm late, I'm late, and I hate that, but uh, I guess better late than never in this situation. And today is a topic around uh some ways to use the Enneagram in a specific setting. And that specific setting is with a team or a company retreat, and this has been probably I don't know, 75%, 80% of the work that I have done. I've had a brought in another team member to help me because we have been so busy in such a good way, um, specifically this last these last two months, April and May. And a lot of teams have been trying to do some sort of team event, team bonding event before summer break. You know, it's it's harder to get people, um, everybody have everybody in the office at the same time with vacations and then school being out with those who have kids. And so it just gets actually gets crazier uh to have some sort of any retreat. So a lot of groups have been have been focused on getting this in in April and May. So heads up if you happen to be looking at planning something for your uh for your team, some something to consider. And so um we've done a lot. We've gotten the honor, we've we've had the the privilege to be a part of many company retreats, team retreats off-site. And uh it's such a special experience, it's such a fun experience, it's such an impactful experience. It's just time to kind of get out of the office, or for some teams, get out from their homes and meet meet one another, see one another in person, which may only happen once a year. So it's it's a very special time, and uh it is so so fun and uh I love that we get to be part of that experience. And so I have seen four ways, I've noticed four ways that people have used or incorporated the Enneagram into these team offsites. And I'm gonna share those with you in case you want to take something as is and apply it to your own team or organization, or maybe it spurs another idea that could work for your team or organization specifically. So I have four for you. We're gonna just jump right into it. And the first one is, I guess what I'm calling the bring back the Enneagram idea. And this is where maybe I've met with a team in the past. I have met with a team in the past, but maybe it's been a year. It might have been a month, it might have been three months, it might have been virtually, and now we get to meet each other in person, whatever the scenario, we've laid the groundwork in in some capacity. It might have just been a quick two hours, it might have been a whole day in the past, but some sort of groundwork has been laid so that when we are coming together at the team offsite, we get to just jump right into the topic, maybe do a little refresher, right? Especially if it's been a few months or almost a year. We'll do a little refresher and then maybe introduce a small new piece of the Enneagram. Maybe it's a refresher paired with communication styles. Maybe it's um coming at it through the the lens of conflict management, stress management. Maybe it's coming through at the lens through um growth opportunities, whatever that kind of initial angle we want to work on that or want to learn more about, we'll have some a mini kind of toolbox training on it. But then really these team offsites are pretty relaxed, pretty chill. Um, it's an opportunity to get out of the office, to kind of, you know, let your hair down a little bit, uh, enjoy each other's company, enjoy just being in a in a beautiful spot. A lot of these places are are gorgeous, enjoy nature in a lot of these situations. And so I want to match that. You know, we want to bring an experience that matches that. And so uh, you know, the the teaching on my end um or our end now, I guess I get to say, um, and then kind of the learning on the audience end, I've just dialed back in these situations and really dialed up the facilitation and then the discussion so that teams have a chance to, you know, do what this off-site is supposed to do. We want to align with the goals of that off-site and give people a chance to connect outside of the office, learn more about their teammates, do some team bonding. So uh the experience will be different, obviously, from team to team. Um, but the overall goal is is the same, allowing people the opportunity to either get together with their types that has been requested specifically. Maybe we did a team breakout or two prior to that, but then people specifically have said, I would love to do a breakout with my type. I think that would be so fun. I think it would feel so good. And I do hear that it feels like therapy for the teams that we do do type breakouts with. So maybe we do that, maybe we do um an additional breakout with the teammates. Uh, and then it's, you know, kind of our job to facilitate that discussion based on the topic, kind of the goal for that session. So that's one idea. If you've already had some sort of Enneagram training, and I I have had groups where maybe they uh had an Enneagram introduction last year, maybe even the year before, with another Enneagram organization. And so we're just building on that um during this time, really focused on discussion. The second idea is very similar to that, but now we're bringing in another department. It might be a department that it probably is a department that the group works together a lot during the the regular year, and their success kind of hinges on one another. And so I've seen leaders partner up and plan an off-site retreat experience for both of their groups, and then I get to come in and facilitate uh some kind of cross-department collaboration conversations, cross-department communication um breakouts. And so I really like that. Now, those groups can get pretty big, so again, that dynamic will be a little bit different, be thinking about the venue, just thinking about, you know, the you know, what discussions and the the setup and logistics that we'll do. But I I love, love, love that idea. The third idea is where the whole company uh goes through something. The whole company is at their retreat, and then I get to to join them for a short session. Um, I get to be a part of the agenda. And one company most recently had uh introduced the Enneagram to the entire group. Um, they had some internal Enneagram champions that were kind of doing small cohorts, uh teaching about the Enneagram, helping people identify their top Enneagram type so that when I came in, um people had a pretty good foundation. So I did just a short refresher and then we specifically talked about the Enneagram in the workplace, some workplace pet peeves that are common to each type, some workplace preferences that could uh just be a starting point to better understand your coworkers. And some of the times they are very different from one from yours, uh your pet peeves and preferences, they might actually be the inverse there. And then we'll have some time for uh the audience to to share after each type. That goes really quick and there isn't a lot of time for discussion kind of in that one hour toolbox training situation. And so when I had the opportunity to work with this recent group, we also added kind of a bonus exercise that my contact led the later that same day over dinner. And so she had worked with the venue to break the dinner tables up by type for this organization. And then uh I had provided some type specific questions, some discussion prompts so that people could get together with their types, which is something they hadn't done yet, and uh have some fun and and meaningful conversations. I heard that went over really well. So that could be an idea for using the Enneagram at your team retreat. And I think goes is so in line with that idea of team bonding, getting to know each other, but in a more kind of relaxed out-of-the-classroom environment. And then the fourth idea is just a little bit scaled back version of this that I've seen with a couple groups who maybe, you know, maybe in some cases they don't have the budget for a big offsite, maybe they don't have the time. Sometimes that, I mean, yeah, to take a few days out of the office is a big, you know, it's it's a big deal. And so for some groups, that's just not possible. So what I've seen is that they will find some really nice hotel with a beautiful conference room that has lots of natural light or a cool co-working spot again that has natural light. That's very I think that that seems to be important. It's it's hard to sit in a conference room, uh, uh, especially on like a team retreat kind of vibe with no windows, kind of a side note, side observation. And so we'll get together that morning and have some coffee, have some breakfast. And for again, for a lot of these groups, I've had some sort of Enneagram introduction. However, there has been a group where this was the setting to introduce the uh Enneagram, and that worked out well too. Again, it was just kind of a more slower, a little bit more laid-back uh vibe, and then made sure that we had plenty of time for different conversations, partner exercises, small breakouts, a large group discussion, depending on the time we had. And then what the group would do typically would, you know, go to a nice lunch spot or have lunch catered in, and then do some sort of fun activity, top golf, pickleball, um, axe throwing, rage room, escape room. So some kind of fun thing like that. Um, maybe going out for a craft cocktail mixing event. I've seen that before as well. And so um that's a really special day. That ends up being a really special day that people remember. Inside jokes happen, people get to just again get outside the walls of their office and get together or come together. Maybe their remote employees can can meet everybody else at that time. Um, I've also had a group that have has had to swap that uh flow because of the weather. It gets so hot in the afternoon. So we did the group activity in the morning. It was outdoors, so we had to do it in the morning. They did had to do it in the morning, and then we had lunch and the Enneagram discussion and and breakout experience um in the afternoon after that. So all kinds of different ways. It doesn't have to be some, you know, big travel, everybody take buses or every have everybody travel to some big remote location. I mean, that is very nice. It's a very nice getaway, but you don't always have to do it. You could do something in your own little kind of uh the work version of a staycation, and that it can be really nice. So those are some four ways, I guess. I was gonna say some ideas, but we got four ways, four ideas for how to use the Enneagram and a team off-site treat experience specifically. I hope that there was something in there may that maybe inspired your own team offsite as you're thinking about that. I think the next big one, kind of timing-wise, it'll probably be the end of the year or the beginning of next year. Um, and then even looking ahead again to next summer. If you're gonna do something before uh the summer break hits now, is a great time to be thinking about that. So if you happen to be looking at your calendar and wanting to bring in the Enneagram, specifically Enneagram MBA, to a team retreat event at the end of the year, beginning of next, we are already booking some spots. So I'm gonna invite you to start at our website, EnneagramMBA.com. There's a a workshop tab that will take you to some options, two days to two hours and everything in between. And uh we can start the conversation over there. I appreciate you being here. Um, and I'm hoping that uh I will be back. I shouldn't say hoping. I am I'm planning on being back to our regular schedule next week. So launching publishing on our our regular Tuesday morning. As always, thank you for being here, and uh, I will hopefully see you soon.