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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, Sarah Wallace. And today we are going to interrupt the current series that we're in the Derailers at Work series, talking about how each type can get off track and insert a little current events, current news from um in the Enneagram world. Psychology Today published an article on April 9th called, let me get the exact title here up. Why personality, why you shouldn't always trust personality tests. Personality tests are extremely popular tools, but are they actually accurate? And what the article has to say specifically about the Enneagram, I agree with. And I thought I'll share that with you. And this is something that is a really important takeaway and something that we share at the beginning of all of our workshops the exact point that this article makes. So it sounds like it's a little dig on the Enneagram, but it it isn't. It's a it's uh really talking about how to approach it ethically, uh, responsibly, and not, you know, allowing the Enneagram to explain every single thing in our life. So we're gonna talk about that in just a second. We had kind of a crazy week last week here at Enneagram MBA. We had three workshops. Uh, we had one way down south, and then we had two way up north in Canada, and they ranged from executive teams to two different departments having their own Enneagram training at various stages in the uh the process and then coming together for their own internal session that included an Enneagram kind of starting to apply it right away in real life, which was very cool. So, one group we did on Monday, and that has been that was a follow-up to a group that we had worked with a couple times in the past. So we've introduced the Enneagram. This time we got to share some different pieces of the Enneagram. We had some more discussions around applying it in real life, and then um our second group on the second day were very were it was a new group to the Enneagram. And so that was an introduction workshop, and then they came together though that third day and shared their team maps, kind of shared where everybody was, things that was that were important for the rest of the team to know about them, working with them, preferences, that sort of thing. So I really liked that they added that into their team agenda on that third day or that department um agenda because that's how you keep the Enneagram alive. That's how you use the Enneagram, which is a question that so many people ask. How do I actually use this? And so they started using it right away, talking about what each of them had learned. Now they're they're both kind of speaking the same language, have some sort of foundational um knowledge that they're all kind of on the same page with, and now can have some of those conversations about working better together, that specifically cross-department collaboration. And then our executive team, so far the feedback has been around using the Enneagram for feedback. We had a visiting facility facilitator come in and help us deliver that one down in Dallas, Texas. And it sounds like the group loved the take on using the feedback to call people in as a invitation rather than calling them out, embarrassing them. And so um different kind of uses, different, it's always interesting to hear what the groups are taking away. But whether you are looking for feedback specific, executive team specific, cross-department collaboration specific, two hours, full day, we kind of had it all last week and it all is available. Um, and you can see those options over at Enneagram MBA.com. So, with that though, let's jump into this week's topic, which is around this article. Uh, should we or should we not use the Enneagram to predict future behavior? So, have you ever thought, or this is something I sometimes will hear in workshops, you know, we'd that person would be a great fit because they're this type, or that person would have a really hard time because they're this type. And so sometimes during workshops, they'll say, I would imagine that, you know, type four might struggle here, or I would imagine that type eight would have a hard time here, or vice versa. They would be really great. Um, so today we're kind of gonna unpack why that mindset misses the point and why the Enneagram is not here to predict the future, but rather help us understand the present so that we can better navigate the future more productively, with less stress, with less frustration potentially, and also kind of reflect on what challenges have happened in the past to also impact the effectiveness, the um, and I guess even the happiness of the future in our in our work relationships specifically. And so this article, like I said, popped up. Um, I saw it come up on Psychology Today, why you shouldn't always trust personality test. And this did hit on something we weave into our all of our workshops and then really hit hard in the beginning when we introduce and kind of give some disclaimers. And so the article was talking about that most personality tests, and I'll include the article in the show notes here, or if you're watching over on YouTube, the comments section here, uh, but most personality tests are not designed to predict the future. Um, it that's really hard to do, right? And so sometimes though, people can over-rely on those types of tests to make really big important decisions for them about their careers or their relationships, who they're most compatible with, um, and even potentially in the hiring process, which again is something we say do not ever use the Enneagram for. Um, and the reason is because traits are not fixed, they're not set in stone. Um, of course, the there's going to be context. Like, is this a low-stakes situation? Or is there a lot of stress and it's very high stakes? What else has been going on? The motivation can can play a part into that. Um, how much personal professional development has this person had? Um, all of those things can influence behavior and why we want to be very careful about relying on, in this case, just the nine, nine simple descriptions, you know, giving us all this insight and and influencing our decision making. We want to be very careful about that because humans are very complex. So sometimes tests can give us this illusion of um certainty or accuracy that it just does not hold up. And so our mentor um through the awareness to action Enneagram that we follow here at Enneagram MBA always talks about how the Enneagram is a model. And at some point, all models eventually break down. Nothing is gonna be 100% true 100% of the time. So, for example, as somebody who identifies as an Enneagram type seven, not every description that I read of a seven feels a hundred percent true. Um, I see myself at times using all of the strategies, or I can point to different times in my life or different situations where I would use a different strategy. And so again, it's not all or nothing. Either this is totally you or not at all, and it's just not useful. Um, it can be interesting to use the Enneagram to describe things, but where you really get the usefulness of it is when you can start to understand kind of what happened. And we're gonna talk more about that. Um, but the article specifically says while personality tests can offer insight, they can sometimes oversimplify the complexity of human behavior, and that's where we get in trouble, and sometimes that's what people try to use the Enneagram for, and why we wanna be careful in certain situations. So, our perspective here at Enneagram MBA, and we agree with a lot of this article, what it said, I will reinforce what the article said. We 100% agree that the Enneagram is not a predictive tool. The Enneagram can be, again, not always accurately, but can be descriptive. Um in that, as it's somebody, again, I'll pick on myself, as somebody who tends to go for the type seven strategy most often, most of the time, not 100% of the time, every time, all day, every day, but most of the time, um, there might be some common, there's gonna be some common qualities, tendencies, some traits that those of us who tend to use that strategy most often, we might you might start to see some themes. So we can start it, we can use it as a starting point to understand what's happening, to get curious about rather than uh, you know, completely starting from ground zero. The Enneagram can also be prescriptive sometimes. Again, there's some some specific guidance around um those connecting points that we have. Again, as a seven, it's one and five, depending on what your type is. We all we each have um two connecting points. And the Enneagram says you can pull something from all the types, but these tend to be kind of your biggest bang for your buck, or when you're really starting to use the Enneagram for growth. Let's start here, let's look here. Ultimately, though, it depends on what you're struggling with in life. And so it's not to say all sevens should start here and look at ways to fold in type one tendencies or type five tendencies that may help. It may not. Again, depending on what I'm facing, what challenges um are happening, relationships that are hard. And so it's gonna be case by case, but again, it could be a starting point. Hey, let's get curious, let's look over here first. We'll keep moving along. If it's not, if it doesn't make sense, but let's start here first. But it will never be predictive, it cannot tell us what someone will do or whether they will succeed at something or they will fail at something. And so sometimes the Enneagram will be misused when I've heard people say before, you know, I'm just not sure they'd be a good fit. They're they're a type five. And I or we really need a type eight for that role. That those type of uh uses is not what the Enneagram is used for. Um when we talk about hiring, say we you know, we'll say absolutely don't use the Enneagram to hire, but absolutely do start to introduce it once that person has gotten in the door to open up a conversation to understand how they work, what motivates them, um, what you know the strategies they tend to use, and give them almost like a quick cheat sheet for understanding or at least starting to understand their coworkers. And that can be really helpful for our remote teams. Um, and then when it's used that way, where we say, oh, at eight would be great for this, a five would not be great for this, um we do get into the labeling and we want to be really careful with that with with anything, right? Um, and and it does, it becomes more of a label rather than a launch pad for understanding, for a starting point to get curious about, to open up a conversation. So use it with with caution and care. So how to use it instead. Uh, I talked about that the Enneagram is a problem solution framework. So it doesn't tell you what will happen, but it helps you understand why something did happen. And that quote I actually got from Mario Socora, um, our I just mentioned our mentor here with awareness to action um on a group call that I was a part of um last week. And I underlined and highlighted that, and I thought that is such a clear, concise way to say this. So let me say it again. The Enneagram does not tell you what will happen. Instead, it helps you understand why something did happen. And he used a really great analogy that I'll share with you here. Um, sometimes we get skeptics in an Enneagram workshop or with our coaching, and of course, that makes sense, right? Um, and and those are welcome, those questions, that skepticism, um, hopefully eventually curiosity, um, are are welcomed. And you could say, like I've said here, the human humans are not gonna fit into just nine nice and neat Enneagram types and just explain everything in nine types, right? Um and we each are different. And we have, you know, eight billion different personalities on this planet at this moment. And uh Mario was talking about how we can also look at people as kind of this or that, or there's two people, two kinds of people. For example, there's morning people and there's night people. Now, this doesn't mean that all morning people never can stay up late and occasionally be a night person, or could never become a night person necessarily. Um, he also said, you know, night people can absolutely wake up early. However, there tends to be kind of an either or. And he said, This is helpful to know because he used a personal example where he is an early bird, he's a morning person, and his wife is a night owl. And he said, I'll be up five hours before she's up. And he might have been exaggerating. Um, that he's like, This helps explain why, you know, when she might get frustrated because I fall asleep watching the movie after dinner, it's because I've been up since 5 a.m. or whatever it might be for what whatever it is. And so that's how to think about the Enneagram. It's again, we're not saying all the time, every time, but it's hey, if you're a type seven and you're a type eight or identify with that strategy, um, here's why this challenge that you're having might be happening. Here's a place to start understanding what what's going on and maybe give us some language to use, some additional insights about each other's perspective so that we can solve it and and not necessarily avoid it every time, all the time in the future, but maybe navigate it in a healthier, happier way moving forward. And so we wanna be just again very careful about predicting behavior based on type alone because it is very ineffective and it can be really misleading and potentially harmful to somebody, to somebody, to somebody's career path. So we just want to use it very, very cautious and responsibly. So we do not use the Enneagram, especially here at Enneagram MBA, to box anybody in. We use it to help teams understand what's driving behavior and ultimately how to work better together. And that doesn't mean we get along and we never have conflict, it's how to address and handle conflict and move through conflict more effectively with the goal of working better together. So the Enneagram will not tell you what someone will do, it can help you make sense of what they've already done and how to grow from there. So if you have been curious about using the Enneagram at work, but want to make sure that you do it in an ethical, really people-first approach, I'm gonna invite you again to check out our workshop options, our team building retreat options, our executive coaching options over at Enneagramba.com. We do have our certification process where it is really a combination of workshops following the success path with some individual uh typing and coaching mixed in there. So if that is something your team is looking to take on um something really meaningful, well I'll you'll you'll see all of that over there at enneagrammba.com or reach out and connect with me over at LinkedIn and and drop me a personal message. So with that, as always, thank you for being here. Um if you have questions, comments, uh, which I did have a few. And so uh I I just kind of missed sharing those. I got into sharing about our workshop. So I'll have to uh bring those up next week and let you know. And then I always love hearing from you. So if you have questions or concerns, questions or comments rather, or concerns, you know, let me know that too. And uh with that, I look forward to hopefully getting to see you in the next one where we'll jump back into the derailleur series, probably talking about type four.