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Welcome back to another episode here on the Enneagram at Work podcast. I am your host, founder, and managing director here at Enneagram MBA, Sarah Wallace. And I am excited about this special bonus episode today. We are uh recording this, I'm recording this the day after what some call the uh Bunny Bowl uh or the Benito Bowl, otherwise known as the Super Bowl. And of course, as somebody who is talking about the Enneagram daily, sometimes hourly, thinking about the Enneagram all the time, teaching about the Enneagram regularly, it is no surprise that when I was at the gym this morning, I was listening to my Bad Bunny playlist uh while I was running. And I was just thinking back on the show how what how fun it was, how um sweet it was, how lively, how vibrant, and how much um belonging and community and culture, different cultures were a part of the show. And I thought this is giving me some navigating instinctual bias energy. I'm feeling this. And I thought, you know, this might just be a fun episode to talk through with you. Uh, so I'm gonna share my insights on uh the show from uh the and Enneagram lens, um, and specifically the instinctual biases. I know the nine types tend to be the most popular, the thing that we're the most familiar with, the thing that we tend to uh look out and notice maybe in other people, but really that the type is really about that motive or that core logic that influences our thinking that then influences our behavior. And so sometimes it's really hard to notice or know how somebody else's what their root logic is that is influencing their behavior. Sometimes when we really know them well, when we've heard them speak a lot um over the years, we can absolutely pick up some clues. Um, but for our instinctual biases, where we have the preserving, the navigating, and the transmitting, um, those tend to be a little bit more visible. It tends to be kind of the expression of the type. So you can kind of have three different expressions, and you can have all kinds of expressions, but when we get to that second dimension of the Enneagram, uh, we're talking about instinctual biases. And I thought, oh my gosh, you don't typically see the navigating instinctual bias. A lot of times it is, you can see transmitting, you can see preserving, but a lot of times navigating, and if you're not familiar with the instincts, I'm gonna tell you about it. Um this is it, you don't, it happens more mentally. So you don't you don't see it a lot. But last night at the Bunny Bowl, uh, I really you could you could really see that energy on display. So whether or not this is, you know, Bad Bunny's actual instinctual bias, we, you know, it's I won't know, we won't know. Um, but I wanted to bring uh attention to some of the things that he did, and then I'm gonna translate it to the workplace leadership styles and how to maybe do some similar themes in your own workplace. So uh we're going to specifically be looking at the navigating instinctual bias, which next episode we're when we're doing our regularly scheduled program, we're gonna be doing a part two to resilience and navigating stress um using the Enneagram. So last week we did nine types. The next one's going to be the instinctual biases. So this has been on my mind, and I'm hoping that you find it uh somewhat interesting as well. So um, you know, the the halftime show, uh, like so many of you have probably already noticed and felt, it was so much more than just a performance. It really was a um a lot of people said it was kind of a healing moment, a cultural moment. Um, it was the first all uh Spanish speaking uh halftime show ever in NFL history. Um, a lot of people around the whole world really felt represented, really felt seen and visible. Um, but what stood out to me the most, and I think that all of his concerts are like this, like I think his his concerts like this as well, is that it's it's not necessarily just about him. Um, he really brings in his people, his culture, his community to his shows. And this halftime show was no different. Um, things like the stage set where he has the the casa, his house, and all different kinds of regular people, celebrities, um mingling, hanging out uh inside this home stage. Uh there were um there was a couple who literally got married during the ceremony or the had had their marriage ceremony during the show. I I've seen multiple sources say uh that was a legit wedding. I think somebody else actually ended up getting engaged. Uh there was the moment where he gave his Grammy to um the the kiddo. And so it really was so much more about him and and bringing all kinds of people in. It wasn't just a solo spotlight moment. It was more like like a gathering, like community. And so I thought, okay, this is textbook navigating instinctual bias energy here. So what I want to do is just quickly review the instinctual bias for those of you who this concept might be new, um, and uh or remind people if you you've heard me talk about this before. Um, instinctual biases come from the awareness to action framework, which is the framework we tend to follow the most. Not all the time, 100%, uh, but most of the time that that's kind of our default model that we use here. Um, and there's a preserving instinct, a navigating instinct, and a transmitting instinct. And we're gonna talk a little bit about the transmitting at the end. Um, but the navigating instinct really focuses on relationships, group dynamics, belonging, shared identity, some things that a person who is dominant, um, they call it the your zone of enthusiasm. Um, somebody who has that this navigating instinct in their zone of enthusiasm might be thinking, like, where do I fit? How do we come together? What does this mean for the group? Um, and a lot of times they're the ones creating connection, building bridges, and helping people feel included. And I thought, oh my gosh, if that is not what that performance did, you know, I don't know, I don't know what did. So um I do want to, I had something open here from the awareness to action um Enneagram guidebook. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see the cover of it. If not, um there is a book. This is one of my biggest Enneagram reference books called the Enneagram Guidebook, an introduction to the personalities at work by Mirio Socorro and Maria Jose Munita. Um, and they outlined the three instinctual biases, the nine types, and they had here for navigating strengths. Um, good at social networking and interpersonal dynamics, good at building collaboration, collaborative relationships with others, attuned to organizational politics, able to connect people to others with complementary interests, needs, and capabilities, ability to see multiple points of view and help build consensus while focusing on the big picture. Okay. Seeing Bad Bunny in a lot of these. And I wanted to share these in case you saw yourself as well, or potentially somebody on your team. Um so, knowing what we know about the instinctual bias, our little crash course on the navigating energy, uh, there were so many moments that I thought represented this, um, such as he centered the Puerto Rican culture instead of just, you know, just himself, which again, that is not um just a halftime Super Bowl show thing that he does. I think that in general, this is something that is a staple of his um shows and and the way and even his music, his albums bringing different uh people. It's not just it's not just him. Um, I saw a uh fun behind the scenes recording of uh the uh the the song uh uh DTMF, and there were were a group of people in the studio doing the background vocals. They were having so much fun. It was just a it was like a gat, again, just a fun gathering. So um, so we have that. Um he highlighted uh specific businesses like the Caribbean Social Club in Brooklyn. I've started following the woman on Instagram that he highlighted, and uh, I'm sure her business is gonna be blowing up. But I thought that was such a cool um highlight for her. He highlighted uh he called out countries at the end, um, all the countries in um our American continent and the flags that represented each of those, really creating this sense of identity across all these borders. And uh he had that his message that he also talked about um during his Grammy performance about the only thing more powerful than hate is love. And so I thought, gosh, that's I mean, that's some navigating language right there. It's about um connection, it's about belonging and and unity and and and bringing people together. Um, there was also a lot of um social awareness. Uh, there was a lot of visuals and on the stage around um uh situations. There was definitely uh some very intentional stage setups, one of those being the electrical poles, uh, which was referenced to the ongoing power outages in Puerto Rico, where it I was reading somewhere it said people experience more than 27 hours of blackout each year. Um, he had the number 64 on his um uh jersey outfit for the show. 64 appeared representing the lives lost during uh the hurricane that hit the island a couple years ago. Also, again, very, very navigating energy right there. And it's the the navigators are very good at celebrating together, bringing people together, wins, you know, it's not just my win, it's our win. And they can also say, you know, let's let's remember together, let's reflect together. We don't have to put a nice pretty bow and paint rainbows and have, you know, sprinkles on everything. It's let's care about what our people are going through. Um, and so they bring in the joy um as well as the hardships, the pain, the challenging situations that the group is also facing. So it's we're in this together. We're gonna celebrate together, we're gonna um navigate these hard times together, bring awareness to what others are going through, even if I'm not going through it personally. There's people in this group that are. Let's let's highlight that, let's talk about that, let's figure out how we can get through this together. I also noticed when we when you really start to get into the instinctual biases, there's a specific way that all three will show up. Um, in some in in some um Enneagram models, you will hear it called stacking with the awareness to action model, which I really like. It it's called a pattern of expression, meaning that you you kind of have your all three are gonna are gonna show up somehow. It's just the way that they get expressed, it tends to have a specific pattern, depending on what your top one, that zone of influence is. So for the navigators, that second one um down called the zone of indifference. I don't want to get too too into um uh the definitions and explaining that in this episode. I really want to keep this one kind of focused on the halftime show. We will be talking more about the instinctual biases um as we go through, because I I am I'm finding them personally really helpful more and more. I'm thinking about them more and more, and I want to be sharing those insights um and learnings with you. So we will be talking about more of this. So if if this is interesting, we're gonna talk about patterns of expression in the future. Um, but the second one down, the second way, the kind of the in the pattern of expression um under the navigator is the transmitting. And sometimes this might be called like the supporting um energy. Um that is not the way that the awareness to action group talks about it, but just so you can kind of start to understand it. And so I thought, oh my gosh, when you look at that pattern of expression, that's kind of that's kind of how uh Bad Bunny did his show. So then um this the transmitting energy is really focused on visibility, making an impact. Um, they sometimes will have a lot of emotional intensity. They tend to be bold, make a statement, um, be much more comfortable with taking big risks for the sake of having an impact, creating a legacy, creating a legacy moment. And I thought, okay, if we did not see that in the Bad Bunny show, and really all that Bad Bunny does with his bold, very expressive fashion, not just during the halftime show, but but uh in all times, he had in the show specifically so much strong um visuals, a lot of symbolism. There was a ton of emotional, high-energy performance. And then, of course, there was the just kind of the historic nature of the show around the the culture highlighting that. And again, there was a big risk here that was taken with it being the all-spanish halftime performance ever, right? And so he and he said, you know, originally you got four months to learn Spanish. And then I think at his uh, I think it was the Apple music interview, he said, you don't even need to learn Spanish, you know, you just you just gotta, you just gotta dance. And so you you get this really powerful combination with this navigating energy and then the the ability to transmit it. So the navigating instinct kind of creates the message of belonging, and then that transmitting instinct makes sure that that the world is paying attention. And so I thought, oh, how interesting that that is exactly kind of how the awareness to action model um talks about it. And that's kind of how I saw it. So sometimes they'll say, um, so you know, uh Mario Socorro is the founder of Awareness to Action. He does a lot of public speaking. He um he has a podcast, and he has gotten the question before like, I would have guessed that you are a transmitter because of this, the visibility that you do with your videos on social media, you know, this visibility aspect. You're, you know, kind of leaving a legacy, you're a risk taker, seems like you're a risk taker. And he has explained it that, you know, he will transmit, but it is for the sake of his top instinctual bias, which is navigating. And so a lot of times he said, you will see public speakers maybe who you might think are transmitters because they're on a stage, but that doesn't mean that's necessarily where they they're where they prefer to be or want to be. It's hey, I wanna, I'm going to transmit so that I can do these navigating things that are the most important to me. So I thought that was interesting. You know, and the show itself, I there's so much commentary on the show. So I I'm gonna, I'm gonna again stay on my line here with the Enneagram. Um, but we are in a in a moment of a lot of division, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fear, a lot of frustration, a lot of madness, um, rage, even in in different communities, a lot of communities. Um, I know I feel that. Um, and in times like this, and there may be uh, you know, a similar situation that has happened inside your organization where there's uncertainty and there's division and there's fear and frustration and rage for whatever reason, a decision, a policy decision, a layoff, a change in leadership, a merger, all kinds of things could cause that in the workplace. And uh I think in in those times, especially for our leaders, people aren't necessarily just looking for a strong leader, a strong individual. They're looking for towards somebody who can lead with connection, belonging, meaning. How can we make meaning of all of this chaos that's going on, um, all of this uncertainty? And then somebody who can provide uh hope, which again, I think is such a gift that tends to come. Any, anybody, any human can do this, right? With the with the training, with intention. But I think a lot of times um those types of leadership qualities tend to uh come just a little bit more natural for our navigators. And I definitely saw that leadership style in Bad Bunny during the the halftime show. So, how can we think about this halftime show and you know, looking at this navigating instinctual bias, um, what does it have to do with the workplace? How can we apply it to the real world specifically when we are when we're back at work? I think whether you are a a, you know, a leader on paper, a manager on your business card, or you you're an individual contributor, but want to take on some leadership presence. This navigating leadership style isn't necessarily, it's not about having the loudest voice in the room. It's not about always, you know, being the boldest, not even being the most confident. It's it's really about creating a sense of we're in this together. Kind of a we versus me type of energy. And and that might look thing like things like spotlighting your team instead of just your own wins. Um, creating rituals or moments that build connection, bringing different departments or personalities together, celebrating shared identity and purpose. So thinking about how can how could we do this? Even if I'm, even if I have no idea what a navigator am I a navigator or not? That that's kind of beside the point here. It's okay, people are looking for this, especially I think in this moment in general, and especially, you know, at work. Um, and so thinking about okay, what are some ways that I might be able to do this in in my four walls or in, you know, even through the computer if you're a remote team. So you could also think about, okay, I'm I'm thinking about those navigating things. And then I want to think about how can I use the transmitting energy to amplify those strengths. So things like publicly recognizing your team's contributions with the other departments, what are some ways that you can do that? Um, what are some ways that you can create big, memorable moments for your team? And then how can you use your visibility with your position, your title to elevate others? Because leaders, a lot of time, it's important to build that connection. Um And some are going to do it quietly and some are going to do it in a in a more bold, visible way that can energize the whole group. So it just kind of, you know, it just kind of depends on on where your team is at and what they're needing. But I love this combination of here's something to bring us all together. And let's add in, let's let's add in a little spice, a little fire to this with the transmitting energy and really get visible, get people excited, make some bold moves, um, do some big things, um, energize, energize people, give people hope. So uh the question here, it the kind of the reflection question if you're a leader is do the people around me feel like they're a part of something bigger than just their our day-to-day work, just um their their role, you know? Um, and and if not, what are ways that I might be able to create that? So um a couple other reflection questions might be when was the last time that I created a moment of belonging for my team? And again, I don't think that you have to have the job title of manager, director, VP, CEO to think about how you could create a moment of belonging for your team? I think you can do that with or without a title. Um, another question might be are you using your influence to spotlight others? Or does it tend just to be mostly on yourself? Uh, transmitters, transmitters uh can sometimes struggle with that. Um, what is one small navigator move, whether you resonate with a navigating uh instinctual bias or not? But what is one navigating move that you can do this week with the way that you lead or the way that you are working with your team? So some things to think about. And then I had just kind of a, as we close out, just kind of a fun food for thought, just kind of just a fun little topic here, micro topic. If each type were to design a halftime show, if each instinctual bias rather were to design a halftime show, what might it look like? And this idea came from an activity that we'll do when we are talking about the instinctual biases in our workshops, where we'll, after we introduce them, we we um go through some different things, we have some different discussions, but we get to this really fun activity where we are planning the end-of-year meeting or the Christmas party. And depending on what instinctual bias you resonate the most with, we divide off into three groups, and then each group plans their uh end of your party or Christmas party. And it's really interesting how similar, even from you know, organization to organization, but just how similar when you have preservers come up, the things that they focus on, um, tend to be a lot of the same. A lot of navigating uh considerations tend to be the same across organizations, same with transmitting. So um I kind of took that same concept and thought, okay, if if somebody was planning the Super Bowl, uh how how might they think about it? Again, just to give us some more context and some uh fun examples of of how these types might be expressed. So our preserving instinct um might be focused on a flawless execution of the show, which and all of these are important. As I go through these, you'll be like, yep, all of these are we kind of need all of them. That technical precision, thoughtful around the budget, uh staying grounded in reality. It's like you could have some wild ideas for some of these shows, but it's like, okay, how how can we pull this off? And one example that I thought of was the um the the trees for from the set from the halftime show. Um, they were talking about how they had to come up with something creative because there they were only allowed so many carts on the field due to not tearing it up and they only had a limited amount of time. And so to stage all of, I think it was 300 trees, um, was just not possible. So they had to, uh they ended up making them kind of like costumes and people wore the trees and stood on the field so they could easily get on and off without um tearing up the field. So those sort of things, like, okay, 300 trees, uh, like we want to create this field. Okay, okay. Now with my preserving hat on, like, how are we actually going to execute on that in a way that follows the rules, that meets the standards? Um they're probably going to be focused on safety and security. Do we have the safety belts? Are we the security around us that we need? Everything running is that exactly as planned, the timing. Preserving instincts are the preserving instinct, is also uh there's a lot of um thought and attention to tradition, which in this particular halftime show, I also thought that some of that absolutely showed up as well in the show. All right. So if navigators were planning the halftime show, which I think is what happened with Bad Bunny specifically, it's going to be a very community-centered show. There's going to be a lot of inclusiveness. It's going to be very relational, um, a celebration of shared identities and lots of different people on stage, lots of connection, people being able to relate to the show, see themselves, feel seen, feel um like like they're a part of it almost, which I think is very much uh the vibe of the show last night. And then I think any show most likely will have some, it's gonna have some transmitting energy. When we talk about different industries, I always use the NFL as an industry or a professional sports league, um, typically as a transmitting type of energy, with well, and I'll just go through the list. It's with high energy, bold visuals, which also I think happened last night, dramatic moments, big risks, um, creating emotional intensity, getting people to feel something um designed to be unforgettable. And I think again, this was definitely this there was some energy in there from from the other uh from last night as well. So when you combine them, like the navigating and the transmitting energy, um, you get a performance that both brings people together in a way that is bold, visible, and leaves a lasting impact. So whether you're leading a halftime show, planning, creating a halftime show, or uh a department, an agency, a small team at work, the question isn't just about how do I perform well. I think the takeaway question here isn't how do I perform well? It's how do I create connection, belonging, and meaning for the people around me. And in the end, you know, those moments are what people are going to remember the most anyway. It's it's probably not the most technically perfect show, the most perfectly executed process, right? It it is that that feeling. And this reminds me of the the quote, and I you probably know who said it, and I should know who said it, but it's people don't remember um always what you said, it's how how you made them feel, some something like that. Um, and I think that that that's what happened last night. There's a lot of that navigating energy. So when people I think feel seen, when they feel included, when they feel like they're a part of something bigger, um, I think they're able to get through challenging times. They're able to feel like, you know, okay, this is a this is a hard time. There's uncertainty, there's chaos, there's um heartbreaking things happening all around us. And I'm gonna be able to show up and and do my best in the workplace, even with all of this stuff going on, and it my best at this point in time, with everything going on, if I know that I'm I'm part of something bigger, I'm I feel connected to my teammates. So, you know, any any way that you can take this lesson from Bad Bunnies, halftime show concept, use some of this navigating energy, find ways to infuse and build that connection, belonging, working towards something um that is bigger than just one, you know, one person, I think your team is really going to appreciate it and uh show up that much, you know, show up that much more work could be that much less stressful um with all the other stresses going on in the world. So um if you have anything to add, any Enneagram, uh, I because I know we have a ton of Enneagram enthusiasts who listen to this show. So if you have Enneagram, any, gosh, this is a tongue twister, any Enneagram insights of your own from the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show, um, I would love to hear about them. And uh if you're okay with it, I'll pass them along to listeners in a future episode. Thanks for being here, and I'll see you in our regularly scheduled episode this coming weekend.