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Welcome back to another episode of the Enneagram at Work podcast. I'm Sarah Wallace, your host, founder, and managing director here at Enneagram MBA, a team training company. And while I love doing in-person workshops, I love seeing our facilitators go out and do in-person workshops with different organizations and different teams, getting that professional experience is always my first choice. However, there are sometimes, whether it's for budget, logistics, timing, you're not sure what people are going to think of the Enneagram. There's some uncertainty around there. We have another option called our DIY Enneagram Workshop Kit. And for the month of February, when you get the kit, you are also going to get the additional slide deck discussion questions activities around coworker chemistry. And this is where we dive in more to a little um a little more into workplace pet peeves and preferences. And there's some mixed type um discussion questions. There's some activities. And so you'll get all of that complimentary when you get the introduction to the Enneagram uh DIY kit. This is a $95 value. It comes free when you purchase the kit in February. Depending on when you listen to this, you have one week left. So one week left to get that uh special offer where you get the coworker chemistry slides. They will forever, or not forever, but they will be available beyond February. It's just for the month of February. Um, they come included. They come free. So who doesn't who doesn't want something for free? Uh so check that out, Enneagramba.com. Today our topic is around considerations for sharing the Enneagram with a more tenured team, a more seasoned team, experienced team. Um, in episode 213, we did kind of the inverse of this, where we looked at considerations for sharing the Enneagram with a young team. So things like typing might be a little bit more challenging. It might not be as clear-cut. So if you have a predominantly young team or a large group of new hires that have joined your organization, that might be a really interesting and relevant topic for you. Today we're looking at what are what do we need to keep in mind? Um, why would we bring something like this in when it feels like everybody has been working well for so long years, maybe decades. And so we're gonna look at that. So I was thinking, you know, with with the young teams, the Enneagram can be really helpful in discovering who they are. Whereas with a more tenured team, it's like, okay, I I I know who I am, I know who you are, maybe even. So it's going to help us maybe update who we've become. So this Enneagram tool isn't just simply for, you know, quote unquote figuring out who you are. It can be incredibly powerful and useful for teams who already know each other really well, but because it helps them see their own patterns, see other people's patterns, um, it can be really helpful in just kind of getting a new perspective. Many teams that we work with here at Enneagram MBA might fall into the very young, predominantly young uh teams. We have some middle mixed, tenured and new. And then we also work a lot with more seasoned teams. And I always think what a testament to the culture that those organizations have created where people want to spend years and potentially decades working for the same organization, working for the same leadership, working with the same people. And so we're not here to necessarily rock the boat or stir up any issues. It's just to enhance what's already there. A lot of times, teams that are more tenured have taken multiple personality assessments, have done different frameworks, have done a lot of team building over the years. Um, a lot of times these teams are very comfortable and familiar with who they are, their current dynamic, um, even comfortable with established roles. And so we're not here to say you shouldn't do that anymore. It's just, hey, maybe let's just look at this a different way so that your communication, your connection, your collaboration could be even better potentially. Maybe you understand somebody that much more. Maybe there is just somebody that annoys you, but you've just kind of learned to live with it. And and so today I'm gonna give you some things to think about on how to maybe reframe um your go-to lens for yourself and your role on the team, as well as uh the people that you work with. So there is a huge benefit to being comfortable working with the same people day in and day out. Um, some characteristics of a tenured team include long-standing work relationships. Um, they're gonna have deep institutional, organizational knowledge. They're gonna know the history of the company, they're gonna remember trends and chapters, there's clear reputations. You know, she's the organized one, he's the visionary, they're the difficult one, maybe. Um, there's established communication, expectations, roles, shortcuts, ways of doing it that that have just come to be well, this is this is how it is. Um, and a lot of times, which is wonderful to bring the Enneagram into, there is a lot of loyalty and a lot of trust. And that trust piece is really important. And so to have a team that trusts one another uh can be such a um a great recipe for a wonderful, meaningful Enneagram workshop experience. Uh, some of the benefits of having a tenured team, which if you have one, you probably already know. Uh very they can be very efficient. There can be less of a need for explaining, uh, you know, explaining why, how, right? That you they just know, they get it. Um, there is a strong sense of identity. This is who we are, this is who I am, this is who you are. And a lot of times these teams can move quickly because they are used to each other, they understand maybe they're they're they're one step ahead because they know how you're gonna respond. Um, because of that shared history. So the longer that a team has worked together, um, you know, the more powerful though it can be to look at these patterns with fresh eyes. So we're gonna we're gonna talk we're gonna talk about that. Um now there's some downsides sometimes with long-term, long-standing dynamics. And I think of uh our family roles sometimes. We've been in in those roles. That family unit dynamic has existed for a long time. And you know, it it's just like, well, this is this is who I this is the role that I play in this family, this is the role that you play. Um, and it works, obviously, because it's gone on for so long, but maybe sometimes it causes stress or maybe it causes frustration, but you're not sure kind of how to get off this this autopilot, this default mode. So sometimes common common cons or potential cons in a tenured team can be just that, where it's well, that's just how they are, types of thinking. Um, people can get stuck in their ways and old labels and old roles. Um there may be tension between individuals, between departments, but because it's gone on for so long, it this is how it is. It's been normalized. Um, maybe also because it's like, well, what's the what's the use of saying anything? Conversations that maybe should have been had get avoided for years, potentially. And then there may be certain people, certain personalities who are just caring too much. But again, because that's their role, because their their pattern is to say yes. Um, it just goes, it goes without changing, it goes without wondering if we need to switch anything up. Some examples of this might be the type two who always rescues everyone else, maybe the type eight who tends to be the one to take charge and drive decisions. Sometimes someone who has the type 9 personality might be the one to always smooth everything over. Uh, the type one might be taken on the role of somebody who is always holding the standard, um, have holding everyone else to a standard. And so these things work. People keep doing those things because they because they work. Um, a lot of times tenured teams are very functional, but just maybe not always aware or conscious of their patterns, and then because of that, may not be intentionally choosing for how they show up. So when we talk about bringing the Enneagram to a more tenured team, um, it's usually the leadership that it has reached out, and sometimes, not always, but sometimes they'll say, you know, I'm expecting to get a little pushback from from some of the people on the team because they're probably thinking, we already know ourselves. We've already done personality assessments. Um, we know each other really well. Why do we need one more tool when we've already done so many of them in the past? Like, I got it, right? Um, there can be some personality fatigue going on. What I hear from from more than one team over the the course of of the years that we've been doing this is people will say, usually it happens after. Normally people don't say this in the beginning, but they'll say, okay, that was a lot better than what I thought it was gonna be, because when I do these sorts of things, or when we do these sorts of things, a lot of times it's telling me all the things that are wrong with my personality, uh, all the all the weaknesses that I have, all the ways that I need to overcome those weaknesses. So, especially in an introduction to the Enneagram when we're only spending two, four hours with somebody, we do not want to go down the, you know, really harp on blind spots in the beginning or make anybody feel bad. Um, so all of our introduction, I think I think overall, all of them, but especially those introduction times or those introduction trainings, it's very important to stay positive and to make people see their strengths or to help people see their strengths, lean into those strengths so that it doesn't just become, oh great, we got another person here to tell me all the things that I do wrong. So that's not it at all. Um, sometimes too, it's just it's kind of surface level. And again, depending on the type of workshop, um, that might be, you know, we might just get to an introduction with the Enneagram, but I do think that we you're able to see how it can go so much deeper than just you're a natural leader, you're you like to um bring harmony to the group, right? It's it's so much more than that, um, especially when you get into the the others' awareness and the the team dynamics. Um and then a lot of times too, people are pretty confident in their own self-knowledge. You know, you've been in this world, you figured some things out over the years. Um, but the Enneagram is able to help you understand your own and those of your teammates' core motivations, stress patterns, blind spots, um, specific growth paths. So there's there's a lot of action that can go along with just the insights that you get from the Enneagram. So we always talk about, you know, it's not about what you do, it's about understanding why you do what you do. What's that core logic? What's that core motive that is driving the thoughts that then drives the behaviors? And and those are where those new insights start to show up for more seasoned teams. So, what is the what are some of the benefits of the Enneagram specifically for a more tenured team? Um, well, number one, uh the Enneagram can help teams identify and put language to long-standing friction patterns. They can it the Enneagram can help you understand the motive behind some behaviors of people that might have driven you crazy for years or decades. Um, it's an opportunity, it's an invitation to revisit old assumptions about one another. Again, just kind of questioning those roles. Um, you're able to update maybe some old stories or labels that got created years ago. And then you're able to bring in a new language, which is one of the benefits that I hear when multiple departments within an organization are bringing in the NAgram and even within an individual team. Um, people say they love the ability to have this new language to help them describe familiar patterns, familiar dynamics, um, things that have always been there, but maybe there wasn't a good way to say it, or you weren't yet sure how to articulate it. So the Enneagram can give us a wonderful language to help us better understand and agogate for ourselves and better understand and be supportive with our teammates. So a lot of times um I've shared this story where uh there was a sales team that had a quote unquote difficult the sole difficult sales team member. Well, when they got into it, they really understand that that difficultness where he was questioning and pushing back wasn't out of I want to be contrarian. Uh it's I care about well, I care about my role and my success, but I also very much care about this team and I care about this organization. So these questions and this kind of poking holes and thing isn't meant to be pessimistic. It's out of care and I want to protect, I want to protect my team. So you might maybe there's a difficult uh teammate in the group that now becomes more understandable. Maybe a quiet person's perspective becomes more valued and you make it a point to pause to allow them uh the time to participate and to share. Um maybe there is a high performer on the team, and they can get really stressed, and you start to see, okay, that's what's happening. They're not being mean, they're not trying to be um, you know, necessarily dominate, dominate me, dominate the conversation. This is maybe a stress pattern that's coming to light, and now I can put some language to it. Now I can understand maybe what's behind it. So it just gives the team a fresh perspective on some familiar behaviors, um, ultimately patterns that have happened over the years. How can a leader or leader, the leadership uh of these tenured teams, tenured organizations use the Enneagram? Here's some practical takeaways. One is revisiting those long-standing roles, um, thinking and and asking yourself questions like who always steps in, who tends to stay quiet, who tends to drive decisions, and then challenge some of those, or at least question them, some of those outdated labels where you might label somebody as oh, she's just the emotional one. Oh, he just hates change. Oh, they're not leadership material. So it gives you an opportunity to just kind of reflect and to question some of those. Um, you can also use, as we talked about earlier, use the Enneagram to address some old unspoken tension, potential friction points that always come up. So you can kind of bring language to patterns that maybe were don't get discussed because quote unquote, that's just the way it is. Um, it can be an opportunity to open up conversations that maybe felt too personal before. And that is one of my favorite things uh that the Enneagram gives to teams is that that opening. Because sometimes without it, it it can just feel weird to just jump in and start talking randomly about how this person might bother you or a potentially kind of sensitive tension point. But when you have the time set aside say saying, hey, these are we want to talk about these things, we want to work these things out, and here is a tool to help us do that, it can sometimes make it a little, a little easier. Um, and then it can really help people continue to grow beyond that label or bel beyond their go-to reputation. It can encourage new behaviors, it can um potentially uh even out uh redistribute roles and responsibilities. You know, maybe unofficially you always have the same person planning the company summer picnic or whatever it might be, or you always have uh this one person who's making these certain decisions, but understanding and just kind of seeing, oh, you know, I I wonder if there's a way that we can, you know, even this out a bit if they want to. Um, and then it just kind of it can create an another opportunity or space for um maybe some some leaders, some new leadership voices, some people um to be able to speak up that maybe that wasn't leadership, leadership material maybe wasn't um in their unspoken profile, but now they have an opportunity to do that through some very specific growth paths, seeing their their potential blind spots and growing through that. So, as I said in the very beginning, the NEA gram can be really beneficial for young teams to help them start to discover who they are, it can be a catalyst for understanding who they are, their their tendencies, their motives, that core logic, and then understanding others. And then for our tenured teams, we can use the Enneagram to update who we've become. And what I have heard from people who have been very seasoned on a team is that they'll, of course, make comments about wow, this was really eye opening about myself or Wow, you know, I understand this now about my teammate. Um, but they will also say, gosh, I can't wait to take this home. Can't wait, I can't wait to take this home and share this with my spouse. Um, and so those people too, um, maybe you've you've had some just unspoken roles and responsibilities back at home, or like we were talking earlier, in your your family unit, and the Enneagram can give you some inspiration and some guidance for maybe even revisiting those roles and labels and and ways of thinking outside of the workplace. So the longer the team has worked together, the more uh meaningful, powerful, useful um it can be just to take a pause uh to look at those patterns with a fresh perspective, a new lens, um, and just uh continue to get even better. I always say this one of the reason why we do what we do, why we work with the Enneagram in the workplace specifically is because people spend so much of their life, so much of their day at work over Zoom, talking with coworkers. So if there is anything that might make it even more collaborative, even more um enjoyable, even more happy or fun or funny, um, obviously, uh I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna say, who wouldn't want, who wouldn't want to do that? Uh so those are some things to to kind of consider uh as you're thinking potentially about bringing something like the Enneagram to the team that has worked with each other for a long time. It can be very beneficial in those situations too. I will make a plug for our in-person workshops where we have done this, have it planned to do more of in 2026, uh, where we're working with very tenured, seasoned individuals, teams, um, and people are seeing the benefits, having laughs, um, enjoying each other even more, right? It doesn't have to be because you have problems or challenges that you need something like this in. A lot of times the teams we work with will say, Hey, we're already really strong in a lot of ways. We really like each other for the most part. We get along really well, um, but we're just looking for something to help us maintain that, right? Because without some sort of maintenance um intention for maintenance, it is easy that even the most healthy teams, the most the teams that enjoy each other the most, if that is not nurtured over time, you can kind of plateau. Um and so this is just one way to kind of keep that, keep that alive and and and going. Um, this is what we do. I'm gonna encourage you to, or I guess invite you to learn more about our in-person workshops. If this is a team dynamic that you have and you think it would be interesting to explore what uh an Enneagram, a guided Enneagram experience might look like with our two-hour, half day, full day, um, and then some of our other program workshop series experiences. And then if you happen to be uh thinking, you know, for whatever reason, logistics, budget, flexibility needs, um, you want to try the Enneagram, I'm gonna invite you to learn more about the DIY kit and grab that bonus slide deck before that offer ends February 28th. As always, thank you so much for being here. I hope to see you in the next one.