Enneagram at Work
Welcome to Enneagram at Work, your Saturday leadership download. We're bringing you insights for your weekend so you're ready for Monday.
This is a podcast about understanding people at work and navigating professional relationships. We spend so much of our time at work, why not make it more enjoyable by working on creating more enjoyable relationships with our teammates?
Listen in each week to gain self-awareness, relationship management, leadership development, personal growth insights, and real-life application ideas through the lens of the Enneagram inside educational episodes and interview conversations.
Learn about bringing the Enneagram to your organization or group and view the current workshop menu at: enneagrammba.com
Enneagram at Work
241. We Were in the Same Meeting But Heard Two Different Things
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Have you ever walked out of a meeting thinking a decision had been made, only to discover your coworker thought you were still discussing it?
You were in the same room. You heard the same words. And somehow, you walked away with two completely different interpretations.
In this episode of Enneagram at Work, we’re kicking off our Overheard at Work series by looking at what can get lost in translation during everyday workplace communication.
Because we don't necessarily listen to conversations neutrally. One person may be listening for What did we decide? Another is listening for What could go wrong? Someone else is focused on How will this affect the team? while another is already thinking about What happens next?
The Enneagram can help us understand some of the different patterns influencing what people naturally pay attention to, and why two smart, engaged coworkers can hear the exact same conversation differently.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why workplace miscommunication isn't always about someone being a “bad listener”
- How different people assign importance to different parts of the same conversation
- Why we can mistake our interpretation of a conversation for the conversation itself
- How the Enneagram can help teams get curious about what coworkers may be listening for
- One simple question managers can use at the end of a meeting to catch misunderstandings before everyone walks out the door
Try This
Instead of ending your next meeting with:
“Does everybody understand?”
Try:
“What is everyone walking away believing we've decided?”
Or:
“What are you taking away as your next step?”
You may be surprised by the answers.
The goal isn't to test whether people were paying attention. It's to give everyone a chance to translate back what they heard, and catch what's been lost in translation before it turns into a missed deadline, unnecessary frustration, or the classic:
“Wait...that's not what I thought we decided.”
That's your translation to try this week.
Learn more about bringing the Enneagram to your team: enneagrammba.com
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