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Welcome back to another episode here on the Enneagram at Work podcast. I am your host, Sarah Wallace, founder and managing director here at Enneagram MBA, a team training company where we get to do standalone workshops using the Enneagram. We get to use the Enneagram with team development programs, and we get to use the Enneagram across organizations, bringing different departments and teams together. And depending on when you're listening to this, if you're listening to this when the episode is published, um, the end of the year is quickly approaching, followed by a quickly approaching um new year. And so both of these time periods are time to kind of look back and reflect, um, maybe reward your team for a job well done and looking ahead and preparing um for the following year. And this is a time where a lot of groups will bring us in, will bring the Enneagram in to help them do some of that reflecting, to be something fun for the group to do that is also useful, and or to be something to be a part of that can help be a part of the planning process and better understanding people as you go into a new project with new goals, new initiatives. So depending on uh where your team might be at, um I'm gonna invite you to check out our options for standalone teams, for bringing two specific teams together, for bringing multiple departments together. Um, over at Enneagramba.com, there'll be some additional information. If we feel like a fit, um there'll be a place to get started and set up that first conversation. So, with that said, um we're gonna dive into what might be one of the most relevant topics that we have covered here on the show. And that is a topic around AI and the Enneagram. Specifically, can the um can using AI, can using the Enneagram with AI um actually make you a better manager? So I think so, but we're gonna get into how exactly um to do that. So we all know that AI can make us faster. We're we're already all using it, um, but can it make us better with people, right? So we're using it to help us draft emails, um, prepare for meetings, summarize information, create plans. But, you know, managing people, we are complex human beings, isn't always quite as easy. It's not always about getting the wording and that email just right. Um, it's really about understanding a couple of things. And one of those being, how do you tend to communicate? Where might you overdo it? And then how might somebody else interpret that information or maybe even just the delivery? Maybe what you said is fine, but they're having a hard time with the delivery. How are how are other people receiving you? So one of the top uses, and I don't know if this is still true. I haven't looked into it recently, but I know for the last year or two, the AI's top use was really for uh for therapy, for talking through things. So, you know, things like chat and Claude, I think can be really great thinking partners. Um, and so we can use them as a thinking partner in these conversations with a little more context. So they definitely aren't personality experts, right? Each person in front of you, each person that you work next to can, you know, cannot be known by AI, um, cannot, you know, be distilled down to a specific type on the Enneagram, and we can start predict their behavior. That's it's just not that's not what it's used for, and and we can't do that because um that's not how it works. I wish, right? I wish, but but we can't. Um, but what AI can help you do with the help of blending in the Enneagram is help you slow down a little bit, maybe think things through, consider someone else's perspective, better understand your own perspective, maybe identify any blind blind spots that you're bringing into a conversation or a meeting or just an email and help you generate some um additional alternative ideas to how you might present that information. So as the manager, um, you're still going to need your judgment, your discernment, your experience and your expertise, but we can also pull in some insight from the Enneagram to help us just get a little bit, just give it some more context so we're that we're getting better answers back. So rather than giving, you know, chat random prompts like, you know, help me give feedback, help me give better feedback to my employee, or if you're, you know, a team member to a team member, um, we can give it some additional context about ourselves and the person in front of us with the insight that we have learned about the Enneagram, or just by um maybe you've gone through a workshop or you yourself just know a little bit about it and you start to see some patterns in others. So we can feed it something like, um, I, you know, let's say, let's say, for example, that uh you tend to identify most as an Enneagram type eight. So you could say, you know, I tend to approach feedback as an Enneagram type eight, meaning I'm pretty direct, I'm I move fast, I'm really focused on getting to the solution, getting a result right away. Help me prepare for a conversation so that, you know, I stay concise, I still am clear, but I don't accidentally, you know, overpower or dominate the conversation with somebody who might need a little bit more time to process that information. Um, you know, you can um, you know, hey, I wanna, you know, I I want to identify language that might land harsher than I intended it for. Um, I want to keep that message direct, but I, you know, how help me add some additional maybe questions, be a little bit more curious in this conversation, this feedback conversation. Um maybe give me some insight as to where the conversation could become defensive, either yourself or the person in front of you. Um, and you could even ask it something like to help you create a better opener for this difficult feedback conversation, and or how you might close out this conversation so the person doesn't leave feeling overwhelmed or bad or uh attacked. So the goal isn't uh and I want to be clear about this. The goal here isn't to type in, you know, make a type eight sound like a type two, um, but it's helping you use your strengths, and then this case as a type eight, that, you know, concise, being concise, being direct, being clear, um, just a little bit more intentional and understanding where you might overdo it. Um, so I have a couple other examples for you. Um, the other one is around preparing for a meeting. Okay, so I'm gonna pick on myself for this one. Let's say that, you know, you are a fellow type seven or can relate to some of the type seven tendencies. And so um, your prompt for AI might be all right, I have a lot of Enneagram type seven tendencies. I tend to brainstorm out loud in a meeting. I tend to move quickly between ideas. Um, help me structure this meeting that I have coming up so that my teammates who maybe need a little bit more detail, need a little bit more time, need a little bit more certainty, um, can follow the conversation uh that I'm trying to, that I'm trying to present here that I want, that I want us to make sure that that we have. Um you, you know, saying I brainstorm out loud, I sometimes jump topics, um, even sharing, you know, I I get energized by possibilities. Um, some members of my team might need a little bit more clarity, structure, and and time to think. So um AI in this situation, after some additional context with that prompt rather than just a generic help me plan for this meeting can give you maybe a clear agenda, um, give you some questions to prepare for um to maybe help you stay on topic, give you specific decision points throughout this meeting. Um, it can give you uh specific moments to pause in the agenda for those of the other team members who might need a catch up or might need some time to reflect. Um, and then it can also give you some sort of follow-up structure, knowing, knowing those types of intendencies. It can it can help you with some follow-up to make sure um that those things that you did talk about in a meeting aren't lost and you're not, you know, having a brand new conversation about totally new topics for the next meeting. Um, one more example I have here is working through conflict. So you could be a manager, you could be just a team member wanting to, you know, help these individuals, but you could say something um in chat, Claude, whatever you're using, that you have two teammates that are stuck butting heads. Um, one is prioritizing speed and action, while the other keeps asking for more information. Give me questions that I can use to understand what each person might be uh protecting and prioritizing without necessarily uh stereotyping people. And so we want to use the Enneagram to help us um get curious as context for our curiosity, but we don't want it to necessarily give us you know instructions, the play by play play by play for how someone will behave because it doesn't know that. And even if it shares something with you, it probably will not be true for that individual. Um, we have patterns, we have tendencies, it can give us some things to think about, but it cannot predict behavior. So, you know, instead of asking, you know, who's right in this situation between these two employees that I have, you could just, you know, help me identify what each person might be prioritizing. Um, what assumptions might be underneath the disagreement, and what questions can I ask without making assumptions or pretending like I might know their motives behind this disagreement. So I really, I really like that one. Um you know the the goal here for these is we want we want to use the Enneagram and we want to use AI to help us, you know, better understand, get some clarity, translate, but by no means diagnose, you know, give us say, hey, help me, you know, give me a description of this person based on this. It it can't do that. And it if it does, it's it's not something that we could really use responsibly. So, um, and then I guess I have one more I'll I'll share with you, and this is more around preparing yourself before a conversation. And and I really like all of these prompts, and you you could add more to this um by really reflecting on your own tendencies first, knowing what you know about yourself through the lens of the Enneagram. Um, so you could say something like, You you need to have a conversation. Um here is what happened, chat. You know, kind of explain the situation or Claude, whatever. Um, here's what I'm frustrated by. Here's why I'm frustrated. Um, I most identify as an Enneagram type two, three, four, you know, fill in the blank here. And I know that I tend to how do you behave? What are those kind of go-to patterns, go-to strategies when when you're stressed? I tend to when I'm stressed. So before I sit down and talk to this person, give me five questions to consider about my own reaction. I really like these. These are gonna be uncomfortable. Um, it's not always our first choice to look at ourselves, uh, to you know, reflect that deeply, take that much time. But I do think that this could be so, I know it can be so helpful and making these especially challenging, difficult um feedback meetings, difficult conversations, um, just a little bit easier and uh, and if not easier, at least more productive, so that you're able to get the result that you you probably want going into these conversations. Um, and ultimately, like it's it's between you and your, you know, your AI uh preference, your chat bot, whatever that might be. Um, and so it they they don't know the person in front of you or that you're having this need to have this conversation with or having this conflict with. Um, they they probably know more about you uh than we realize, but they they don't know about that other person. So instead of you know putting into AI, help me manage them better. Really, the the gist of all of this is help me manage myself before I go in and try and manage the situation. And that that's gonna be a better context. And we can use the insight that we have from the Enneagram. Um, we want to be careful about not using AI with the Enneagram to, you know, try and type someone. So we wouldn't want to put, you know, based on these three characteristics, based on this situation, what type is my team member? Um, we wouldn't want to ask things like, how can I get you know this type six to agree with me? Um, my team member is a type nine, I I I guess they hate conflict, you know. How do I do this? Um instead, we want to use language like, here are some tendencies that this person has told me about themselves, or maybe you've observed. What questions can I ask rather than assuming what they need? I mean, this is gonna make anybody feel so seen, so understood, or at least appreciate and probably be open to hearing what you have to say more because you're taking the time to really understand before you jump in. So, um, like we have talked about many times with the Enneagram, we want to use it to um help us be more curious rather than certain about people. The same is um this the same shows up here. We want to use AI to help us be more curious about people and not necessarily more certain about another person. So um I have a little framework here, and I will put this in the show notes along with that last prompt. Um, but the framework here for um, you know, what we kind of have talked about, how to use the Enneagram with AI is to one give it some context. So what is happening? Two, the pattern. What do I know about my own tendencies? What do I know about my own patterns? The third one is person. So what do I know about how the other person prefers to work or communicate or receive feedback or or whatever that might be? What do you know about the other person? And then the last one, the fourth one here is outcome. What do I want this conversation or this meeting to ultimately accomplish? So, an example. Um, I need to address a missed deadline with a direct report. I tend to move quickly into problem solving and can become overly direct when I get frustrated. Okay. I love that we start with ourselves. Um, this employee usually likes context and time to think before answering. I want the conversation to create accountability without shutting down the conversation. Help me prepare so much. I think that's such a better prompt than just help me prepare for this meeting, right? So, um, you know, overall, I think we all as people leaders, people managing, working with other people, AI is not replacing the human part of management. And if anything, it is giving us another opportunity to become even more intentional about it. So with all of these episodes, with everything that we talk about with the Enneagram, the Enneagram gives us language for the patterns that we experience in ourselves that we might see in other people, those patterns that we're bringing into the rooms that we're walking into. AI can help us prepare and examine those patterns and maybe consider some alternate paths forward so that we're, you know, accomplishing what it is we want to accomplish. So we can use AI to prepare for the conversation. We can use the Enneagram to help us understand the dynamics between ourselves and another person or ourselves and the group or the group in general. Um, and then of course, you ultimately will use your judgment to actually lead that person, help that person based on the very unique qualities of yourself and that person in front of you that AI and and definitely not the Enneagram can fully capture. So with that, I will say I I know so many people are using AI for all kinds of different reasons. Maybe you have already done some Enneagram and AI prompts. If there's any ways that you are using it that have been productive that you feel like are worth sharing with other people, other people leaders, um reach out. I would love to hear about how it's going, what what is working, a specific example. Um, and if you're willing to let me share it with other people or you're willing to come on the show and share it yourself, I would love that. So um you can always reach out over at Enneagrammba.com forward slash contacts. Contact. I've been talking about context, Enneagram MBA.com forward slash contact. There we go. Um, and then I will invite you to consider bringing in um myself, one of our other visiting facilitators to um share a guided Enneagram one-time experience, or to use this time to kick off um some sort of team, department, or organizational and um wide Enneagram program to help us better understand each other, navigate conflicts, better communicate, um, ultimately get to where we want to go with a little less stress, uh, better relationship uh dynamics going into that. So, with that, uh thank you for listening. And uh I look forward to seeing you in the next one.