The Practical Enneagram

"In working with the Enneagram, well-intentioned coaches are inviting clients to counteract the fixation in a way that generates resistance, which then needs to be overcome in order for the client to develop. Especially when that counteractive move is embodied in a practice." A powerful message from Head Coach and Alethia Founder, Steve March (Type 5), who outlines an evolution in Enneagram-based coaching, which he applies in his coaching methodology, the four depths. 

• What happened after Steve graduated from his integral coaching training [4.00]
• The integrating insight he had which led him to develop his coaching methodology [6.00] 
• When Steve encountered the Enneagram [9.55]
• Enneagram as a mirror rather than a map [11.15]
• A description of the Alethia method [12.21]
• The beginning of the description of the four depths [13.48] Depth of parts.
• The Enneagram fixation is a constellation of parts [15.37]  
• Example of how Steve uses the Enneagram with clients [18.45]
• Depth of process (the second depth) [23.40] and depth of presence (the third depth) [24.55]
• How the Enneagram is used in the process and presence depths [27.00] (it's not)
• Steve's use on wings/lines and typing [31.54]
• Views on vertical development [33.20]
• The fourth depth [33.53]
• The alternative to a self-improvement frame [35.13]
• When Steve teaches the Enneagram in his method [37.30] (he doesn't)
• How coach is a surrogate presence in the beginning of the relationship [40.45]
• Why it's important to work with the Instincts inside of the non-dual depth [45.00]
• Why Steve thinks Alethia is an easier coaching approach [48.23]  
  
  

Learn more about Alethia here

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Executive Coach and Facilitator, Renate Landman (Sel-preservation 3), shares how she integrates polarity work with the Enneagram and practical ways to work with this in coaching.

In this episode:

• How Renate became obsessed with polarity [00.46]
• The main polarities in the Enneagram [04.00]
• How Renate introduces this work to her clients [04.40]
• How do we know we are polarised? [06.55] - we feel some sort of strong emotion. "You have to look at where the opposite is" [08.00]
• Is this a cognitive intervention? [09.14]
• Some straight talk [11.42]

Polarities in the Enneagram:
Ego identification and avoidance (or "me and not me's").
Fixation and Holy Idea (duality in the Head Center).
Passion and Virtue (duality in the Heart Center).
Line point to other Line point.
Between the Wings. 

References:
IEQ9 practitioner training
To attend Renate's one monthly Enneagram Community of Practice sessions, email Renate: [email protected]
Renate's bio on IEQ9 Faculty page

Stay connected to the Practical Enneagram:
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Email me: [email protected] 

Organizational consultant, coach, and my monthly Saturday Enneagram teacher,  Ingrid Hurwitz (Sexual 7), describes the importance of the Inner Observer in Enneagram work with characteristic lucidity. 

• What Ingrid gets up to in the world with Enneagram [01.18]
• How she felt when she was first diagnosed as a Sexual Seven [02.27]
• Ingrid's view of the importance of subtype [04.55] and how she discerns subtype of clients [06.17]
• How she moves to Sexual One ('holy rage') [09.10] and Sexual Five [10.30]
• Why Ingrid started working on a Ph.D. on the development of the Inner Observer [11.24]
• Why the capacity for the Inner Observer is needed [12.51]
• Is the Inner Observer the same as the state of mindfulness? [13.55]
• How does a person develop the Inner Observer [18.10]
• Does the Enneagram help us to inhabit the Inner Observer? [20.45]
• How we know we have a developed capacity for the Inner Observer [24.00]
• Practical ways to cultivate the Inner Observer [28.45]
• Ingrid's personal practices [32.50]
• The distinction between non-attachment and detachment [35.30]
• Ingrid's type-specific programs, Into the Wounded Heart [40.35]

References:
To attend Community Practice Sessions, email Renate Landman at: [email protected]
IEQ9
RHETI
Sam Harris's meditations
Evagrius Ponticus

About Ingrid:
Ingrid's website
To learn more about her workshops, email Ingrid at [email protected]

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Stay connected to the Practical Enneagram:
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Email me: [email protected] 

Enneagram master teacher and Integralist Enneagram Hershberger (Social 7) allows me to pick her brain about how the Enneagram maps with the Spiral Dynamics model. Does our type mean that we stall at certain developmental stages? How do we support ourselves through difficult transitions, especially when our type patterns are screaming?

• Does our type stop us from moving on the Spiral? [01.15]
• How to support clients who are in disintegration [05.23]
• Inner and outer resources [10.15]

Resources:

• The interview I was referring to COVID-19 Through the Lens of the Enneagram
• Overview of Developmental Stages of Consciousness
• Kegan's book, In Over Our Heads
• Four Quadrants
• Cynthia Bourgeault's book, The Wisdom Way of Knowing
• Gurdjieff's quote was "it's not just difficult to do the work alone, it's impossible."

Links:
Learn about Leslie's work at her website.
Leslie's new online course, the Centers Approach.

Stay connected to the Practical Enneagram:
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Email me: [email protected] 

20 years + Enneagram consultant, master teacher, coach, spiritual guide, facilitator, mentor, and generous soul Leslie Hershberger (SO7) shares how she came to her distinct teaching around the 3 Centers. 

• How Leslie developed her Centers Approach [1.38] 
• An important distinction about 'Feelings' in her approach [3.25] 
• Importance of three Center presence in a personal and spiritual transformation path [9.12]
• How Leslie's personal practices have evolved ("In the beginning,  it was like I have to be like Ken Wilber") [13.42]
• A reassuringly real-life example [16.40]

References:
The original teaching on Buried Functions:

• Types 4,5 & 9 bury Doing 
• Types 3, 7 & 8 bury Feeling
• Types 1, 2 & 6 bury Perceiving 

Leslie's teaching:

• Heart types (2,3 & 4) bury Feeling (lead with Doing, supported by Perceiving)
• Head types (5,6 & 7) bury Doing (lead with Perceiving supported by Feeling)
• Body types (8,9&1) bury Perceiving (lead with Feeling, supported by Doing)

Her definitions:

• Feeling - felt sense, sensations
• Doing - action that is emotion/sentiment fueled, constructed, fabricated (Heart types); action taking (Head types)
• Perceiving - thinking

Links:
Learn about Leslie's work at her website.
Leslie's new online course, the Centers Approach.

Stay connected to the Practical Enneagram:
Website

Email me: [email protected] 

Part 2. Business consultant, coach, teacher, and trainer of trainers, Ginger Lapid-Bogda, offers 'watch-fors' for each Enneagram type when teaching the Enneagram, along with some very sage advice for those of us called to teach.

• Type patterns when teaching [01.10]: Ones - over-preparing; Twos - reliance on facilitating when they need to be designing something for others to do, and avoidance of mini-lectures; Threes - getting past the performance; Fours - discrediting self before they begin; Fives - not being relaxed enough, being cerebral and stoical; Sixes - excessive doubt; Sevens - keeping training upbeat when that doesn't serve; Eights - expecting group to come to them; Nines - failing to emphasize what's important and what's not. 
• Teaching to all three Centers [06.00]. 
• Teaching from all three Centers [07.00].
• Advice to those called to teach [09.44]: "Who is the call from? Is it your ego?"

Ginger's website, Enneagram in Business
Ginger's Facebook page

Stay connected to the Practical Enneagram:
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Part 1 of a 2 part series with business consultant, coach, trainer (just don't call her 'guru'), Ginger Lapid-Bogda ((SO2) - an Enneagram teacher who will always hold a special place in my heart. In Part 1, we mostly discuss what's so great about using metaphor to teach. 

In Part 2 (released on 16/3) she offers some 'watch-fors' for each Enneagram type when they teach, and priceless advice for those of us called to teach the Enneagram.

In this episode:

• How Ginger's passion for travel got ruined [1.43]
• Ginger getting told off about her Enneagram app [5.35]
• How Ginger became an educator and developed compassion for the learning experience [7.00]
• Who inspired Ginger as a teacher [11.00]
• How she got into the Enneagram ("it was very random" and involved organic food) [11.50]
• How Ginger thinks of and teaches the Enneagram [12.20]
• Influence of her Gestalt therapy background [14.20]
• I go fangirl on Ginger's latest book, the Art of the Enneagram [15.40]
• I miscount the number of metaphors in Ginger's book [16.50]
• Importance of metaphor in teaching the Enneagram [19.00]
• Ginger asks me a question [20.05]
• Her favorite metaphor in the book [21.20]
• A caution when developing metaphors [23.05]

References:

• Ginger's book, the Art of the Enneagram
• The Enneagram in Business Learning Portal
• Ginger's website, Enneagram in Business
• Ginger's Facebook page
• 3 different learning styles: 

1. Auditory learners take in information through listening and speaking.
2. Visual learners best absorb information when they see the material being presented. 
3. Tactile, or kinesthetic, learners learn 'hands-on' and prefer firsthand experience with practical applications. 

Stay connected to the Practical Enneagram: www.thepracticalenneagram.com 

Email me: [email protected] 

Executive Life Coach and Integrative Enneagram Solutions Faculty Member, Marianna Meyer [6], shares how she uses the IEQ9 test in her coaching practice.

In this episode:

• How Marianna met the Enneagram [2.56] and what she thinks the Enneagram does [3.44]
• How she started working with Integrative Enneagram Solutions [4.58]
• How "a test takes away coach bias" [7.15] and how Marianna still gets type wrong when not using a test [8.35]
• The Integrative approach to Enneagram development [09.27]. Core type, Subtype, then Centers of Expression
• How to work with the various Centers data [11.42]
• Working with Triadic styles, or Center-specific styles [13.57]
• I ask an extremely finicky question [14.51]
• Marianna explains how she works in real life, with all the complexity [16.53]. "Less is more; I like to distill things to the most salient."
• How she works with the bars/percentages [17.25]
• Integrative's approach to Lines: 'Stretch and Release' [21.22]
• How Marianna works with Stretch and Release in practice [22.10]
• How she works with the least accessed point in the profile (Jerry Wagner's idea). "It's the least practiced muscle; it holds a lot of power". Gives example of Enneagram Nine usually having low scores for styles Eight and Three  [23.00]
• Other concepts from IEQ9's Coaching Companion: Stress and Strain, and Reality Distortion [25.50]
• Advice for self-motivated self-developers! [27.49]

References:

• 'Depth-psychology' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_psychology 
• 'Harmonics' http://www.fitzel.ca/enneagram/harmonics.html 
• The Handbook I refer to is one that you get when you do the IEQ9 training; it isn't available on Amazon.

Links:

• IEQ9 Questionnaire: www.integrative9.com/ieq9products/ieq9-questionnaire/ 
• Learn more about Marianna: www.mariannameyer.com 
• Learn more about Rez: www.thepracticalenneagram.com 

Stay connected to the Practical Enneagram: Website
Email me: [email protected] 

Music: New Beginnings, Purple Planet Music

Outtake from Episode 1. Borrowing a feature from Enneagram 2.0 (Beatrice and Uranio's podcast), I ask Beatrice and Uranio to name their 'top 5' hallmarks of an effective typing interview and (almost) regret it.

Beatrice's top 5:
5. Ask good questions, and then actually listen to the answers.
4. Be really aware of your own biases. Beatrice discloses her hilarious self-preservation four bias.
3. Ask good questions and know what questions don’t help you. For example, don’t ask people 'how loyal are you' to get at 6ness. Everyone says they're loyal!
2. Combine humility with experience. Do a lot of practice. 
1. Know the Subtypes. Otherwise, you’ll miss the social 7, or the self-preservation 3, etc.

Uranio's top 5:
5. Practice being present and receptive and train yourself to get rid of confirmation bias.
4. Don’t ask rubbish questions. (I've paraphrased).
3. Embrace the Enneagram's complexity. Also, remember that some interviewees might not trust you. 
2. Humility.
1. Study hard - like Rez - and do lots of typing interviews. 

Dr Beatrice Chestnut (Self-preservation 2) and Uranio Paes (Social 5) explain the principles of effective typing. 

• Beatrice and Uranio describe how they learned to type through coaching, teaching and supervising the Narrative Enneagram’s typing method [5.00]
• How and why they built their own tool: the interview script and the flowchart [8.00]
• I paraphrase their 9 typing commandments [13.00]
• We discuss obstacles and gifts of Heart Center, Head Center and Body Center coaches, when typing others [24.00]
• We discuss how to operate from three Centers when we type. Beatrice talks about how typing interviews are a good practice of 'three Centers presence' of themselves [32.00]
• Beatrice and Uranio explain why they decided to put some energy into developing a new test that utilizes adaptive technology [38.00]
• Additional effective typing tips [44.00]

Learn more about Beatrice and Uranio's work: www.cpenneagram.com/

Stay connected to the Practical Enneagram:
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Email me: [email protected] 

Music 'All Together Now' by Purple Planet Music