IMAGINE A HOUSE
This is your house and you have many different rooms in your house. You have your room which you are most familiar with. You know what is in there, you know where to find stuff, you know where you might have hidden stuff that you don’t want anyone else to know about or find. You may even be so comfortable and familiar in your room that you have stopped noticing some of the things around you. You feel safe in your room and things are pretty predictable in there.
The other rooms in your house vary from known and familiar to completely unknown and maybe even unopened. Rooms that you have never ventured into or even tried to unlock. You may have a fear of entering some of these rooms, maybe you have tried once before but it felt too scary and uncertain to hang around in there. You may be completely disinterested in some of the rooms and there is nothing that stimulates an intrigue about unlocking and entering that door. And there are other rooms that are fascinating and you are drawn to spending more time in there, exploring and finding little treasures that belong to you, for the first time in your life.
THIS IS LIKE THE ENNEAGRAM
The Enneagram is a personality profiling tool which is used as an assessment of personality. It can tell you many things about yourself and the people around you. It is multidimensional and fluid in its expression. What I love about the Enneagram is that it does not put you in a box but it does show you the box that you are already in and it shows you how you can get out of it. Amongst other things it gives you an indicator of what motivates you, what you might think, act and feel like in stress and it offers you a pathway for growth. According to the Enneagram there are 9 different personality types and each of us will default to one of those types. However, as we grow in self-awareness we discover that we are all flavored a little differently, and as we get to know ourselves and understand the other types we can become more compassionate and embracing towards the responses and reactions of others.
So back to our imagination journey in your house and why I said that it’s like the Enneagram.
Your room that you are most comfortable in and most familiar with is your default personality type. This is the part of your personality that you will understand the most. More than likely it is the part of your personality that others will observe and know to be YOU. The “above the surface” part of you that you present to the world. The part of you that you are unconsciously living out.
But as we all know self-awareness is of massive importance. Especially so within a work context. This is where we spend the majority of our waking hours and this is where we can become tired and stressed and triggered by our colleagues. The more we understand ourselves, the better we are able to perform at work, the better we are able to get along with our team members. Ironically the more we understand ourselves the more we begin to understand other people and the more we grow in empathy and compassion for those we live and work with.
In the last couple of years LSD has been using the Enneagram, an archetypal framework that gives insight into individuals and their personalities. It resonates the most with us as a team, because it doesn’t just put a label on someone and that is how they are classified for their entire tenure here. Let me explain what it is and why we love it:
IMAGINE A HOUSE
This is your house and you have many different rooms in your house. You have your room which you are most familiar with. You know what is in there, you know where to find stuff, you know where you might have hidden stuff that you don’t want anyone else to know about or find. You may even be so comfortable and familiar in your room that you have stopped noticing some of the things around you. You feel safe in your room and things are pretty predictable in there.
The other rooms in your house vary from known and familiar to completely unknown and maybe even unopened. Rooms that you have never ventured into or even tried to unlock. You may have a fear of entering some of these rooms, maybe you have tried once before but it felt too scary and uncertain to hang around in there. You may be completely disinterested in some of the rooms and there is nothing that stimulates an intrigue about unlocking and entering that door. And there are other rooms that are fascinating and you are drawn to spending more time in there, exploring and finding little treasures that belong to you, for the first time in your life.
THIS IS LIKE THE ENNEAGRAM
The Enneagram is a personality profiling tool which is used as an assessment of personality. It can tell you many things about yourself and the people around you. It is multidimensional and fluid in its expression. What I love about the Enneagram is that it does not put you in a box but it does show you the box that you are already in and it shows you how you can get out of it. Amongst other things it gives you an indicator of what motivates you, what you might think, act and feel like in stress and it offers you a pathway for growth. According to the Enneagram there are 9 different personality types and each of us will default to one of those types. However, as we grow in self-awareness we discover that we are all flavored a little differently, and as we get to know ourselves and understand the other types we can become more compassionate and embracing towards the responses and reactions of others.
So back to our imagination journey in your house and why I said that it’s like the Enneagram.
Your room that you are most comfortable in and most familiar with is your default personality type. This is the part of your personality that you will understand the most. More than likely it is the part of your personality that others will observe and know to be YOU. The “above the surface” part of you that you present to the world. The part of you that you are unconsciously living out.
But as we all know self-awareness is of massive importance. Especially so within a work context. This is where we spend the majority of our waking hours and this is where we can become tired and stressed and triggered by our colleagues. The more we understand ourselves, the better we are able to perform at work, the better we are able to get along with our team members. Ironically the more we understand ourselves the more we begin to understand other people and the more we grow in empathy and compassion for those we live and work with.
