"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves."

Leo Tolstoy

IN THIS ISSUE

1. Recent Poll Results

2. Recent News

3. My Issue For This Issue - Life, the Universe, and Personality Tests, By Courtney Behm

4. Books on the Subject of the Enneagram

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1. Recent Poll Results

Creativity and Innovation at rewarded in my organization.
	Very True	19.23%
	Somewhat True	19.23%
	Somewhat False	26.92%
	Very False	30.77%
	I don't know.	3.85%
	Respondents = 26

My organization supports personal development.
	Very True	23.08%
	Mostly True	35.90%
	Mostly Not True	30.77%
	Are you kidding me? NO!	10.26%
	Respondents = 39

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2. Recent News

Since we have begun providing by-the-minute HR news, I have stopped trying to read every HR-related news article. To stay in touch, bookmark our news feed page with updated, by the minute HR-related news. Follow the link:
www.employeedevelopmentsolutions.com/hrnews.htm

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3. My Issue For This Issue - Life, the Universe, and Personality Tests, By Courtney Behm

Recently I was presenting the Enneagram, a system of nine personality types and their associated leadership styles, to a group of Bay Area entrepreneurs. They were fascinated by the sophistication of the system, and by what they were recognizing about themselves in the self-disclosure of personality type exemplars. And, as with other groups, they asked the common questions about personality type:

• Are we born with our personality type or do we learn it?
• Do we become another type as we grow and change?
• Should I choose my appropriate partner by his or her personality type?
• Can I use personality type as a job-screening and performance-predicting tool?
• Is there a test you can take that will confirm your type?

This last question is always a tough one for me to answer. Are there tests? Are there earthquakes in California? It seems that everyone has the solution to discovering your type. There are flash cards and short answer exams and paragraphs and essays and diagrams and drawings and comparisons and interviews. Some are more accurate than others, some are easier to take, some are about observable behavior, some question us about our inner motivation, some are fun, some are frustrating, but they all produce, in varying degrees, the same result: when the test is finished, most people will not know with complete certainty what their type is. They will have an idea, or multiple ideas. They can use these impressions as signposts that point them in a direction of exploration and investigation and self-discovery. They can use them to verify new information and insights. For example, a test which tells me I could be an Enneagram Type Four or a Type Three not only tells me where to begin my journey, it also tells me a lot about what kind of Type Four or Type Three I might be when I finally come home to myself.

But the point of this article is not that we need better personality tests. The real issue is the attitude with which we tend to look at testing instruments and the expectations we have of them. We tend, as a good friend of mine says, to be meaning-making creatures. We want to label and categorize and do whatever we can to make ordered, comprehensible, logical sense of what is essentially a random and elusive universe. It makes me uncomfortable to even consider that my dining room table may be only my mental construct of "table," around which there is a constellation of devious sensory impressions designed to perpetuate the illusion. I want a table to be a table. Period. And I want it to be in the same place tomorrow morning as it is when I go to bed tonight. No excuses. And I want the same predictability in my human interactions.

Well, we don't really know whether inanimate objects are, in fact, a creation of our expectations, but with our fellow humans, and with ourselves, we are always creating an image of what we want to see and responding to it as if it were the whole truth. Our particular type's idiosyncratic view of the world colors every impression, attitude, idea and experience we have. Our habit of attention is pervasive and powerful and, for the most part, invisible, for we don't see it as "other," just as we don't see the table as "imaginary." It is so close to us that it IS us. When we encounter a personality assessment system like the Enneagram, with its awareness-enhancing properties, we suddenly realize that our world is not as we thought it was. And neither are we.

So what is the first thing we want, in that moment of realizing that our psychological solid ground may be an illusion? We want certainty. We want things, no matter how difficult or painful, to stay exactly as they have been. Our need to know for sure is that great. So we look to a personality test to make sense of this abruptly-expanded universe and reduce it to a manageable set of data points. Then we can stop questioning our internal and external realities and sigh with relief at our narrow escape. The fundamental problem with this approach is that as soon as we think we know something for sure, we find out there is more we need to learn. Each insight is the doorway to the next, in a process that doesn't stop till we die…and perhaps not even then. We will expend an enormous amount of energy feeding our particular illusions of a predictable existence in the face of life's inherent volatility. And it is difficult for us to loosen our grip on what we thought was a life-preserver, even after we have proof that it is actually a boat anchor.

Facing the void of our unknown self can be a terrifying prospect. When everything we thought was true is called into question, we face a kind of psychological death. It's not for the faint-hearted. So we will each come to rest at different levels of the journey, depending on our individual tolerance for the disorientation of personal growth. And wherever we stop is the right place for us at any given time. But I will not learn about my capacity for growth from a test. So when I sit with a group of people new to the Enneagram, and they ask me about Enneagram personality tests, I know I could recommend almost any test and see a similar distribution of results: some will recognize themselves with gladness and a sense of coming home, others will experience the chill of exposure and the desire to hide; some will see it as a doorway to transformation, others will reject it because it doesn't show them the picture they want to see; some will use it as part of a spiritual practice, others will stop with the label; some will be enlightened, others will be confused.

For many reasons, we need accurate testing instruments that can be used in a variety of situations, and there is excellent progress being made in that direction. But the validity and efficacy of the Enneagram, or of any model of self-discovery, does not lie in its test results. The important part happens after the test has been taken, when we activate our inner observer and begin to explore and map our inner landscape. This is when we learn to view ourselves with compassion for our wanderings off the true path, when we have a chance to transform our interactions with others by understanding how profoundly their point of view may differ from ours. This is the time when we find out how much we are willing to risk to experience ourselves at our best. The Enneagram is a humanistic, evolving, dynamic system that relies on trial and error and reinforcement to make its impact on us. To the extent that we resist the temptation to label and remain open for unseen possibilities, we will have the opportunity to establish a profound connection to our true selves and to the larger community. This will be our most reliable personality test.

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4. Books on the Subject of the Enneagram

Do your self a favor and go to half.com for books before you buy any. I have had fantastic results from purchasing from this website.

Enneagram Advantage : Putting the 9 Personality Types to Work in the Office
by Helen Palmer, Paul B. Brown (Paperback - December 1998)

The 9 Ways of Working : How to Use the Enneagram to Discover Your Natural Strengths and Work More Effectively
Michael J. Goldberg (Paperback - June 1999)

Getting Your Boss's Number : And Many Other Ways to Use the Enneagram at Work
Michael J. Goldberg (Hardcover - October 1996)

The Enneagram in Love & Work : Understanding Your Intimate & Business Relationships
Helen Palmer, David N. Daniels; Paperback

The Enneagram in the Workplace
David Daniels, Courtney Behm, 150 Minute Video

 

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