The Enneagram In Love & Work, by Helen Palmer

I recently attended a fascinating seminar at the Halin Prémont Enneagram Institute. I thought I should read a book or two about the enneagram and share it with you here.

The enneagram is a personality model describing nine types and their relationships.

Compared to the famous MBTI, the enneagram is a little less pragmatic and has been less validated scientifically, but it's also more profound and more spiritual, describing the deep motivations of each type. I would say that the MBTI describes how you behave while the enneagram explains why you behave like that.

The 9 personality types

Each type has a nickname:

1. The Perfectionist
2. The Giver
3. The Performer
4. The Romantic
5. The Observer
6. The Trooper (or the Devil's Advocate)
7. The Epicure
8. The Boss
9. The Mediator

If you have 45 minutes, watch this video: it describes the enneagram model and each one of its types:

If you'd like a quicker and funnier sample, here's a description of Type 9 (which happens to be mine):

What's In It For HR?

The book titled “The Enneagram” offers an in-depth description of each type. You want to read it if you 'd like to understand each type in detail and where the theory comes from.

“The Enneagram In Love And Work” is more practical. After a more synthetic description of each type, it offers a directory of relationships to show how a type interacts with each of the other eight. It can be useful from an HR perspective: it brings keys to decode work relationships so it can be used in conflict resolution, negotiation, team building, mentoring...

Book data

• The Enneagram In Love & Work - Understanding Your Intimate & Business Relationships
• By Helen Palmer
• HarperOne
• 407 pages
• Available on Amazon.com:  The Enneagram in Love and Work: Understanding Your Intimate and Business Relationships 

And:

• The Enneagram
• By Helen Palmer
• HarperOne
• 378 pages (+ appendixes)
• Available on Amazon.com:  The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others In Your Life