Five - The Independent Type 
 

My boss (Nine) and I (Eight) have become really interested in using the Enneagram for team development. At your suggestion we got copies of Goldberg's The 9 Ways of Working but the third member of our team still hasn't read it. He said he wasn't uncomfortable with the idea, but his body language said otherwise. I think he's probably a Five.

If your colleague is a Five as you have guessed, that's the most private of all the styles. Theoretically the Five's passion or compulsion is avarice, which doesn't translate into greed as we usually think of it - more a withholding of personal information, a "stinginess" of emotions. They're also the most independent. Their connection to Eight is attached to unconscious fears of vulnerability, and their connection to Seven is attached to avoidance of "pain" or going deeper into things. These are fears we all have, and could be true of him regardless of of his Enneagram style, but would be somewhat exaggerated or perhaps less "known" (more a part of his Shadow) if he is indeed a "Five."

You'll find W.H. Auden's delightful poem instructive about Fives:

Some thirty inches from my nose
The frontier of my Person goes,
And all the untilled air between
Is private pagus or demesne.
Stranger, unless with bedroom eyes
I beckon you to fraternize,
Beware of rudely crossing it:
I have no gun, but I can spit.

Fives love the Enneagram as a basis for knowledge. And when they initiate exploration of the Enneagram, they like to use it at work. My guess is your team mate doesn't want to be "ranked" or "classified" by someone else. It may help, if you haven't already done this, to place the emphasis on you and your boss, who are already willing to go public as an "Eight" and a "Nine."

Ask him to read about those two styles and to give the two of you feedback. If he's a Five he may be attracted by the opportunity to learn something. Stay away from words that convey emotions, even positive ones, such as how excited you feel about being able to change yourself. If he's a Five, he'll disdain emotional responses until he feels safe. Fives have worked their whole lives to place all their energy into their intellect.

A Five reader added the following:

"About your recalcitrant Five, I think the key is to find someone who can get into his internal worldview and find out what the block is. He may have some construct like "psychology is bunk," in which case winning him over may only be possible via another Five who can show him in an objective fashion that the Enneagram is an elegant system for understanding human motivational patterns. I've just come to the conclusion that someone I've been close to for a long time is a Five. He's not interested in the Enneagram. He has an active mental life and I think he sees the Enneagram as a competing philosophy. Since he processes things more slowly than I, he may have a valid point with regard to the precious (Five) resource of time, but I strongly believe the Enneagram can beautifully integrate with nearly any philosophy or worldview."

If he's not a Five, none of this will hurt but it may not help.

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