Out of
the Box Coaching and
Breakthroughs with the Enneagram,
Mary R. Bast, Ph.D.
Copyright © 1999. All rights reserved. Revised:
December 23, 2008
A Little Slapstick is Perfect
I'm a Five and I think one of my team-mates is a Three, although he thinks he's a One. It's his call of course. However, he seems to me to have too much personality and optimism for a One . He is almost like a Seven, and that was his second choice on the Stanford Enneagram Self Assessment. I think what is going on here is that as technical professionals we all need to have some strong One "perfectionist" traits. I do too, but Five is really a better fit at a deeper level. What do you think?
Healthy and mature Ones have a wonderfully developed sense of humor that's a little more slap-stick than the "Far Side" type of Five humor. Fives will amuse themselves with their humorous insights; Ones (who are "compliant" types) will more actively seek to amuse the listener and take overt joy in the listener's response. A One with a Nine wing might be more quiet, but I've worked with several Ones who have Two wings (especially those who operate out of a One-to-One subtype) who totally belie the stereotype of an "uptight" One.
Tom Condon (The Enneagram Movie and Video Guide) describes the One With a 9 Wing as having "an aura of 9-like calm although eruptions of temper are possible. They often have a detached quality and can be mistaken for Fives… More entranced, they might have perfectionistic expectations that are not humanly possible to meet… The rules come first, they could be merciless or unwittingly cruel. Often a little colorless in their personal appearance… The emphasis on function may extend to their general lifestyle. Practicality is highly valued."
In contrast, the One With a 2 Wing "generally brings more interpersonal warmth. High standards are tempered by humanism… They work hard to improve the conditions of others, sacrificing time and energy to do good works. When more entranced, they can be volatile and self-righteous, can give scolding lectures or display a kind of touchy emotionalism (and) overlook inconsistencies in their own behavior. Dependency in relationships. Far more likely to be a jealous (one-to-one) subtype than Ones with a 9 wing."
Michael Goldberg (The Nine Ways of Working) writes:
If this reader's team mate thinks he's a One, he probably is. One of the ways I can feel certain a client is a One is in the very certainty with which they identify that position. A mistyped Six, for example, might say, "I felt relieved to nail my type down as a One right away." A One might say (as the client above did when I described how she resembled a Four), "No, you're wrong! I'm a One!""Everyone, of whatever type, must relate to the Enneagram style of his or her workplace or team. The Enneagram is the most cogent and precise approach to organizational culture I know. It focuses employees and managers alike on asking important questions about their own work team: What is valued and what is not? What are this company's goals? What happens on this team when someone fails? How are decisions and plans made?… One organizations have strong norms and operating controls to maintain high quality (Motorola)… Five organizations are focused on closely managing information (C-SPAN, M&M/Mars)."
Riso's chapter on "Misidentifications" in Understanding the Enneagram distinguishes between Ones and Threes. Some excerpts:
Average Ones and average Threes are sometimes mistaken because both types are efficient and highly organized… The two types are very different, however, particularly in their motivations. Average Ones are idealists, striving for perfection and order… in an effort to control both themselves and their environment… Inner-motivated by strong consciences, they are organized and efficient so as not to waste time and other resources or allow themselves to be in a position for their consciences to rebuke them... Average Threes, by contrast, are efficient pragmatists, not idealists… interested in success, prestige, and advancing their careers, and the efficiency we see in them is a way of attaining those goals. Because emotional depth and a full range of emotions remain undeveloped, average Threes are rarely emotionally disturbed for long by anything… With average Ones, we get the impression of deeper feelings being held in check or sublimated elsewhere, say into social reform."
…
Ones are trying to be perfect, while Threes feel they (more or less) already are…Ones offer themselves as examples of those who strive for perfection, particularly moral perfection; Threes offer themselves as exemplars of individual perfection… as those who 'have it all.' Both (tend to be) "thinking" types… Both have in mind some sort of goal they want to achieve. The difference is that Ones attempt to discover which objective means will best lead to the desired ideal, whereas Threes are pragmatists who work backward to find the most efficient means to achieve their goal."
As Riso & Hudson have found, it's also been my experience that both Ones and Threes are more likely to be MBTI Thinking types than Feeling types. This can be confusing because Threes are part of the "heart" triad (2, 3, 4) and Ones are part of the "gut" triad (8, 9, 1), so neither are "head" types on the Enneagram (5, 6, 7). But the MBTI is a different typology from the Enneagram, having to do with conceptual style vs. underlying motivations, so MBTI Thinking types could appear anywhere on the Enneagram.