Enneagram team mapping is powerful because it allows you to do the following:

Accurately predict the strengths and the areas of tension within a team quickly

Allows teams to view themselves objectively, recognizing strengths and areas for growth

Depersonalize the conversation in a highly constructive way

Ignite powerful yet dispassionate dialogue to improve performance

How do you create a team Enneagram map? All you have to do is have a clear Enneagram symbol – one that is not overly complicated visually – and place a sticky dot, circle (if being done virtually), or check mark near the types of each team member. Then, you do a visual assessment of the team and its types, starting first with the Centers of Intelligence – Head, Heart and Body – finding which is most represented within the team and which is less represented.

Next, you explain the orientation of each Center of Intelligence using the words below.

Body Center: action, control, fairness
Heart Center: relationships, image, feelings
Head Center: ideas, mental processing, planning

Once this is done, the team can analyze how it functions and the team dynamics based on this Center of Intelligence type map. From here, the team can explore the most relevant type-to-type interactions.

From the above analyses and discussion, the team is equipped to make decisions about what they want to continue about the way their team functions and what they want to change. Essentially, if you are a trainer or consultant to the team, you don’t need to know everything about the team and that would be impossible anyway. All you need is accurate Enneagram typing, a team that wants to examine itself, and an Enneagram symbol to use as a map. As a trainer or consultant, you simply follow the above process and let the team do the analysis and draw its own conclusions. Of course, they might need a little help from you as an objective outside person.

If you are curious about the team mapping process and want more details, plus concrete examples, you can find this and more in the Team Maps chapter in Ginger’s newest book, Transform your Team with the Enneagram: Build Trust, Decrease Stress, and Increase Productivity. Now available on Amazon!

Ginger Lapid-Bogda PhD, author of nine Enneagram books, is a speaker, consultant, trainer, and coach. She provides certification programs and training tools for business professionals around the world who want to bring the Enneagram into organizations with high-impact business applications. TheEnneagramInBusiness.com | ginger@theenneagraminbusiness.com