What makes a team go from just OK to good? What helps a good team become a great one? I use a simple concept called AAA: alignment, attunement and acceleration.

I was first exposed to the first two elements of this concept – alignment and attunement – over three decades ago, the brainchild of a consulting firm called Innovation Associates and one of their primary consultants, Roger Harrison. I added the third element, acceleration. Effective team acceleration occurs when a team is aligned around their purpose, tasks and deliverables, while team attunement can be thought of as team resonance.

Is your team aligned and attuned so it can accelerate? Think of this as teams being able to access the collective wisdom of their three Centers of Intelligence: Head Center (alignment), Heart Center (attunement) and Body Center (acceleration). Teams have all three Centers of Intelligence, just like individuals do. This is the challenge and opportunity for teams and individuals: Are we accessing and using the wisdom of all three Centers of Intelligence? Using the Enneagram in its team’s applications is the ideal way to do this.

In the next series of blogs, all of them on the topic of teams and the Enneagram, I’ll share some concepts and practices for how to do this. Here are some questions to ponder, thinking about the team as a whole:

What are the Head Center-based challenges and opportunities?

What are the Heart Center-based challenges and opportunities?

What are the Body Center-based challenges and opportunities?

You may think this has to do with the types on a team. This is certainly a factor, but it is not the most important one. For example, just because there are more Head Center types (5, 6 and 7) on a team doesn’t mean the team is more likely to be aligned. Similarly, more Heart Center types (2, 3 and 4) doesn’t mean a team will become more attuned. An accelerating team does not necessarily have more Body Center types (8, 9 and 1) as team members.

In the next blog, you’ll find out the answers to these questions and more. This blog series is based on Ginger’s forthcoming book, “Transform Your Team with the Enneagram: Build Trust, Decrease Stress, and Improve Productivity.”

Ginger Lapid-Bogda PhD, author of eight 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