The good news is that Mom, a lovely One with both wings, will recover completely.  We were unsure and frightened there for a while.

And at 83, of course, “recover completely” means getting back to worrying only about the arthritis and cataracts…

Thanks to those of you who have been inconvenienced by this; looking forward to seeing you in January!

Happy Holidays -

Dave

What a great day we had!  Our Four couldn’t show up due to illness, but daughter Laura attended, giving us a Seven, so we had all types in the room except Four and Nine.  It was a very rich day indeed, full of learning for all of us.

One thing that we explored was the concept of “alone together.”  We discovered yesterday that as couples and as family members, we often like to be together, but we like to be doing our own “alone” things at the same time.  We all enjoy this, it seems, regardless of type.  There are type-related differences, however, in our preferences about how we talk with each other about and during our “lonesy time” together.  This led to some fun and fascinating conversations about relationship and communication preferences.

This space is for participants to share their experiences, and talk about the conversations most meaningful for them.

This is a forum for participants to post their comments and reflections.  I’m looking forward to their feedback and your comments!

Eisen-Human Systems Redesign

I’m hoping that participants will use this space to post comments about their experience.

Next Introductory Workshop:  October 2.  Tell your friends!

Because I’ve been working so much with the Enneagram in recent years, I’ve become  unrealistically naive in assuming everyone knows at least a little bit about this versatile and often transformative system.  That’s clearly just not true.  I do know that while we’ve done Strategic Planning and all sorts of training and consulting in Harmony’s organization, we’ve only brought the Enneagram into one small division.

It’s always the assumptions that get me in trouble; I appreciate Harmony’s help in making this one explicit.  Here’s how I responded to her question:

Ennea comes from the word “nine.”  If the Pentagon in Washington had nine sides it would be the Enneagon or Nonagon.  Gram = writing, so Enneagram means “Nine-writing” or “Nine-written.”

It’a a personality typing system.  Have you ever heard of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI?  That’s a really common one, suggesting that there are 16 different “types” of people.

The Enneagram is a nine-point typing system, identifying nine specific ways of thinking, feeling and behaving in the world.  It’s pretty cool.

I like the Enneagram better than the MBTI because it doesn’t pigeonhole people so much, in my opinion.  The Enneagram teaches that understanding your type is good, but growing is better, try to integrate the best of other types into your personality.  (Four specific types will be easier to integrate than the others, but that’s for later.)  The Enneagram is about personal growth, effectiveness, mastery, emotional intelligence, etc.  You can imagine how this has great implications for both our relationships and our work.

You can read more here http://davidwarner.org/enneagram/ , and on the “Workshops” page that’s linked to it.

I really appreciate the question – let me know if you have others.

Same goes for the rest of you.

Perhaps those stories will be told here, and perhaps not.  I’m imagining this space as a forum where topics are suggested and perspectives shared.  It’s a place where I hope to be able to toss out issues I’m grappling with or wondering at, for comment and suggestion.  It’s a place, I hope, for sharing ideas we find compelling, tools we find useful, and stories we find touch us, as we strive to be more effective at what we do.  It will evolve, and your participation is most welcome.

Before I forget, I want to thank Maria Pappas Business Consulting for the great new logos.  In addition to doing Graphic Design work, Maria is an OD consultant in her own right, and an especially gifted Graphic Recorder.

Thanks also to Brian Michelsen of Manzanita Web Design.  In addition to his obvious design skills (I’m thrilled with the new site!), he’s clearly the most patient man I’ve ever met.  I appreciate the way he hung in there with me while I turned a relatively simple process into a protracted ordeal.

I was struck by the way in which both Brian and Maria engaged me as client, and how it paralleled the way in which we engage clients of our own.  The first half – or more – of our work together was talking, questioning, contracting, and talking some more, followed by more questions.  What do you want that you may not be able to articulate?  What are your desired outcomes?  What, specifically, do you not want?  Have you considered this, or that?  Can you describe success?  How will you know when you’re there?

Always a pleasure to deal with professionals.