The Enneagram & Family Enterprises
Families in general can always benefit from improved communication styles, conflict resolution processes and pathways that support the development of family members.
This is even more essential for families that are in business as Enterprising Families.
Learn to think of your family as an interconnected system...
As a family system there will be arcs of generations, situations, challenges and opportunities. A system will attempt to hold itself into a stasis, that is to say that it will resist change. In order to create change a system usually needs an infusion of energy or a shock of some kind.
A shock could be the passing of a loved one, a significant change in the welfare of the family business, a calling out of past behavior, or from the outside a dramatic market change, a lottery, or loss of a business. Any event that sends a wave through a system is a potential shock, and any shock is a catalyst for change. Depending on your relationship with change this may or may not be perceived as a welcomed thing.
An infusion of energy could look like a family system expanding due to marriage, birth, a sudden inflow of resources, or it could be from an outside influence being invited in to influence the system such as an advisor, coach, consultant or a training/learning event that shifts paradigms in the family system. The changes that result from these influences will also be met with a wide range of responses and reactions and will be welcomed by some and resisted by others.
How we react or respond to change to a large extent, is set up in our personality, which can be viewed and understood through the context of the Enneagram.
What is the Enneagram?
The Enneagram is one of the oldest and most profound contexts for understanding what it is to be human. It offers insight into our style of personality. The Enneagram has benefited from extensive development from a wide range of influences and applications including leadership development, personal development, and spiritual growth.
Recently there have been significant improvements in typing methodology which has in my view solved the challenge of personality typing.
Why is the Enneagram important?
Socrates taught us that the unexplored life is not worth living. Einstein is credited for saying that the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result.
The Enneagram is a profound tool for exploring who we are
Why do two or more people in the same situation have such dramatically different reactions?
Why do some people seem to keep recreating the same relationship pattern or tensions over and over?
Why are some people inherently positive while others are more cynical or pessimistic?
What sets up sibling rivalries?
Why do some people invite change while others resist it?
Individuals in families bring their style of personality with them everywhere they go. Then the collective group of a family forms a family culture. This culture takes on an identity and family members often find themselves being cast either consciously or unconsciously into a variety of classic family roles...
The hero, the rescuer, the scapegoat, the lost child, the victim and on and on.
Do any of these roles sound familiar to you? All of this happens often without our intention or even awareness.
The Enneagram provides us with an understandable and relatable model for our personality style. Once we are able to see and experience our style for what it is, it then becomes much easier for us to break out of old patterns of behavior.
This supports our development, and our development sets up our effectiveness as leaders, as owners, as family members participating in family enterprises, or as family members who may not be directly involved the enterprise, but who are supporting those that are.
The Enneagram can be used to support your growth individually, as a team, or as a complete family cultural system.
I welcome the opportunity to share the Enneagram system with you and your family enterprise.
Contact me for a conversation to discuss moving forward.
Patrick Ryan
Chief Waker Upper
Executive, Leadership, Life Coaching and Clinical Hypnotherapy
www.VancouverCoaching.com
www.AwakenedWisdom.com
www.YaletownHypnosis.com
Canada & International 1-604-343-2800
USA 1-415-413-0007
115, 1058 Mainland St.
Vancouver, Canada BC
