The Enneagram Advantage: Putting the 9 Personality Types to Work in the Office [Hardcover]

Helen gives practical advice on using the Enneagram typing system to help put people in a position to suceed. The workplace is made up of diverse personality types. Palmer provides the guidelines to help us with daily interactions with differing types. By showing strengths and weaknesses for each type she helps to insure that people can be utilized in jobs that will bring out their best.

In this book, enneagram expert and teacher Helen Palmer teams up with business writer Paul Brown to explore the "Business and Work" aspects of the nine enneagram types. Specifically, Palmer sets out to cover people's "Business Persona" and how the types interact in work settings. Whereas I would call this a "worthwhile effort," the reknown of the co-authors led me to expect more from this book. Although I mostly bought the book on account of my interest in the enneagram, I found the business angle to be somewhat weak. That said-- and in defense of Palmer-- the enneagram IS a very complex system, so an attempt to incorporate its teachings into a 280-page business "manual" for laymen is not only ambitious, but would almost inevitably have to include an extensive psychological background. Which this book does, somewhat at the expense of much practical "nuts and bolts" coverage of business applications.

The book has two main sections. In the first section, Palmer offers a brief background on the enneagram, followed by a self-test "quiz" (a series of paragraphs) to help readers determine their type. She explains (briefly) how the system "works," and how knowing the enneagram can help people work more smoothly with each other in a business setting.

The second section-- entitled "The Nine Types At Work"-- consists of nine chapters, each offering a "descriptive snapshot" of an enneagram type. Each type chapter starts with a checklist to help with self-identification, then covers typical motivations and behaviors of that type in work settings. There's also a brief section on how *others* perceive that type. The remainder of each chapter covers self- and outer-motivation, time management, negotiation strengths and weaknesses, training techniques, and concludes with a short "vignette" to show that type might work through a particular business situation.

Overall, the book is fairly logically and simply laid out, with each type chapter covering the same basic concepts in fairly easy-to-read language.

Final thoughts: Recommended (7.5 out of 10 possible bookmarks) with a couple of cautions. It's interesting material for students of the enneagram, although it breaks little new ground from Palmer's previous "The Enneagram in Love & Work." As a stand-alone "Business Book" to provide someone NOT familiar with the enneagram insight into the personality dynamics of a workplace, you have to be prepared to read a LOT of enneagram/psychology content before you can get significant benefit from the somewhat limited business/work content. Might be best suited to HR managers with a solid background in psychology.

For an alternative (and perhaps somewhat clearer and more useful) angle on this topic, I'd like to also suggest "The 9 Ways of Working: How to Use the Enneagram to Discover Your Natural Strengths and Work More Effectively" by Michael J. Goldberg.

This was my first look at enneagrams. It makes you realize how pathetic identifying someone as simply a 'Type A' or 'Type B' personality is. It helped me understand why my wife, whom had been categorized as a 'A' type would act differently in different situations, while I, a 'B' type would do the same. Once you find your Enneagram, you will be amazed at how so many things will make sense.