We are often asked: “What is the difference between standard Enneagram reports and the Five Lens Enneagram?” and “What exactly are the Five Lenses?” This article, written as a collaborative effort by Colin Adam and Hymie Gordon, attempts to provide some answers.
‘Types’ of assessments:
The Enneagram is the central model in our Five Lens suite and provides a golden thread that runs through the four additional lenses, and, in fact, all of the people development work that we do. The additional four lenses tease out specific aspects of the Enneagram’s map of human behaviour.
The vast majority of Enneagram-based assessments focus primarily on identifying a person’s ‘type’ and describe the likely behaviours exhibited by that ‘type’. Our view is that this is an overly simplistic way of looking at an individual. It can also have some diminishing aspects, such as reducing a person to an Enneagram ‘number’ or ‘label’ which they carry with them. They may even try to live into that ‘label’ and, in the process, create a self-fulfilling prophecy of behaviour. This can lead to all kinds of difficulties later – especially if the individual’s report is not debriefed with them to place it into their context, and doubly so if they happen to have been mistyped.
Incorporated into our philosophy is the avoidance of the tight ‘boxing’ or ‘labelling’ of people in such a rigid way. Humans are far too complex to be reduced to a single ‘type’. Specific behaviours tend to fall somewhere on a continuum ranging from not present at all to very present, and the frequency of particular behaviour can change depending on the context (i.e. the external environment and internal experience). Our view aligns with modern psychology’s tendency over the years to move away from typologies and more towards trait approaches.
In addition to being reductionistic, typology-based assessments will always have difficulty ‘typing’ someone who falls on the cusp between two ‘types’ or whose behaviour doesn’t quite match the core criteria of a specific ‘type’. The tendency in these cases is to force-fit the person into one of the categories. It’s somewhat like having a filing cabinet containing pre-labelled sections and needing to file a document whose topic doesn’t quite fit any of the pre-determined section labels. Such documents tend to get placed in a section that is somewhat similar to, but not quite matching, the document topic. This is how documents get lost in filing cabinets! It’s also how people get lost in trying to understand themselves when they don’t quite fit the type of description allocated to them. As you can see, there are some dangers here that need to be avoided!
Some of our fundamental beliefs:
It seems appropriate at this point to clarify some of our fundamental beliefs underpinning our Five Lens methodology:
- Behaviour is contextual, and people frequently adjust their behaviour in response to changes in their context. Context refers partly to individuals’ external environment, i.e. what is happening in the world around them and how this is impinging on them. It also refers to their internal context, i.e. what is happening internally for them, including levels of stress, how they are interpreting external events, their beliefs, their physical and mental health, etc.
- We align with general Enneagram theory, which suggests that one of the nine Enneagram patterns will be central to a person’s overall psychology throughout their life (although arguably, there may be a few exceptions to this).
- We believe that everyone has access to all nine Enneagram patterns if they are aware, conscious and well-integrated. At low levels of awareness, consciousness and integration, people tend to be more ‘stuck’ (fixated) in one of the Enneagram patterns almost to the exclusion of the others.
- Levels of integration can be defined largely by levels of Personal Mastery combined with Emotional Resilience. Combined, these two lenses define levels of maturity, the ability to work through adversity, emotional health, adaptability, flexibility, and the ability to learn from one’s own experiences.
- We see that the traditional Enneagram sub-types bear a close relationship with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Richard Barrett’s values and levels of consciousness model. In the Five Lens model, we refer to the three ‘sub-types’ collectively as ‘Social Drives’ and individually as Drive to Survive (Self-Preservation); Drive to Affiliate (Sexual or One-on-One); Drive to Achieve (Social). We also include an additional level referred to as Drive to Transcend (this transitions away from a more fearful self-orientation and into what Barrett refers to as ‘the greater good’. It represents a more unconditional philanthropic, legacy leaving, wanting to make a difference in the world approach.
- In our view, feedback reports from assessments should be debriefed with individuals – particularly reports that provide the depth of feedback contained in our Five Lens reports. But even much ‘lighter’ reports require a discussion in order to get the best out of them. This implies a conversation with a trained coach, counsellor, or similar professional. The purpose is to help place the feedback into the individual’s context, check the accuracy of the assessment with the individual, and in general to get the best out of the feedback provided. The discussion should also cover how the individual will use the feedback developmentally.
So what about the Five Lens assessment?
The Five Lens assessment can be thought of primarily as a behavioural assessment. It attempts to evaluate behaviour across all nine Enneagram patterns and sequence them from the most used pattern to the least used pattern in the individual’s current context. As with most assessments, the more significant aspects of a person’s profile tend to be those behavioural patterns used most frequently and those used least. With this in mind, our Five Lens feedback reports focus on individuals’ two most frequently used patterns and their least used pattern.
As already mentioned, our belief is that behaviour changes to some extent in response to changes in a person’s external and internal context. So, although the most frequently used pattern is usually most entrenched in a person’s ‘way of being’, the frequency of the other patterns can shift more readily in response to the context. This is why we evaluate and show the frequency of all nine patterns in our reports. This is not often done in many other Enneagram reporting systems.
Our approach to the Enneagram is somewhat different in that it takes into account a range of other variables in a developmentally structured way that enables self-discovery rather than labelling.
So, in addition to the Enneagram, what are the remaining four lenses?
The Five Lenses are described sequentially in our feedback reports and comprise the following:
Personal Mastery – related to emotional maturity, confidence combined with humility, and continual learning.
People with healthy levels of personal mastery are self-aware. They are open and curious and tend towards a growth mindset that enables them to learn from their environment and mistakes. They can choose responses rather than overreacting. This level of self-awareness, along with a healthy sense of self-worth, enables them to build the interpersonal skills required to be effective now and in the future world of rapid change.
The six Personal Mastery factors
We define and sub-divide Personal Mastery into six factors, all of which we evaluate individually and collectively as an overview of a person’s effectiveness. Specific behaviours are associated with each of these factors, any of which may require building to increase effectiveness. Our feedback reports offer developmental input that enables self-paced learning that fits well into coaching and other growth-oriented interventions. The six Personal Mastery factors are:
Self-acceptance: An underlying sense of self-worth.
Directed passion: Goals, passion and motivation.
Acceptance of reality: The ability to let go; forgive; accept of the things you cannot change and instead focus on those that you can.
Curiosity: An enquiring mind, open to learning and innovation.
Impact on others: The ability to influence others positively.
Global connection: The experience of feeling connected to a bigger context, community, mission, etc that delivers meaning and purpose to one’s life.
Emotional Resilience: Related to levels of stress. Individuals with consistently high levels of stress are less likely to be operating at their best and are more prone to experiencing health issues. For them, there may be a need for self-care, recharging, refreshing, and an active building of resilience. There may even be a therapeutic need at very low levels of Emotional Resilience and at the very least, coaching.
Our Emotional Resilience lens measures, reports, and offers developmental input in three areas and includes a series of self-coaching questions designed to encourage growth. The three areas are:
Flexibility – A continuum ranging from rigid/closed-minded to adaptable/open-minded.
Emotional Stability – The ability to manage one’s emotions rather than being emotionally reactive.
Self-Efficacy – The positive self-belief, optimism, confidence, and strength to take on adversity and life’s challenges.
Social Drives – related to what seems to be important, valued or drawing one’s attention:
The Social Drives are linked to the traditional Enneagram Subtypes and tend to form a sequential ‘stack’ from most significant to least significant for any individual. They map human development across three levels moving from self-interest towards service to others and the greater good. The Drives suggest certain motivations and are linked to what a person finds significant, or what they value, and how their consciousness is oriented vis-à-vis specific needs or fears.
Individual values can be extrapolated into behaviour and represent a tendency to pay attention to certain things more than others. People generally align their behaviour to their important values and these play a part in creating the culture of teams, groups or organizations. This is a feature of our Five Lens reporting not offered in many other Enneagram reports. Evaluation of the Social Drives often points to significant developmental themes for individuals and gives a particular flavour to their Enneagram styles. In fact, the Enneagram descriptions in our feedback reports are adjusted to include the influence of a person’s dominant Social Drive.
The Drives we evaluate are as follows:
Drive to Survive (referred to as Conservation Instinct by Oscar Ichazo):
Relates to the fear of not surviving and implies a focus on self-care such as safety, security, health, and finances.
Drive to Affiliate (referred to as Relational Instinct by Oscar Ichazo):
Relates to the fear of being excluded and a need to be included, feel a sense of belonging, intimacy, relationship, family.
Drive to Achieve (referred to as Adaptational Instinct by Oscar Ichazo):
Relates to the fear of loss of status, failure, and not being recognized or valued in the broader group; associated with a need for self-esteem.
Drive to Transcend
Having overcome the three more self-oriented needs this is associated with a transition towards the ‘greater good’ and unconditional service. Here there’s a need to unconditionally contribute, give back; serve others; leave a legacy; make a difference in the world.
The Energy Centres – ‘The Three Brains’ or Three Centres of Intelligence:
Highly integrated people can tap into all three of these intelligences contextually. The Five Lens evaluates and shows the individual’s profile across all three Centres and provides developmental input on the leading Energy Centre. This is not an intelligence test, but it is an indication of the preferential use of these Centres. We refer to the three Centres as follows:
Intellectual Centre (Head Centre):
Suggests rationality, logic, analytical, and needs data in decision-making. Related to the brain’s pre-frontal cortex.
Emotional Centre (Heart Centre):
Suggests an orientation toward feelings and emotional sensitivity. Compassion and empathy tend to emanate from this Centre. This Centre is useful in managing relationships. Related to the amygdala brain structure.
Instinctual Centre (Gut Centre):
Suggests access to physical senses and intuition, which are pre-thought and related to what is sometimes referred to as the “reptilian brain”. Intuition or instinct is particularly useful when needing to make decisions without much data available.
A Note on the Enneagram descriptions in our feedback reports:
It’s important to note that an individual’s Enneagram profile is reported at one of five levels of integration, determined by combining scores in Personal Mastery and Emotional Resilience. The Enneagram descriptions are further individualized and flavoured by the individual’s leading Social Drive (i.e. Survive, Affiliate or Achieve).
In conclusion
We hope this provides enough of an overview, for now, of our Five Lens model and general philosophy. If you require more information, please contact us. We would love to hear from you!
Colin Adam & Hymie Gordon
