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The Geometry of Conversation 2

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When I was in Phoenix, I awoke one morning with the map of the complex PULSE Frame in my head. I have been working to free it to the paper ever since. Imagine the three sided PULSE Frame as an equilateral triangle. Now expand your vision by adding another dimension so that now you have a tetrahedron, a shape with four equilateral triangles. One serves as the base and the others wrap around the sides of the front face. If you unfold that tetrahedron out so that it lays flat you get a larger equilateral triangle, one at the top and three that fit inside each other to form the base. Are you with me?

Let’s look at each of the four triangles individually.

The first one at the top of the new larger triangle is the PULSE Frame with four parallel lines that divide it into five sections that we call Prepare, Uncover, Learn, Search and Explain. Prepare is the base of the triangle and it gives it its strength. If you further divide Preapre into equilateral triangles you get 9. Uncover divides into 7. Learn into 5 and Search into 3 and Explain is another equilateral triangle. These braces strengthen the structure and form diamonds and triangles galore – glorious triangles and diamonds.

Each of those triangles is full of meaning. PREPARE – 9 internal triangles

1. Set the tone and welcome: This is where the Delta or Conversation Leader works to create a welcoming and safe environment for inquiry. This is where the curiousity begins. “Thank you for coming” sets the voluntary nature of the conversation.

2. State the Purpose: Identifying out loud the purpose of the meeting makes it clear to everyone that we are here to come up with a plan … not just to Talk about things … but to talk about them until a mutually agreeable resolution has been reached.

3. Outline the Protocol: Invite parties to speak Gently and Honestly, to be Open to what is being said and to be Specific and use examples. Let them know that this kind of conversation works best when people agree to Talk , to say what is on their mind in a gentle way so that the other person can keep listening.

4. Describe the Process: The Process has five guiding questions … How will the conversation proceed, What is the conversation about, Why is it important to them, What could they do and What do they agree to do …. and five stages … Prepare, where the delta talks to the parties, Uncover where the parties speak individually, one at a time to the Delta; Learn where the parties have a chance to speak directly to each other; Search where the parties have an opportunity to brainstorm possible actions; and Explain where the parties work with the Delta to create a detailed plan of what they agree to do.

5. Establish Confidentiality or Audience: Theses kind of conversation work best when people feel comfortable about saying things they may otherwise keep to themselves. Agreeing to keep a level of confidentiality that makes it possible for them to share is important. Establishing who needs to know about the conversation and about the Plan of action that will result from the meeting at the beginning is important. Even if decisions about who sees the plan change when once it is written is revisited later, introducing it hear is important.

6. Determine Authority: The questions here are aimed at focusing the dialogue around things that are within the circle of influence or authority of the people in the room. If parties have come to resolve or decide on something that they have no power to change, then the conversation purpose changes. The Delta’s role is to keep them on topics that they do have the authority to do something about.

7. Describe Roles: The role of the Delta or Conversation Leader is to direct traffic, to ask the questions and record the answers, to listen and to guide the conversation using the PULSE skills to release the power of the participants to create a future together. The role of the parties is to stay engaged and use the protocol until the process is complete.

8. Set a Time: These kinds of conversations are most efficient and effective when they are scheduled for 60 to 90 minutes. PULSE conversation can also occur at the water cooler or over a five day retreat. Brief encounters can follow the structure and have great outcomes as can strategic planning sessions. Setting the time at the beginning helps people focus on the topic at hand because they know that it is for a designated amount of time.

9. Invite parties to the next level: Are you ready to proceed? Establishing a commitment to the purpose, process, protocol, level of confidentiality and authority, the roles and the time means establishing a commitment to the conversation and the relationship and the outcome it is the first step in shifting responsibility for the outcome to the parties.

UNCOVER – 7 internal triangles

1. Ask: What? What are you here to resolve? What is the title of the story that brought people to this conversation? What are the circumstances from the past that have brought people? Parties talk to the Delta at this point, one at a time to describe the situation from their Perspective. This is where the Delta begins to identify the unique Perspective of each participant and begins to listen for what might be shared.

2. Hush: Just listen. Quiet your mind and pay attention.

3. Empathise: silently. Imagine how it is from their perspective.

4. Attend: Watch body language, and facial expressions. Look for emotional response. Listen to the choice of language, pace and tone.

5. Reflect: Build rapport by matching and mismatching what you see, hear and experience.

6. Trust: Trust that people are doing the best they can with what they know.

7. Name the title or circumstance: Listen for the common title that all participants can agree is the thing they are there to do something about….. a one word title for the story. And invite participants to speak to each other in the next piece.

LEARN – 5 internal triangles

Although this piece of the Frame requires the patient, deep listening of HEART, it also requires the more deliberate evidence of listen provided with POWER.

1. Paraphrase: Show parties that you have heard what they have said by repeating it back to them or using similar words to represents the ideas they have shared.

2. Open questions: Use open questions to let them lead the conversation and to encourage them to think about what’s important to them or what’s missing.

3. Wait: “Why Am I Talking” Listen. Give them time to think and consider what has been said. Honour the time it takes to work it through. Let them have the responsibility for the answers.

4. Empathise: Name the level of emotion so that they know you “get it”. “You feel strongly” … or “this has been difficult” … work well.

5. Reframe: Identify unique and common Beliefs, Expectations, Assumptions, Concerns and Hopes … what is missing … the criteria for a collaborative future.

SEARCH – 3 internal triangles

As they Brainstorm, say nothing, capture their ideas and pay attention to …

1. Content: Are they on topic?

2. Process: Are they describing future actions?

3. Response: Are they calmer now and have they shifted to a place where they can see each other’s perspectives without necessarily agreeing with it.

EXPLAIN 1 triangle

1. The tip – the pinnacle – the plan: Is the possibility of a successful relationship firmly in place?

Triangle 2 of the larger tetrahedron forms the base of the tetrahedron when it is folded. Triangle 2 is also a tetrahedron that folds up inside the bigger one and spins to create the centrifugal force that keeps the conversation moving forward. What I see there are the skills that support the PULSE Frame and Process. Each of the faces of this smaller tetrahedron represents a set of skills. The three outside faces are divided into five sections like the Front face of the PULSE Frame. Each section is labelled starting at the base – Gentle Honest Open Specific Talk – on one face. Another face has the same five sections labelled from the base – Paraphrase, Open question, Wait, Empathise, Reframe. And the third face is divided into five sections and labelled starting at the base – Hush, Empathise, Attend, Reflect and Trust. The inner triangle which forms the base of the inner tetrahedron when it is folded contains the wheel of change and the five associated skills – Normalizing, Confronting, Transparency, Bridging and Immediacy.

Triangle 3 is to the left of 2. It represents the Response support for the PULSE Conversation. Inside this triangle you find the three points form triangles of their own and the space that is left is filled with a circle with 9 points and sections each with a forty degree view of the world. These are the nine BEACHS, sets of Beliefs, Expectations, Assumptions, Concerns and Hopes, the perspectives or frames of reference that people bring to PULSE Conversations. The Enneagram connector lines are also present in the diagram. There is a triangle inside the circle and lines connecting the other 6 points. The three other triangles that lie outside the circle are labelled. The bottom left is Freeze, the top centre is Fight and the bottom right is Flight. These are the human reflexes related to fear and threat that often lead to a need for structured conversation.

Triangle 4 to the right of 2 on the larger tetrahedron represents the content support for the PULSE Frame and Conversations. This is the power of Appreciative Inquiry. There you find a hexagon within the triangle which is further divided into six triangles and outside of the hexagon are three more triangles one at each of the three original angles. The top three triangles of the hexagon are labelled “To be Positive”, “To be Heard”, “To be Known”. The bottom three triangles are labelled “to choose”, “to act”, “to dream”. These six sections represent the six freedoms created in PULSE. The three outside triangles are labelled too. The lower left is Release. The upper point is Relax and the lower right is Relate. These are the automatic reflexes experienced by human beings when the threat is removed. A rotating image of the PULSE Complex Conversation If you know the PULSE Frame you will begin to see the strength and complexity of it visually represented with this new map. Setting the triangles in place creates the cross beams that lend the strength that is otherwise invisible but is always there, holding the conversation in place.

This is an excerpt from the new book … The Complex PULSE that I am writing for the Advanced PULSE Practitioners who are coming to Calgary in a couple of weeks. Comments and questions are welcome…..

Aruba

So my daughters and I are in Aruba. It is a beautiful “sand bar” in the Caribbean Sea. We are having a beach vacation. We are enjoying the sun and the sand and the sea. The food is good. We are reading books and relaxing together. The “together” is the best part.

It is early morning and overcast at the moment but the sun has shone everyday and the temperature is in the low 30’s. It has been very pleasant and rejuvenating.

Learning from the Elders

Most of what I know I learned from people who are a head of me on the road of life. They look back at the path I am on and point and say… “don’t trip on that stick…” or they stand beside me and warn … “around that corner there are often animals in the bushes waiting for you to hesitate…” Sometime the message arrives in peculiar ways, like when a dream wakes you and you SEE things differently.

This morning I was dreaming and, upon awakening, I came to a realisation. I am a story-teller. Not that insightful but interesting new information for me. AND my stories are often comic tragedy. I tell people about all of the things that go wrong so they can enjoy the story and so that they hope, as I do, it never happens to them. Tragically things do go wrong for me. Too many things…. The air travel stories I could tell…. The hotel stories …. The training stories …. All based on strings of events that lead to outrageous situations where I become the tragically funny victim.

Time for a change … The flip side of those stories is equally entertaining and true. I have travelled to wonderful places and had many “pinch me” moments in my travelling and during my training events in many places. Those are the stories to be told. I here by pledge to resist the one-upmanship of telling a worse tale of woe than the person who is complaining to me and to never use the words “That’s nothing… do you know what happened to me???”

No more victim stories. No more villain stories either … you know … the ones where you get even. I tell those too. So no victim or villain. That only leaves hero stories. I feel my neck tighten as I write that. My experience in our society has made the hero story something that is told by others. It is uncomfortable and yet very necessary if you are to be successful in this world.

One of my strongest mentors is my cousin Joan who recently retired from the Senate of Canada. Once while I was visiting her in Ottawa, I listened while she had a conversations with a Cabinet Minister. As we walked away she said to me….”If I don’t tell him what I have done on the Senate Committee, who will?” She is right of course. Who beside you knows the contribution you have made? Tell the world. Tell the good stories. And if you can make it funny … even better. Let me work on that.

The PULSE of PULSE – Moving on

The next stage of the PULSE Institute began this week with the new website and logo. It was a soft launch. No hoopla. We have maintained our understated status and continue to fly under the radar. Many people don’t know what we do and how wonderful the skills we teach are. Many do. Those are the people we are inviting to attend the Conversation at the Convention in Vancouver in August. I am getting excited about the possibilities there.

When an institute like ours has been in existence for 10 years it is time to naval gaze a little and see what is next. So the Convention will be our opportunity to see where we have been, what we are up to now and where that will take us. A familiar Frame for conversations … right? Prepare, Uncover, Learn, Search, Explain. Prepare for the conversation: invite the right people. Uncover the past circumstance. Learn the significance of what we have done to set criteria for the future. Search the possibilities for the use of the Frame beyond mediation and conflict resolution. Explain a plan of action for the next five years.

The major question for me is not so much what we are doing but why? What are we in the service of? I know this kind of question pops up for me as a result of my recent coach training and I like that. Coaching helps you integrate your feelings and sensations with your thoughts and I find myself “self-coaching” with the Frame more often now. Back to the question of service. PULSE serves to help People Use Language Skills Effectively. PULSE serves many purposes and changes many lives.

PULSE needs a celebration and that is what we are going to have. Come to Vancouver in 2011. Enjoy the PULSE of a great city and help us define the PULSE of PULSE. Where do we go from here?

Disappointment

Change is often difficult, Change is sometimes swift and sudden. One day you are moving along on road of life, making assumptions about how the world works and what will happen next and then suddenly there is a shift and teh world as you understood it stands on its head. Perspective changes. The trick is to figure out whether you are indeed upside down or has the rest of the world gone mad. Having a fixed point, a true north can be critical at such times. Keeping your eye on the ultimate goal and not allowing yourself to spiral away from your intentions take more energy when the tide is turning.

Today I feel as if I am in a rip tide.

154 an Invitation to Vancouver Summer 2012

The posts are adding up. I sometimes go back and read over the ones about the BEACHs as I work to complete the BEACHs book.

Today we outlined a possibility for a PULSE Conference this summer in Vancouver. I love the idea of gathering together PULSE folks from around the world to share. Austin Gamey from Africa; Maria Hegarty from Ireland; Lynda Mann and Shalom Staub from the US. Add to that our Canadian experts like Mel Blitzer and Peter Snow and Steve Critchley and Marjorie Munroe and Lois MacNaughton we have quite a line up. PULSE is used for more than just mediation and a conference would be a great way to showcase the various applications like mediation, negotiation and coaching. We could also showcase the QuickHit webinars that Mel and I have been working on … 70 titles that apply PULSE to leadership and the military applications that Steve is working on and the Aboriginal Work that both Marjorie and Peter Snow are doing. The work with agencies in the US Federal Governemnt is also very interesting and Lynda Mann is now spearheading that. Post Secondary institutions are benefiting from the work of Shalom Staub.

Internationally, Africa is abuzz and Austin Gamey has committed to coming to Vancouver for the event. We also hope that Maria can make it from Ireland wher eth ePULSE 60 hour program was approved by the Mediation Institute of Ireland.

The conference will be held August 15th to 19th in Vancouver. Mark the dates and plan to attend. We are looking forward to gathering all of the PULSE followers together so that you can meet each other and learn from each other. POWER listening, listening with HEART and lots of Gentle, Honest Open Specific Talk.

The detailed program will be available on our new website soon. Mornings will be an opportunity to learn about PULSE in the World and here in Canada from our guests. After coffee a chance to renew our knowledge and commitment to the PULSE Frame as we go through the elements of the Tetrahedron – the 3D Complex Frame. The afternoon will be dedicated to practicing the Frame and the skills with coaches. We will have practice sessions for mediation, negotiation, coaching, performance management and other leadership conversations.

If you have other ideas about what a conference on People Using Language Skills Effectively might include please contact us at www.pulseinstitute.com

Thanks, Nancy…

BEACHs – Sociology for the Workplace

This is the new titile for my new book. What do you think? It says it all. The book reveals how we can use an understanding of each individuals ‘Culture’ to move through the relationships and create an efficient and effective gathering place where needs are met.

So much has been written about psychology in the work place but this is a different twist. It is about perspectives and how they change and how that change can be predictable. Everyone KNOWS that at some level. You hear phrases like “Here we go again!!” in workplaces where people have not taken the time to understand what the impact of behaviours can be. We don’t study behaviour in patterns in the workplace … at least not yet. I am hoping the book will give people tools for doing just that.

The value propostion for the book is that it allows you to examine your workplace, family, organization and identify the recurring themes and patterns. Further to that it gives you information that you can use to adjust the patterns to create effectiveness and efficiency, if that is your desired outcome, or to create innovation and deeper levels of thinking, if that is your desired outcome. In fact you will be able to identify the existing pattern, the pattern from the past, the desired pattern and ways to get there.

Beliefs, Expectations, Assumptions, Concerns and Hopes.

A Story of the Evolution of the Enneagram

One of the very important considerations for the study of the Enneagram is its long history of a method for understanding the world in which we live and the human experience within it. When you examine that history you see that Pythagoras and Socrates and Plato used the symbol in their pursuit of wisdom and knowledge. George Gurdjeiff is often cited as the first to use the symbol in the way that it appears in modern times. He lead the Seekers of Truth in the early 1900s on a quest for answers to the questions of the universe. He was a cosmologist, studying the cosmos through ancient writings. The I Ching, the Bible, the Koran, the Talmud, any evidence of man’s consideration of the universe and how it works came under the scrutiny of Gurdjeiff and his followers. The Symbol represented what is known and contained a juxtaposition of the rule of 3 and the rule of 7. Mathematics is better understood using the symbol. The science of Systematics evolved from that particular preoccupation of Ouspensky, one of Gurdjeiff’s Seekers of Truth. The symbol has been applied to many areas of study which is what Gurdjeiff and his followers intended.

In 2008 at the Atlanta Conference of the IEA, I was mesmerized by Patrick O’Leary’s rendition of the Evolution of the Enneagram theory. He presented a systematic overview from a scientific perspective looking at the Evolution of the Enneagram as you would the evolution of any theory. He himself was involved from the beginning and has met everyone along the way except for Ouspensky and Gurdjeiff who were alive around the turn of the 19^th century. He is a founding member of International Enneagram Association, the IEA.

Speaking to the principles of and the evolution of theory, Patrick explains that it is a process of trial and error. Biologically, genes change in their molecular constitution. It is a random experience. Nature tries out the new arrangement. If it works it is passed on. If not it is eliminated. Evolution’s second principle he says comes from environmental stress. Those that weather the stress test are passed on and those that don’t disappear. Analogously, the Evolution of the Enneagram has been a trial and error of ideas. Some ideas have found support and have stood the test of time but most have not.

Patrick’s first experience with the Enneagram occurred in 1971. It was the end of the 1960s which was a decade of phenomenal intellectual exploration which coincided with his own experiences as a graduate student in four different programs. In 1971 he was completing a degree in theology with the Jesuits working toward ordination as a priest in a program that rested on previous study of philosophy. For him it was what he describes as “intellectual hell” with very little practical and/or scientific connection until he signed up for a course called “Religious Experience” being taught by a Jesuit priest who he had known as his high school math teacher. The teachers name was Bob Ochs. Bob took a sabbatical at Esalen in California at the end of the 1960s. The experience had changed him. Once a staid high school math teacher he now dressed in bell bottoms and flowered shirts and he was cool.

Fifteen students gathered in Bob’s apartment sitting in a circle on the floor to begin a journey into Religious Experience. They were interested in anything that would uncover the mysteries of life. Patrick had done the Myers Briggs, Gestalt, and the Encounter Groups and as a Jesuit he was required to do 30 days of intersections, with one half day in contemplation. Patrick wanted something more, something that he could grab hold of to explain how he could relate to another human being. Bob Ochs had the students sit on pillows and do breathing exercises. They learned about Zen and meditation all of which was mind expanding and wonderful. Somewhere in the process Bob began to talk about an Enneagram theory of personality that was unlike anything that Patrick and the other students had heard before. He identified the different types of personality by a number and described each in enough detail that the students were hooked.

Jerry Wagner was also a student of Religious Experiences with Patrick. Jerry and Patrick convinced Bob to offer Religious Experience 2 which became a course about the Enneagram and so they spent an entire year meeting twice a week for three hours learning about Enneagram. Bob talked a lot about his own perspective. Over the centuries and millennia of knowledge, scientists find names for things according to their body of knowledge and their needs of the moment. Somewhere in the late 1800s and early 1900s a young man by the name of George Gurdjeiff gathered information from a variety of sources. That was the beginning of the Enneagram as we know it today. In the 1970s, Gurdjeiff’s vision was transmitted to Oscar Ichaso and the Arica Institute in Chile was born. In 1971 Claudio Naranjo who had been with Oscar at Arica took his understanding of the Enneagram and brought it to Esalen but Claudio, the psychologist, put an entirely different spin on it. 1972 Bob Oches, after having heard Naranjo at Esalen, brought the Enneagram to Chicago, to the Jesuits who were studying there and there was an explosion on the understanding of the Enneagram. In 1984 Patrick wrote the next book that systematically put all of the information in one place. 1987 Don Riso wrote the second book that spawns an industry and a knowledge explosion. 1988 Helen Palmer intuits the entire Enneagram into a book and disseminates it. In 1994 she hosts a conference at Stanford, presenting her work. The conference brings together those who had written about the Enneagram and those who were interested. 1500 attended which provided another explosion, and more ‘gene’ carries to carry the Enneagram even further into the process of evolution. In 1995 – the International Enneagram Association was founded to complete a mandate from the 1994 Stanford participants to continue the evolution. 1996 the first conference of the IEA in Chicago was put on by Patrick O’Leary and Jerry Wagner. 2006 a conference in Italy provides the multination event and an opportunity for another explosion of ideas. The 2008 IEA Conference has 19 countries represented.

Others present a different history. The Arica school suggests that Pythagoras was the originator of the Enneagram and that it was originally a Pythagorean seal. It represents mathematics at its best. Oscar Ichazo who founded the school at Arica was the first to identify it as a psychological tool. Gurdjeiff was attempting to explain a cosmology, a working of all things, not only how people work but how the world works, how do the components of the universe work together.

Another principle of evolution is that it continues. Survival of the species is still by trial and error. Ideas, theories like those of Pythagoras and Gurdjeiff evolve.

Through trial and error applications of the mutated ideas survive or not, and Oscar Ichazo’s psychological interpretation mutated by Claudio Naranjo and transmitted to the US at Esalen in California has caused an explosion of interest and spawned many new ideas. My own sociological perspective, the Ethnography of the nine sub cultures represented in this book is another one of those evolutionary events that began with the cosmology of Gurdjeiff.

The Evolution of the Types

The Enneagram of Personality typing describes nine differentiated personalities. The types and the numbers actually make sense to me. One is PERFECTION, singular. Two is CONNECTION, relationship between 1 and 2.. Three is SUCCESS, good, better and now BEST. Four is DIFFERENTATION, separating from the others. Five is DETACHMENT moving away to find room to think. Six is SECURITY moving with the others to find a safe place to fit in. Seven is EXCITEMENT, performing for attention and to have fun. Eight is POWER, wanting to dominate and rule and Nine is PEACE wanting to see everything and include everyone is a peaceful perspective.

Although there has been agreement on the core essence represented by the numbers on the Enneagram, authors over the past few decades have chosen their own descriptions as the Evolution continues. Here are descriptions of each of the types from Riso and Hudson, Palmer and Daniels, Reynolds and Wagner as well as some commonly used other description. Riso and Palmer were among the first to write about Enneagram in the 1980s and Jerry Wagner was with O’Leary in the Chicago group of 15 with Bob Ochs. Susan Reynolds has more recently published works on the Enneagram.

Connection BEACH 2

In recent editions of their works, Riso and co-author, Hudson describe the 2 point personality as the Helper while Palmer and her co author David Daniels choose “the Giver”. The type has also been called the Caretaker, the Loving Person, and the People Pleaser. Twos seek love. Jerry Wagner identifies the passion or sin of the 2 as pride and the divine idea as love. The Two point personality is described as generous and healing when they are healthy and possessive people pleasers on the unhealthy side. Riso & Hudson and others have identified nine levels of health for each of the nine types. Riso & Hudson identify the lost childhood message of the 2 as “you are wanted”. What’s missing for people on this BEACH is CONNECTION.

Success BEACH 3

Riso & Hudson call the 3 point the achiever. Palmer and Daniels refer to it as the Performer. The Succeeded and the Effective person are also used. Reynolds call the 3 personality type King of the Hill because of their deep seated need for prestige and to be envied. The Passion or Sin associated with 3 according to Wagner is deceit and the divine idea is efficiency. On the high side 3s are inspiring examples of excellence and authenticity. On the low side they pursue success and status without regard for others. Riso and Hudson identify the lost childhood message of the 3 as “You are loved for yourself”. What’s missing for people on this BEACH is SUCCESS.

Differentiation BEACH 4

The 4 point on the circle represents what Riso and Hudson refer to as the Individualist and what Palmer and Daniels refer to as the Romantic or Tragic Romantic. The artists as the original person are also used to describe this unique personality. Reynolds used Creative Seeker to describe 4s. Wagner identifies envy as the passion or sin associated with 4 and the divine idea as uniqueness. On the high side 4s model creativity and have intuitive powers. On the low side they are moody, melancholy and self conscious. Riso and Hudson identify the lost childhood message for 4 as “You are seen for who you are”. What’s missing for people on this BEACH is DIFFERENTIATION. They are seeking ways to be different and to be noticed.

Detachment BEACH5

The 5 point on the circle represents the Investigator according to Riso and Hudson and the Observer according to Palmer and Daniels. The Thinker and the Wise Person are also used to describe this type. Reynolds uses Masterful Hermit to describe 5s. Wagner identifies their passion or sin as avarice because of their apparently stingy nature and associates wisdom as the divine idea for this type. On the high side they are visionary intellectuals and inventors. On the low side they are eccentric and isolated. Riso & Hudson lost childhood message for 5 is “your needs are not a problem”. For people on this BEACH what is missing is Detachment. They seek solitude and time to think and consider.

Security BEACH 6

Point 6 is referred to as the Loyalist by Riso & Hudson and the Trooper by Palmer and Daniels., although 1988 Palmer referred 6 as the Devil’s Advocate. It is sometimes referred to as the Loyal Sceptic or the Team Player. Reynolds uses Loyal Guardian to describe 6. Wagner identifies fear as the passion or sin and faith or trust as the divine idea. On the high side 6s are full of courage and commitment. On the low side 6 struggles with anxiety and rebelliousness. Riso and Hudson’s lost childhood message for 6 is “you are safe”. People on this BEACH are seeking Security. For them it is what is missing from the world.

Excitement BEACH 7

Point 7 on the circle represents Riso and Hudson’s Enthusiast. Palmer and Daniels call the 7 point Epicure. The Materialist and the Joyful Person are also used. Reynolds describes type 7 as the Optimistic Dreamer. Wagner attaches gluttony as the sin or passion and joy as the divine idea for 7. On the high side 7s become highly accomplished and are high spirited. On the low side they can be distracted, way laid, impulsive and impatient. Riso & Hudson’s lost childhood message for 7 is “you will be taken care of”. What’s missing for people on this BEACH is Excitement. They are seeking to have fun and be joyful.

Power BEACH 8

The Challenger is the name for point 8 given by Riso and Hudson. Palmer and Daniels call it the Boss. The Leader and the Powerful Person are also used. Reynolds describes 8 as the Dominator. Wagner attaches the sin or passion of lust and the divine idea of power or strength to the 8. On the high side the 8 is magnanimous as a leader. On the low side 8s are controlling and intimidating. Riso and Hudson’s lost childhood message for 8 is “you will not be betrayed”. What’s missing for people on this BEACH is a sense of Power or control over their situation.

Peace BEACH 9

The 9 point is labelled the Peacemaker by Riso and Hudson. Palmer and Daniels call the 9 point the Mediator. Others use the Preservationists and the Peaceful Person. Reynolds describes 9 as the Peaceful Lamb because 9s avoid conflict at all costs. Wagner identifies indolence as the passion or sin for 9 and peace as the divine idea. On the high side 9 brings people together. On the low side 9 is passive and stubborn. Riso & Hudson’s lost childhood message for 9 is “your presence matters”. What is missing for people on this BEACH is Peace and contentment.

Perfection BEACH 1

Point 1 is known to Riso and Hudson as the Reformer. Palmer and Daniels preferred Perfectionist. 1s have also been called the Critic and the Good Person. Reynolds refers to 1 as the Evangelical Idealist because of their concern with high standards and moral principles. Wagner attaches the passion or sin of anger to 1s and the divine idea of goodness. On the high side 1 lives with integrity and reason. On the low side 1 is resentful and perfectionistic. Riso & Hudson’s lost childhood message for 1 is “you are good”. People on this BEACH are seeking Perfection. That is what is missing from the world.

All of these authors and others describe in great detail these types and provide integrated models of the human psyche with an emphasis on creating a full spectrum model of human growth and development. From Jesuits like Wagner there are also spiritual overtones which harken back to the original work of Gurdjeiff as he searched for the answers to the questions of human psyche and everything else as he studied the ancient spiritual texts.

Others have researched the connection between Enneagram at the divine. I have myself, written about the connection between the spiritual illusions as identified by Neale David Walsch author of Conversations with God. I connected illusion of judgement with point 1 the perfectionist; the illusion of conditionality with point 2, the helper or giver; the illusion of failure with point 3 the performer; the illusion of condemnation with point 4, the romantic; the illusion of ignorance for point 5, the observer; the illusion of requirement for point 6, the loyalist; the illusion of insufficiency for point 7, the enthusiast; the illusion of superiority for point 8, the boss; and the illusion of disunity of point 9, the peacemaker.

*Insert chart from Blog June 26, 2008*

As you can see from the chart I also connected them with qualities described by Riso and Hudson that each of the numbers strive for in order to reach an evolved or enlightened state.

The nine points and personality types are the tip of the Enneagram of Personality Iceberg. The 9 types are categorized into three instincts:

Heart or emotional instinct: type 2, 3, 4
Head or intellectual instinct: type 5,6,7
Gut or Physical instinct: type 8,9,1 (Reynolds 08 p. 87)

Authors also describe the instincts or centres with similar yet differentiated language.

All of that to say that although this book is based on thinking that began with a study of the conversation and the use of the Enneagram the evolution away from the personality typing is intentional. I want to identify a stance… a place where people look at the world, a perspective that can change depending on input from the environment – internal or external.

So I have identified the BEACHs – Sets of Beliefs, Expectation, Assumptions, Concerns and Hopes. Beliefs are what people hold to be true. Expectations are what they seek in a given situation. Assumptions are what they base their actions on. Concerns are what they fear, what keeps them stuck and Hopes are what move them forward. Each set has a title for the BEACH

Perfection, connection, success, differentiation, detachment, security, excitement, power and peace are the titles for the BEACHs … the places of and perspectives on the world.

Rick Mercer – What a funny man….

I had the pleasure of sitting through a fundraising dinner last night here in Calgary where Rick Mercer was the speaker. I laughed so hard. He is a great Canadian and Newfoundlander. His way of making fun of people or allowing them to make fools of themselves is interesting and I am sure some find it offensive. You have to know enough about what he is talking about to call bull on him. I was disappointed that he didn’t talk about the election. He probably knew better than to do that in Calgary where politics is not really up for discussion. It is a for gone Conservative conclusion. I do miss REAL debate amongst people on real issues. I am hoping that the Vote Compass thing on CBC is going to get people to really talk about the issues, to really consider what their stand is and how it compares with the parties. I am really disappointed by the name calling and the insinuations that parties make about each other. Gilles is the only one who just says it like it is. “Stephen Harper is a liar” according to him. Canadians are so tired of the accusations and the direct hits they are making on each other. There used to be more subtilty and more finesse. Some of the clips that Mercer showed last night were more engaging. They showed politicians being real and makign fun of themselves. That was fun. They were using language in a way that we seem to have given up during the election time. I would love to get back to the days of true debate and a consideration of the people of Canada as real participants in this debate. Just give us policies that we can examine. Let us make up our mind. If only we could get the PRESS to be neutral in this. If only…..

Here we go again…

I love elections. They are a joy to me. They represent a time when democracy is truly alive. Fortunes change on a turn of a phrase and no one really knows how or when someone will say or do something that will shift popular vote. It is so much fun to watch as the interpretations and the strategies emerge.

The press are incorrigible. In the service of the people of Canada they PRESS for answers to questions that they image people to be wondering about. They are indeed the fifth estate at a time of election and they truly hold a certain balance of power. Media chooses what message to emphasize, which clip to show first and what part of the speech becomes the clip. They are the ones who mold the images of the leaders to news worthy, controversial or confrontational pieces that will create NEWS.

I like Elizabeth May’s idea of creating a space for agreement. I am not sure if the PRESS or the Parties will participate but what if they did? What if we could generate some agreement and understanding on issues of import to Canadians without jeopardizing the Party stand or platform. What if candidates could show Canadians that there are points of agreement on criteria for a better future? What a revolution that would be.