If you'd like to take what you hear today further, Enneagram MBA offers standalone workshops, retreat experiences, and team-development programs that can be customized around communication, collaboration, and working styles.

If you’d rather lead the experience internally, the DIY Enneagram Workshop Kit includes a slide deck, facilitator guide, sample agendas, icebreakers, and tools to help you bring the conversation to your own team.

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Better communication doesn’t always mean more communication.

Teams already have more ways to stay connected than ever: email, messaging platforms, video calls, project-management tools, AI-generated summaries.

But... none of those automatically mean people understand one another better. Sometimes the most useful shift is becoming more aware of the person on the other side of the conversation.

In this episode, we look at five common reasons communication can break down even on good teams:

• Different priorities shape what people hear and pay attention to
• Communication style can easily be confused with intention
• Teams often have unspoken expectations they assume everyone shares
• People respond to stress, tension, and disagreement differently
• We make assumptions about what is driving someone else’s behavior before we actually know

Using examples from real workshop feedback, we explore how the Enneagram can help teams move from assumption to curiosity and better understand what may be underneath a coworker’s communication style, questions, pace, or reactions.

You’ll also hear three questions you can bring into your next team meeting:

1. What helps you receive information clearly?
2. What is one communication habit you have that others might misunderstand?
3. What is one thing we could do differently to make communication easier across our team?

The goal isn’t to get everyone communicating the same way. It’s to build enough awareness and shared language that people can better understand one another and work through differences with less friction.

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NEW RESOURCE: Download the free Enneagram Workshop Planning Kit for ideas, sample agendas, planning questions, and practical resources to help you design the right experience for your team.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Planning an end-of-year or beginning-of-year team experience?

If your team is looking for a meaningful way to reflect, reconnect, or start the new year with a stronger shared language, learn more about Enneagram MBA team workshops and kickoff experiences.

You can also download the free Enneagram Workshop Planning Kit for ideas, sample agendas, planning questions, and practical resources to help you design the right experience for your team.

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Not everyone processes ideas by talking them through.

For Enneagram Type 5s, thinking often happens internally first - observing, gathering information, making connections, and deciding what is worth contributing.

In a workplace that often rewards fast responses and visible participation, that can sometimes be mistaken for aloofness or disengagement.

In this episode, we explore the strengths Type 5s bring to teams and what managers can do to make better use of those strengths.

We cover:

• Why Type 5s often want time to understand before they respond
• How silence can be mistaken for disengagement
• Why many meetings naturally favor external processors
• Simple ways managers can get better input from quieter team members
• The Type 5 tendency to protect time, energy, and attention
• When gathering more information becomes a reason to delay participation
• How Type 5s can contribute before every thought feels completely finished

The bigger takeaway: participation doesn’t always look like immediate verbal participation.

The person who hasn’t said much yet may still be doing some of the most important thinking in the room.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Planning an Enneagram workshop for your team?

Before you decide on the agenda, activities, or even how much Enneagram content to include, there are a few bigger questions worth answering first.

In this episode of the Enneagram at Work Podcast, you'll learn five questions that can help you plan a workshop that is not only interesting in the room, but useful once everyone gets back to work.

Whether you’re bringing in a facilitator, planning an internal team experience, or facilitating Enneagram workshops yourself, these questions can help you think more intentionally about what you want the experience to accomplish.

In this episode:

• What do you want people to understand differently after the workshop?
• What do you want people to do differently afterward?
• Who is actually going to be in the room - a leadership team, intact team, cross-functional group, new team, or multiple departments?
• How much Enneagram content do people really need?
• What will happen after the workshop so the Enneagram becomes more than a one-time experience?

You'll also hear about one of the biggest mistakes she made early on as a facilitator: trying to teach too much Enneagram content instead of creating enough space for reflection, discussion, and application.

The goal isn’t to turn everyone into Enneagram experts.

It’s to help people become better experts on themselves, and on the relationships they navigate at work.

Free Workshop Planning Kits

If you’re currently planning an Enneagram workshop, retreat, team development session, or kickoff meeting, Enneagram MBA has two free Workshop Planning Kits designed to help.

Path One: For HR, L&D, people leaders, and internal Enneagram champions:
Get sample agendas, planning questions, room setup ideas, guidance for getting leadership buy-in, and more.

Path Two: For Enneagram coaches and facilitators:
Get sample agendas, workshop preparation questions, pricing considerations, facilitation guidance, and ideas for what happens before, during, and after the workshop.

Explore both free resources at:

EnneagramMBA.com/resources

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!