Understanding Human Motivation

An Introduction to the Enneagram

The Enneagram is one of the oldest, most robust human personality-typing frameworks. Recently resurfacing, it goes much deeper than many other systems, searching our deepest foundations to find our motivation as opposed to our behavior.

Your Enneagram-type is comprised of 3 pieces.

1. Primary type: A number 1–9 which includes an underlying motivation. The number labels are arbitrary names that exist only for reference.

Because there are 9 total types, they are broken down into three groups, called “triads.” Triads refer to each type’s one main intuition style:
Head, Heart, or Gut.
We will talk more about triads in a bit.

2. A Virtue & Vice: Each type has a distinct personal strength and weakness.

3. Emotional Directions: Each person moves towards a different number than their primary type based on whether they are emotionally secure or insecure.
These are the corresponding lines attached to each number.

For example: I am an enneagram type 6.
Type 6’s main motivation is certainty, assurance, and support.
6’s virtue is courage, and vice is fear.
When a six is emotionally healthy, they look like a type 9.
When a six is emotionally…