When we are finally old enough to realize that we
have
a personality it’s
too late to have a hand in fashioning it. The formation of personality is both:
a) an inside-out process
where innate, inborn tendencies predispose us to actions and interactions with
others, and b) an
outside-in process where people, social structures,
and our culture teach us how to see ourselves, others, and the world. The
Breckenridge Enneagram™ is a model that can help us see aspects of our
personality that other models miss. It can help us truly understand some of our
innate tendencies and our adaptive responses.
History of the Enneagram
The Enneagram is a model of nine personality
types that has evolved significantly since the late 1960s. Pronounced
"any-a-gram," the word refers to a nine-pointed diagram enclosed within a circle
("ennea" is Greek for "nine;" "gram" means "drawing"). Enneagram theory started
to take shape in the early 1970s due to the influence and scholarship of Claudio
Naranjo, a psychiatrist who began attributing psychological principles to the
model. Most people writing about or teaching the Enneagram today trace their
roots either directly or indirectly to the work of Naranjo. A number of popular
authors, such as Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, Helen Palmer and David
Daniels and others have contributed to the evolution of Enneagram theory, but
much of this work has been based on a theoretical foundation of spiritual and
metaphysical principles. The Breckenridge Enneagram™ is based on the
clinical-empirical work of Claudio Naranjo, plus Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs,
the powerful See-Do-Get Process®, and rigorous psychometric analysis and
empirical research. It is set apart from other approaches to the Enneagram by a
focus on a naturalistic, scientific view of personality and psychological
processes that are linked to modern advances in the neurosciences.
The Breckenridge Institute® has developed two new
assessment tools for type professional based on the Breckenridge Enneagram™ that
are the most reliable and valid on-line Enneagram assessment tools available
anywhere. These are the Breckenridge Type Indicator™ (BTI™), and the
Breckenridge Relationship Indicator™ (BRI™).
The BTI™ and BRI™ are the
only Enneagram assessment tools that precisely measure
both the nine personality types
and three instincts (sub-types) in a single instrument, providing new insights
into a wide range of cognitive, emotional, sensory, and biological dimensions of
personality. Previously, many type professionals have had reservations about
using the Enneagram as a personality typology because they have not had a
psychometrically validated instrument with reliability and validity equal to (or
greater than) the MBTI® tool. The BTI™ and BRI™ are designed to meet these
psychometric challenges and will add new dimensionality to four-dichotomy;
Eight-function; sixteen-type approaches to personality.
Breckenridge Type Indicator™ (BTI™)
The BTI™ is a psychometrically validated assessment tool
designed to help identify key elements of managers’ and staff members’
personality using the nine Enneagram personality types. The BTI™ can be
used for both personal and professional applications, but it is especially
effective when used as the basis coaching, leadership development, or
teambuilding exercises. Organizations are collective-cultural entities that are
led, managed, and changed one person at a time. Studies have shown that people
who possess emotional intelligence and self-knowledge are often twice as
successful as those who possess only high levels of intellectual intelligence. A
person’s level of self-awareness and self-control is an indicator of their
openness to feedback, change, and their ability to succeed professionally,
especially when under stress. In your
professional
life, a better understanding your
personality using the BTI™ will help identify decision-making bias and
predictable errors in judgment in both strategic and tactical issues. When used
in your personal
life, the BTI™ allows you to identify underlying patterns
of behavior that frustrate and undermine healthy relationships with friends and
family members.
Business Applications - The BTI™ is typically
used by proactive managers and staff members who want to take charge of their
careers and become even higher-performers. People who get the most value from
the BTI™ are those who use it to achieve higher levels of:
- Professional competency in decision-making and problem solving
- Personal competency in processing conflict and communicating more
effectively
- Social competency in teamwork and more effective group dynamics
For more information on the BTI™ and the
Breckenridge Institute’s on-line, mentor-based qualifying program just click on
the link below.
LEARN MORE
Breckenridge Relationship Indicator™ (BRI™)
Building, maintaining, and growing
effective relationships are key competencies in our personal and professional
lives and the BRI™ is a powerful tool for doing this. Studies have shown that
55% of communication is visual (body language), 38% is tone of voice, and only
7% is word choice. These data confirm that people accurately read and respond to
the emotional messages we send each other,
not
only the words we use.
This holds true in both personal relationships (family and friends), and
professional relationships between managers, direct reports, and co-workers. A
pattern of interaction between you and others emerges from repetitive
problem-solving and discussions about issues that you have in common. These
patterns of interaction are powerfully molded by differences and similarities in
personality as well as how effectively each person reacts when they are under
pressure from the context. Eventually, the patterns take on a life of their own
and can be directly observed in day-to-day interactions. In fact, often others
can see the destructive or constructive nature of our patterns of interaction
much more clearly than we can because the interaction pattern is on autopilot.
These are commonly called blind spots, e.g. negative behavior traits that others
see in us that we don’t see in ourselves.
Over time as patterns
of interaction solidify and become unquestioned beliefs and assumptions they
form a repository of interactions that is a kind of emotional "scoreboard" upon
which we unconsciously
keep track of the balance between the number of
destructive and constructive emotional messages we have received from others.
The BRI™ can help to identify and characterize these beliefs and assumptions.
Effective relationships at work and at home require an 80-20 ratio of
constructive to destructive messages. When this ratio shifts toward the
destructive side, our relationships become
spring-loaded where negative day-to-day interactions
build up to the point where people feel that they have to "walk on egg shells"
around each other. A destructive balance also makes interactions
toxic where the chemistry and
climate in the relationship becomes unhealthy to one or both of the people. Over
time, these destructive interactions undermine trust in both personal and
professional relationships.
The BRI™ is an on-line survey based on the
Breckenridge Enneagram™ that identifies patterns of interaction that can
frustrate and undermine personal and professional relationships. The BRI™ comes
in two versions. The Corporate Version
is used by managers and supervisors to build more effective
and productive relationships with their direct reports and co-workers. The
Corporate Couples Version
is used by couples to improve their
relationship and achieve a more effective work-life balance.
The BRI™ report will reveal many of the root
causes of ineffective communication between managers and their direct reports or
couples. It will give you practical strategies to evaluate, strengthen, and
maintain the significant relationships in your personal and professional life.
For more information on the BTI™ and the
Breckenridge Institute’s on-line, mentor-based qualifying program just click on
the link below.