The Enneagram is a sophisticated but easy-to-use model of human nature. Pronounced “any-a-gram,” the word comes from Greek roots (“ennea” means nine and “gram” means drawing or lines) and refers to a diagram that consists of a triangle and a hexagon enclosed within a circle. Personality theorists started mapping observations about personality to this diagram in the early 1970s and over time numerous schools of thought sprang up about this system. Today, it is used by consultants, psychologists, social workers, and educators across the globe.
At Enneagram Learning International, we use a model of the Enneagram created by Mario Sikora and Robert Tallon in their book “Awareness to Action: The Enneagram, Emotional Intelligence, and Change” and further developed by Sikora. Essentially, each point on the diagram represents a strategy for interacting with the world. Each of us have a habitual preference for one of these strategies, and it shapes the way think about the world and act in it. Understanding these strategies, and the personality styles that develop from them, is a powerful tool for self-development and performance improvement in almost any area of life.