are fictitious, but the stories are true.
Spreading knowledge in the narrative tradition
The panel interviews originated as a method to gather knowledge about the Enneagram types. Having panel audiences quickly proved to be an inspiring and instructive method for learning more about the types. This method turned out to be useful for learning new things, for both the study leader and the participants.
Enneagram trainers can, of course, explain all nine types (and talk endlessly about them). As experts, they have many interesting things to say. Enneagram trainers also have their own type — only on the basis of this type can Enneagram trainers share stories from within themselves and describe what life is like with Type X. Even the best trainer can’t talk about the other eight types from their own, internal experience — they can only lecture about them. There’s always a difference between an expert’s explanation and an eyewitness report provided by someone about their own type. When people talk about themselves, their words are accompanied by their own facial expressions, aura, posture, and other characteristics. All this info often provides just as much information and insight into a type as the narrative itself, which makes the type easy to recognize and the story valuable. The narrative tradition has no abstract type definitions — you get the complete image of a real person of each type.
Working with type assessment interviews
People have to do a lot on their own when they work with the Enneagram. Can’t everyone help each other? They certainly can. This prerequisite is one of four involved in personal development. (For more on people helping each other, see Chapter 15.) I mention one way people can help each other in Chapter 4, in the first task listed: asking someone else for feedback. This task revolves around the question “How do you see me?” or “Which words would you use to describe me?” Acquiring this kind of information can expand your self-awareness, which already becomes evident when people around you are bothered less (or not at all) by your blind spots.
A second option is to carry out a type assessment interview with a specially trained Enneagram coach. Your regular circle of friends and acquaintances can certainly help you find the information you need, but the task becomes more difficult when it comes to interpreting that information, especially if your circle doesn't know much about the Enneagram. A coach can help you with your self-reflection and help you interpret the information and insights you've collected about yourself using the Enneagram. To carry out this work, a coach has learned that, rather than consider an individual's behavior, they should assess the underlying layer of that person's type mechanism.
What is a type assessment interview?
In a type assessment interview, an Enneagram coach helps you recognize your Enneagram type. In effect, it’s a diagnostic consultation. As indicated by the name, the coach interviews you. To start, this person asks a series of questions, mainly to determine which of the nine types can be clearly ruled out. The imaginary scouting group I talk about in Chapter 4, in their attempt to find the correct map to set them on the path toward home, categorically excluded all maps that showed terrain other than a nature landscape. A type assessment interview works the same way: Certain types can be quickly eliminated from the list of possible results. A second round of questions follows, targeted to those types that remain. These questions dig deeper and require you to observe yourself more and more closely. The Enneagram coach helps you see things more clearly by using a host of methods, most of which involve a large number of examples. You also must answer a recurring question about the degree to which you recognize something. A type assessment interview is an intense discussion whose effects can last for days. It encourages contemplation as well as talks with your partner or friends. In many cases, such an interview yields new insights, even days later.
Doing your own type assessment interviews
If you want to learn how to conduct type assessment interviews, for your job or other reasons, I recommend that you complete a relevant course of studies. I was instructed by Helen Palmer and David Daniels by way of their Enneagram Professional Training Program. In Parts 5 and 6 of this book, you can find further information about interview training.
Doing panel interviews
A panel interview is another important method in the narrative tradition. Here's how it works: A panel interview includes audience members and a panel of between two and five people who recognize in themselves the same Enneagram type. The Enneagram trainer interviews the participants on the panel about various everyday topics: how they see certain events, what they think about them, and how they experience and react to various situations. The panels for all nine types are asked the same questions, and each panel answers completely differently.
BUT YOU’RE THE ONE DRAWING THE CONCLUSIONS
Enneagram coaches accompany you on your search by asking questions and reflecting on your answers. They help with the interpretation. They don’t present you with a conclusion in the form of a decision about which type you have. They don’t do this because they know that, ultimately, only you can determine which type you feel most accurately captures the real you. Coaches may suggest that you make a more detailed exploration of the types that eventually remain as possible options (usually two, and sometimes three). In the follow-up consultation, they will certainly explain why they believe that some types are good candidates and others aren’t.
The hope is that you will learn a great deal about yourself during the interview. You’ll learn self-observation and reflection and find out about the Enneagram as a whole — as well as its individual types. During type assessment interviews, I often find that people exclude a particular Enneagram type for themselves based on limited or incorrect images, sometimes as a result of stereotypes. The image can be presented in more detail in an interview so that a previously rejected type can ultimately become a possibility.
Nothing is self-evident
Everyone has their own, individual set of circumstances that they take for granted. Often, they aren’t even aware of them. When the panel interview starts, some participants think that they’re being pressed about trivial matters. Yet participants on the panel also have matters they've left unexamined — things they consider a given — and they often respond spontaneously to a query by saying that everyone does something like this, thinks like this, reacts like this. That’s what makes panel interviews wonderful: You discover not only the things you take for granted but also the completely different things that others take for granted. And then you discover that what strikes you as normal — the group of beliefs you consider to be self-evident, for example — isn’t normal at all for most other people. It may come as a shock, but it turns out that humans all assume quite different realities. This realization makes you aware of what it takes to build bridges to other people. The effect of these panel interviews on most participants is that they make a greater and more conscious effort to understand others and become attuned to them.
People of one type become increasingly alike
When the participants in the panel interviews for their type take their seats, you see diversity: men and women, older
