Conventional methods of teaching the Enneagram fall short of urgent and complex world problems. We relate our unconventional methods to bring the wisdom of the Enneagram to tough social realities – inviting others to do the same.
Bringing the Enneagram to Real World Problems
World-wide, plant life is in crisis and the diversity of plant life is diminishing. Also, the knowledge of how to use plants, often held by indigenous people, is in danger of extinction.
There is an international resolve to address not only the sustainable use of plant life, but also protect and benefit the intellectual know-how of indigenous people and local communities; many policies and protocols have been written and institutions set-up to realize this purpose. One of the challenges is how to engage not only indigenous people and local communities, but also all of the stakeholders who will be required to make this a sustainable success.
We were contracted by a collaboration of the German and Swiss Governments to develop a way to engage all of the players and all of their perspectives relative to a particular endangered plant species called Honeybush. The hope of the funders for this project was that it could serve as a model for working with communities who are in a similar position.
We primarily drew on the Enneagram to help us in this endeavor. We were confident that the Enneagram could bring something new and important to a longstanding problem that is getting worse.
The session will begin with a 45 minute engaging presentation, followed by breakout groups doing monologues. The monologues will be 5 minutes per participant and 5 minutes conversation. We end of in plenary, inviting participant to drink Honeybush tea and share what came up during their personal reflections.
Monika, with Joyce Stenstrom co-founder of the Nine Domains work with Don Riso has developed this work further under the name Quiet Insight. They have been applying new Enneagram-based tools to significant social challenges in rural communities and organizations.