Resources & Events (Project Management & the Enneagram)

Resources & Events > Are You Creating Project Resistance ?

Presented at NordNet Project Management Congress 1999, Helsinki

Are You Creating Project Resistance ?

by Tarja Goodwin , Action for Results, Inc., Woburn, Massachusetts, USA

Having a good project management methodology and tools will resolve many issues stemming from differences in individual approaches. However, no one method will work in an environment that is made up of individuals with distinct worldviews and approaches. Effective project leadership requires the ability to assess the situation and respond appropriately based on cultural and individual considerations. This paper will explore these issues and will also introduce the Enneagram, a nine-point system that provides profound insight into people's character, style and values, as one mechanism to improve project communications, teaming and productivity. We will explore fundamental differences in project approaches based on personal character and the values of project managers and team members.

Project Management in Transition

Our professional and personal lives are being reshaped by a transformation to a global interdependency. Countries are forming new economic, trade and military unions that affect the lives of millions. Technology is connecting us globally through increased information sharing capability and individual mobility. More and more organizations are partnering or merging with one another across geographic areas, and people are forming new physical and electronic affiliations with one another. The list goes on: the macro-trends create a whole new set of implications at the micro-level to all of us as project managers trying to identify and manage a variety of new relationships and interdependencies on a daily basis.

Most of us were not educated to operate in such a complex world and, at times, we may find it chaotic and even scary. Can we ever put all the pieces together when everything seems to be shifting so quickly? How do we learn to think and act more holistically and inclusively so that our business strategies consider the new interrelationships between organizations and individuals? What tools and techniques will help us move forward with integrated implementation?

Project management has become widely popular as a method of accomplishing work across organizational and geographic boundaries using “temporary teams.” Projects have been around for centuries but never before has there been as much emphasis on the art, science and skill of project management as a disciplined approach that brings together resources from diverse backgrounds to produce results. Common methods and tools for defining, planning, implementing and terminating projects can help tremendously in accelerating the project life cycle. However, these systems often concentrate on the technical and business dimensions of project management and neglect the increased complexity of human relationships inherent in today’s project environments.

It is no longer sufficient that the project manager is trained in effective planning, coordination, negotiations, decision-making or conflict management. These skills, among others, need to be put in context of the complexities of the New World of Project Management. Projects get implemented by people who bring with them a multitude of perspectives that can either help or hinder project success depending on how they get integrated into the whole. Successful project leadership then requires a new focus on relationships and behaviors – not just individual results.

Learning About Self and Others Through the Enneagram

The Enneagram provides a unique and comprehensive framework for gaining new insight into our own motivations and leadership behaviors as well as for understanding others’ needs and perspectives. This ancient character-typing tool introduces nine distinctly different worldviews, which represent the core points on the Enneagram. The nine points are drawn in the shape of a star within a circle so that each point is of equal distance from the center, symbolizing the fact that no one point is better or worse than another.

The Enneagram has been widely used by modern psychologists, and more recently, it has found its way to the world of business. For the purposes of this paper, we will examine its use specifically in context of managing multi-functional and multi-geographic programs and projects. While we will not go into detail in describing each of the nine Enneagram types, it is important to provide a short overview of the points so that the reader can grasp the potential uses of this tool for their environment. The Table 1 lists each of the character types and their associated primary strengths and core values. The core values are especially important for us to note as we discuss sources of resistance and leadership approaches to minimize and overcome resistance. Additionally, the table will summarize the leadership style and emphasis for each character type as well as explore preferences in work environments.

As with any personality typing tool, it is important to understand that the Enneagram does not measure a person’s ability to exhibit behaviors other than what may be most characteristic to their type. It also does not measure the person’s intelligence or their ability to learn new skills.

Nesting Worlds of Project Relationships and the Enneagram

In his book, Riding the Waves of Culture, Fons Trompenaars notes: “People everywhere are confronted with three sources of challenge. They have relationships with other people, such as friends, employees, customers and bosses. They must manage time and aging. And they must somehow come to terms with the external nature of the world, be it benign or threatening.” As Trompenaars points out, our sources of challenge may be the same but our responses to those challenges vary sometimes significantly across different cultures. Geert Hofstede, Dutch psychologist, used a large survey of employees of a multi-national company across forty countries to collect data on how national cultural values vary and manifest themselves in work environments. His statistical study provided significant evidence that national cultural differences persist in spite of the socialization effect of the employees sharing a common sub-culture of a company. Other studies since then have reinforced these findings.

These learnings are important for us to consider as we revalidate project management theory for the New World of Project Management. Cultural and individual differences are a reality that impact project performance and stakeholder satisfaction. Ignoring them will increase potential for failure, decrease motivation and guarantee resistance among team members and stakeholders.

The Enneagram provides one framework that can help us recognize and simplify the complexities involved in human relationships. At an individual level, the Enneagram teaches that we are different in ways that are important if we are to create a holistic approach to the project. The Enneagram can also be applied to understanding organizational cultures and sub-cultures, and even larger systems including ethnic and national cultures. For instance, the United States can be described as a “3” culture, whereas Finland demonstrates the characteristics of a “5” culture. The Enneagram will teach us nine different ways of doing business in the world, nine different ways of approaching work and relationships and the value of each. It relishes the complexity inherent in all of us – we are human beings operating based on a core set of values – but how we choose to behave in a given situation is also influenced by the layers of relationships that we encounter in that situation. The way a project manager treats individuals whose Enneagram character points and cultural associations diverge from his/her own will have significant consequences in people’s willingness and ability to buy into the project.

Figure 1: Nesting Worlds of Relationships

Imagine the following project scenario:

Jane is the project manager for a new international product development project. She is a results-oriented person who has no trouble jumping into the task and moving fast (Enneagram type 3). She can handle multiple tasks easily as she organizes her time efficiently and stays focused on the required outcomes. Her upbringing reinforced her can-do attitude and she has found it to be key to her own business success. Having managed primarily domestic product development teams in the company’s headquarters in New York City, Jane is thrilled about an opportunity to manage an international project. Her project team is meeting for the first time today. She is planning to get right to the task of defining the project and then assigning follow-up actions for each team member to complete before the next project meeting. Her project team consists of representatives from the company’s Asian, European, North American and Latin American operations, all of whom have traveled to New York for the kick-off meeting. Jane has talked with her project team members briefly on the phone but they have never met before. What tips might we give to Jane as she approaches her first meeting? See Table 2

Jane’s natural leadership style – assertive, goals-oriented, fast-paced and hard working – has many merits associated with it and can be motivating, especially to her colleagues from the United States. At the same time, the very assets of her leadership style can also become liabilities if she assumes that the same style of leadership will be effective with her team members who come from Asian, Latin American or even some European countries. It may be impossible for Jane to learn about each individual culture before the meeting but by planning a kick-off meeting that considers the questions in Table 2, she will be giving herself and her team members an opportunity to learn by dialog and experimentation. The team will be in position to strive for collective understanding, agreement on a shared set of goals and a work approach that combines individual differences in styles, values and priorities.

Project Leadership Model

The above scenario is an example of the importance of addressing project leadership in context of the situation and relationships at hand. It is easier to understand potential conflicts and resistance if we use the Enneagram-based values and leadership styles as a framework. For instance, the fast-paced and future-oriented Threes will be frustrated with the Sixes who ask lots of questions, worry about things that could go wrong and see value in the old system rather than wanting to jump into changing it. If the Three project manager shows her frustration by not wanting to listen to the Six’s concerns or by downplaying the potential risks, she is almost sure to face dead-fast resistance with the Six. The Six will be concerned about not only his own well-being but the potential negative impact the change could have on others. The Three needs to slow down enough to hear the concerns and to engage the Six in defining ways to eliminate or minimize the risks associated with the change.

So how will we create a leadership model and style that incorporates the ability to deal with multiple layers of expectations and needs? Perhaps the most critical lesson of leadership is learning to be flexible. This includes our behaviors, our work approaches and even the definitions and assumptions that we use in our communication. Flexibility starts with the project managers learning about themselves: their values, cultural associations and past experiences – all of which shape their feelings, thinking and practices. It is hard to relate to different perspectives until we understand what is shaping our own view of the project or the world in general.

The process of learning about ourselves also helps us be more sensitive to the needs of others by opening our eyes to the motivations, strengths, liabilities and potential biases of each character type and/or cultural “sets of norms” associated with the overlaying cultures that we are part of (see Figure 1). Through this self-reflection and broadening of our perspective, we will become more flexible in our decision making and behaviors when confronted with a new situation and a level of complexity in our daily project relationships. We will learn how to modify our own behaviors and communications in ways that allow others to relate to us more effectively. We will also be more open to helping others understand more about who we are and why certain things may be very important for us as we approach our collective work.

Conclusion

Most of today’s project management methodologies introduce a multi-phase project process that outlines the project activities to be completed in each phase. These frameworks continue to be valuable tools for us to organize and coordinate our project team’s work and to monitor progress. At the same time, very few of the methodologies consider the need to build in time for attending to the human dimensions of project management – often a key to ultimate project success.

As a change leader, the project manager needs to recognize that commitment to change is about individual choice. This starts by building a project team that recognizes individual differences, and learns to be sensitive to the needs, concerns and ideas of others. It expands to using the learnings from within the project team to building effective relationships with the project stakeholders.

Creating shared understanding and commitment requires the willingness to create an open dialog about the goals, priorities, needs, approaches, and styles that we bring into the project environment. Tools such as the Enneagram and the Cultural Continuum can help in this collective process of learning, but the project managers and teams need to make the choice to build the time for learning into their project plans. Just like with any planning activities, the time spent in learning about the factors that need to be considered in our project relationships will help us minimize issues, conflicts and resistance during project implementation.

Biography

Tarja Goodwin is the CEO of Action for Results, Inc., a change consulting firm that specializes in the planning and implementation of change and the related human dynamics. Tarja has studied the Enneagram extensively under the guidance of Dr. Paula Raines of the Enneagram Training Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Her company’s project management methodology integrates the technical and business dimensions of project management with the human components required for success. It has been adopted by several of their clients as an enterprise-wide approach and is taught through the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute’s continued education program to most Massachusetts government agencies.

References

Hofstede, G. 1980. Culture’s Consequences, Sage, London
Goodwin T., Raines P., 1998. Point Check: Enneagram Reference Chart, Action for Results, Inc., Woburn, Massachusetts
Goodwin T., Raines P., 1998. What’s Your Point? Enneagram at Work, Action for Results, Inc., Woburn, Massachusetts, pp. 4-1 to 4-13
Oliver R., 1999. The Shape of Things to Come: Seven Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business, Business Week Books, McGraw-Hill, New York, New York. 226 p.
Trompenaars F, 1994. Riding the Waves of Culture, Irwin Professional Publishing, New York, New York, 215 p.