About Five Lens

The Difference Between a Standard Enneagram Report & Five Lens Enneagram Reports

While most Enneagram assessments focus on categorising individuals into a single 'type' with associated behaviours, we transcend this simplistic approach. We believe reducing an individual to a singular 'type' can be overly limiting, potentially leading to self-fulfilling behaviour prophecies.

Our philosophy deliberately avoids rigid 'boxing' or 'labelling,' recognising the complexity of human nature. Individuals, we understand, cannot be neatly confined to a singular 'type,' as behaviours exist on a spectrum, influenced by context—both external and internal. Our perspective aligns with modern psychology's shift towards nuanced, trait-based approaches, emphasizing the multifaceted nature of human behaviour.

In addition to being reductionistic, typology-based assessments will always have difficulty ‘typing’ someone who falls on the cusp between two ‘types’ or whose behaviour doesn’t quite match the core criteria of a specific ‘type’. The tendency in these cases is to force-fit the person into one of the categories. It’s also how people get lost in trying to understand themselves when they don’t quite fit the type of description allocated to them.

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The Five Lens Assessment

The Five Lens assessment can be thought of primarily as a behavioural assessment. It attempts to evaluate behaviour across all nine Enneagram patterns and sequence them from the most used pattern to the least used pattern in the individual’s current context. As with most assessments, the more significant aspects of a person’s profile tend to be those behavioural patterns used most frequently and those used least. With this in mind, our Five Lens feedback reports focus on individuals’ two most frequently used patterns and their least used pattern.

As already mentioned, our belief is that behaviour changes to some extent in response to changes in a person’s external and internal context. So, although the most frequently used pattern is usually most entrenched in a person’s ‘way of being’, the frequency of the other patterns can shift more readily in response to the context. This is why we evaluate and show the frequency of all nine patterns in our reports. This is not often done in many other Enneagram reporting systems.

Our approach to the Enneagram is somewhat different in that it takes into account a range of other variables in a developmentally structured way that enables self-discovery rather than labelling.

The Remaining Four Lenses

Personal Mastery

This relates to emotional maturity, confidence combined with humility, and continual learning.

People with healthy levels of personal mastery are self-aware. They are open and curious and tend towards a growth mindset that enables them to learn from their environment and mistakes. They can choose responses rather than overreacting. This level of self-awareness, along with a healthy sense of self-worth, enables them to build the interpersonal skills required to be effective now and in the future world of rapid change.

We define and sub-divide Personal Mastery into six factors, all of which we evaluate individually and collectively as an overview of a person’s effectiveness. Specific behaviours are associated with each of these factors, any of which may require building to increase effectiveness. Our PFR's offer developmental input that enables self-paced learning that fits well into coaching and other growth-oriented interventions.

Self-Acceptance: An underlying sense of self-worth.

Directed Passion: Goals, passion and motivation.

Acceptance of Reality: The ability to let go; forgive; accept the things you cannot change and instead focus on those that you can.

Curiosity: An enquiring mind, open to learning and innovation.

Impact on Others: The ability to influence others positively.

Global Connection: The experience of feeling connected to a bigger context, community, mission, etc that delivers meaning and purpose to one’s life.

Emotional Resilience

Related to levels of stress. Individuals with consistently high levels of stress are less likely to be operating at their best and are more prone to experiencing health issues. For them, there may be a need for self-care, recharging, refreshing, and an active building of resilience. There may even be a therapeutic need at very low levels of Emotional Resilience and at the very least, coaching.

Our Emotional Resilience lens measures, reports, and offers developmental input in three areas and includes a series of self-coaching questions designed to encourage growth. The three areas are:

Flexibility: A continuum ranging from rigid/closed-minded to adaptable/open-minded.

Emotional Stability: The ability to manage one’s emotions rather than being emotionally reactive.

Self-Efficacy The positive self-belief, optimism, confidence, and strength to take on adversity and life’s challenges.

Social Drives

The Social Drives are linked to the traditional Enneagram subtypes and tend to form a sequential ‘stack’ from most significant to least significant for any individual. They map human development across three levels moving from self-interest towards service to others and the greater good. The Drives suggest certain motivations and are linked to what a person finds significant, or what they value, and how their consciousness is oriented vis-à-vis specific needs or fears.

Individual values can be extrapolated into behaviour and represent a tendency to pay attention to certain things more than others. People generally align their behaviour to their important values and these play a part in creating the culture of teams, groups or organisations. This is a feature of our Five Lens reporting not offered in many other Enneagram reports. Evaluation of the Social Drives often points to significant developmental themes for individuals and gives a particular flavour to their Enneagram styles. In fact, the Enneagram descriptions in our feedback reports are adjusted to include the influence of a person’s dominant Social Drive.

Drive to Survive (referred to as Conservation Instinct by Oscar Ichazo): Relates to the fear of not surviving and implies a focus on self-care such as safety, security, health, and finances.

Drive to Affiliate (referred to as Relational Instinct by Oscar Ichazo): Relates to the fear of being excluded and a need to be included, feel a sense of belonging, intimacy, relationship, family.

Drive to Achieve (referred to as Adaptational Instinct by Oscar Ichazo): Relates to the fear of loss of status, failure, and not being recognized or valued in the broader group; associated with a need for self-esteem.

Drive to Transcend: Having overcome the three more self-oriented needs this is associated with a transition towards the ‘greater good’ and unconditional service. Here there’s a need to unconditionally contribute, give back; serve others; leave a legacy; make a difference in the world.

Energy Centres

Highly integrated people can tap into all three of these intelligences contextually. The Five Lens evaluates and shows the individual’s profile across all three Centres and provides developmental input on the leading Energy Centre. This is not an intelligence test, but it is an indication of the preferential use of these Centres. We refer to the three Centres as follows:

Intellectual Centre (Head Centre):

Suggests rationality, logic, analytical, and needs data in decision-making. Related to the brain’s pre-frontal cortex.

Emotional Centre (Heart Centre):

Suggests an orientation toward feelings and emotional sensitivity. Compassion and empathy tend to emanate from this Centre. This Centre is useful in managing relationships. Related to the amygdala brain structure.

Instinctual Centre (Gut Centre):

Suggests access to physical senses and intuition, which are pre-thought and related to what is sometimes referred to as the “reptilian brain”. Intuition or instinct is particularly useful when needing to make decisions without much data available.