One Chilly Night, the Enneagram, and a Lesson in Perspective
- PG Geldenhuys
- Aug 12
- 3 min read
I landed in East London yesterday, enjoying the familiar coastal warmth at sea level. It was a welcome escape from wintry Cape Town, still pretty much in schizophrenic mode, with rain and cold misery interrupted by days of pure golden sunshine. With the Eastern Cape, you know what you get. Or so I thought. After all, I recently spent quite a bit of time up here, at glorious Port Alfred, Cintsa and Umngazi. But holiday’s over, buddy. After doing AI training for my client on the coast, I jumped in the rental and cruised inland to Queenstown (Komani) for day 2 of training. Komani, it turns out, is 1,075 m up on the inland plateau.
Oops.
With last night’s temperatures hitting 3 degrees, I layered on the blankets and reflected: I’d packed for the coast. That chilly surprise isn’t just about weather, it’s a reminder that our own lived experience can mislead us if we don’t question it.
And that’s exactly where Enneagram work comes in.
I work a lot with leadership and company teams on better alignment through self-awareness, deeper empathy work and understanding the “why” for each and every person. The Enneagram is a great construct for this, and really helps with unpacking why we sometimes just don’t see eye-to-eye. And it comes down to the fact that we just see things differently. Our lenses are shaped by our lived experience, and our behaviour is shaped by our lenses. And we always therefore need to challenge our assumptions.
Why We All Need to Question Our Assumptions
Lived Paradigms Differ: As a Seven, I instinctively spot the bright side. But a Type Six (the Loyal Sceptic) scans for potential pitfalls. Without recognising that lens difference, we collide rather than connect.
The Enneagram Lens: The nine types map our default worldviews. Knowing your “altitude” versus someone else’s helps turn conflict into curiosity.
True Leadership Is Humble: Confidence isn’t the enemy of curiosity. The real mark of wisdom is admitting, “I might be wrong,” and then asking, “What else should I see?”
In Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras show how true innovators reject the “Tyranny of OR” (“we must choose A OR B”) and instead embrace the “Genius of AND” (“we can, and must, have A AND B”).
This mindset directly challenges our default assumptions: we assume we can’t both prepare for risk AND pursue opportunity, or be decisive AND open to new information. But just as Queenstown’s chill reminded me that coast-born logic doesn’t apply at altitude, the Genius of AND invites us to question the story we tell ourselves about limitations. What if you could hold your optimism AND rigorously test for pitfalls? What if you could value creativity AND insist on structure?
Not only does this broaden your possibilities, it also deepens your empathy… because you learn to see how others hold multiple truths at once. So next time you’re tempted to frame a choice as either/or, pause and ask: how might I engineer the AND?
PG’s Pro Tip:
Use this Enneagram prompt for your ChatGPT: Act as my Enneagram consultant, and help me understand how my assumptions could be faulty given my core type …, and give me some strategies to check myself.
If you don’t know your Core Type, go to my custom GPT and do the free questionnaire. It’s not perfect, but it will get you started…
Call to Action
Leave a comment and tell me: Which assumption will you challenge this week, and which Enneagram-inspired tool will you use? I’ll feature the most insightful experiments in next week’s issue.
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