Your team says they want "diverse perspectives." What they actually have is six people who think identically and two who stopped speaking up.
Remember high school? Jocks with jocks. Nerds with nerds. Drama kids in their corner. Fast forward to your workplace — it’s the exact same dynamic with business casual.
Teams self-select for similarity. It’s comfortable. It’s efficient. It’s also why your “brainstorms” produce the same three ideas every time.
Groupthink isn’t a failure of effort. It’s the default outcome when you let teams form organically. Everyone hires people they “click with” — which means people who think like them.
The Enneagram reveals what your team is actually missing.
The Enneagram Triads: Three Ways Teams Break Down
The Enneagram groups types into triads. Each triad reveals a different dimension of how people operate. Understanding these explains why certain people clash (or click) instantly.
How People Take Up Space
Some people walk into a meeting and immediately start talking. Others wait to be asked. Others zone out entirely unless directly engaged.
- The Drivers (3, 7, 8): They take charge. They speak first. They push for action.
- The Collaborators (1, 2, 6): They seek buy-in. They want everyone on the same page before moving forward.
- The Observers (4, 5, 9): They process internally. They need time before contributing. If you don’t explicitly invite them in, they stay quiet.
The problem: If your team is all Drivers, you get conflict and competition. All Collaborators? Nothing gets decided. All Observers? Brilliant ideas never surface.
How People Handle Conflict
When problems arise, people default to different modes:
- Logic Mode (1, 3, 5): “Let’s analyze this objectively. What are the facts?”
- Emotional Mode (4, 6, 8): “I need to be heard. I need you to understand why this matters.”
- Positive Mode (2, 7, 9): “Let’s focus on what’s working. Let’s not dwell on the negative.”
The clash: Logic Mode dismisses Emotional Mode as “too dramatic.” Emotional Mode sees Logic Mode as “cold.” Positive Mode frustrates both by “not taking things seriously.”
How People Connect (or Don’t)
- Connection Seekers (3, 6, 9): They need validation. They want to belong.
- Frustration Types (1, 4, 7): Something always feels missing. They’re searching for the ideal.
- Boundary Types (2, 5, 8): They control access to themselves, either by pushing in or pulling away.
Understanding these patterns prevents you from taking things personally. That coworker isn’t cold; they’re a Type 5 conserving energy. That team member isn’t clingy; they’re a Type 6 seeking security.
Enneagram Combinations That Actually Work
Not all type combinations produce magic. Some explode. Others stagnate. Here are three that consistently deliver.
The Innovation Engine: Types 5, 7, and 1
The 5 researches deeply. The 7 generates wild ideas. The 1 ruthlessly filters for quality.
This trio moves fast without cutting corners. The 7 prevents analysis paralysis. The 5 prevents half-baked execution. The 1 prevents “good enough” from becoming the standard.
The Human-Centered Squad: Types 2, 6, and 9
When your project needs buy-in from difficult stakeholders, this combination reads the room better than any focus group.
The 2 knows what people actually need (not what they say they need). The 6 anticipates objections before they surface. The 9 finds the common ground nobody else sees.
The Pressure Cooker: Types 3, 4, and 8
High-stakes, high-ego, high-performance. Not for the faint of heart.
The 3 drives results. The 8 clears obstacles. The 4 refuses to let the work become generic or forgettable. This team either produces exceptional work or burns down trying. Use it for moonshots, not maintenance.
Making This Work in Practice
Knowing the types is step one. Using that knowledge without turning every meeting into a therapy session is the real skill.
Match the Task to the Thinking Style
Stop assigning work randomly. Different types process differently.
For deep research: Give it to your 5s. They’ll disappear for a week and return with everything you didn’t know you needed.
For brainstorming: Let your 7s run wild first. Edit later.
For quality control: Your 1s will find the problems everyone else missed. But brief them early, not at the last minute when changes feel like personal attacks.
For stakeholder management: Put your 2s, 6s, and 9s on the front lines. They read people faster than any customer research deck.
Communicate in Their Language
You’re not being manipulative. You’re being effective.
Different types hear the same words differently:
- Types 1, 3, 5 want data, logic, clear expectations. Skip the pep talk.
- Types 2, 6, 8 need to feel heard before they’ll hear you. Acknowledge their concern first.
- Types 4, 7, 9 respond to vision and possibility. Connect the task to something bigger.
Dive deeper into how each type communicates.
Predict Conflicts Before They Happen
Most team conflict follows predictable patterns:
- 8 vs 9: The 8 pushes. The 9 goes silent. The 8 pushes harder. The 9 explodes three months later.
- 1 vs 7: The 1 wants the plan followed. The 7 keeps improvising. Both think the other is sabotaging the project.
- 3 vs 4: The 3 wants to ship it. The 4 wants it perfect. Neither understands why the other “doesn’t care.”
Knowing these patterns lets you intervene before the explosion. Not to eliminate the tension, but to make it productive.
Questions That Surface Hidden Perspectives
Most team meetings reward whoever talks fastest. The Observers (4s, 5s, 9s) stay quiet. Their best ideas never surface.
The fix isn’t “speak up more.” It’s asking better questions.
Questions that draw out your quiet types:
- “What’s one thing we might be overlooking?” (5s love finding blind spots)
- “How does this feel to you?” (4s process through emotion first)
- “Is there a middle ground we haven’t considered?” (9s see connections others miss)
Questions that slow down your loud types:
- “What could go wrong with this approach?” (forces 7s to consider downsides)
- “Who might push back on this, and why?” (makes 8s think about resistance)
- “What would it look like if we took more time here?” (challenges 3s’ speed-first mentality)
The goal isn’t to muzzle some and amplify others. It’s to create space where every type’s natural intelligence can contribute.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Building a genuinely diverse team is uncomfortable. By design.
If everyone “gets along” immediately, you probably hired the same person nine times.
Real diversity means:
- Type 8s pushing back hard while Type 9s wish everyone would calm down
- Type 5s wanting more data while Type 7s want to move faster
- Type 1s focused on quality while Type 3s focus on speed
These tensions aren’t problems to solve. They’re features to leverage.
Start here:
- Map your team’s current Enneagram composition
- Identify what’s missing (usually the types that “wouldn’t fit in”)
- Hire for the discomfort you need, not the comfort you want
The teams that win aren’t the ones that avoid friction. They’re the ones that learned how to use it.
What type is your team missing?