WHY NOT ENNEAGRAM INVENTORIES OR TESTS?

If you’ve ever been to a workshop with me in the past few years, then at some point or another you have heard me share my thoughts on Enneagram inventories and tests.  Admittedly, sometimes my sharing goes on for a few minutes.  I admit that I have become a strong proponent for NOT using Enneagram inventories or tests - even though I came to the Enneagram through an inventory!  So why am I not a proponent?  What is it about inventories and tests that led me to move away from them and keeps me away?

There are a number of reasons actually.  It might be easier to list.  Here are my top 5 reasons!

1. The Enneagram is wisdom, not a personality profiling system; therefore it’s not something that is meant to be “tested.” The Enneagram is not something you “do” – as in I hear people say sometimes, “Oh I haven’t done the Enneagram yet.”  Well you can’t.  It’s not something “to do.”  The Enneagram is wisdom to take in and apply to your life; it’s not “a thing.”  Inventories and tests make it into “a thing” – namely, a personality profiling system.  But again as I say, the Enneagram is wisdom, not a personality profiling system.

2. Inventories and tests are expedient and efficient and the Enneagram is anything but expedient and efficient. The medium of an inventory or test undermines the message of what the Enneagram is all about.  The Enneagram is about process, a journey of ever-deepening self-discovery and awareness.  It again is wisdom to be mined for its insights to help us grow toward health in ourselves and in our relationships.  

3. Inventories and tests lead to mistyping. The experience of inventories and tests mistyping the majority of the time is that of my Enneagram teacher, Suzanne Stabile, and it is my growing experience.  I spend time with clients navigating that the test told them they were one number, but when they really read more about the Enneagram numbers, they saw themselves as a different number.  I consistently have people at my workshops who entering thinking they are one number because of a test and leave understanding themselves to identify with a different number because they learned more accurately about the nature of the Enneagram and the types in the workshop.  In addition, certain numbers in their motivation respond to the test’s results in particular ways so they do not question the results; therefore they mistype.  For example, most Enneagram 6s will think they are whatever number the test says they are because the test is the authority.  And often this can mean they don’t identify as a 6.  This happened to my wife, Betsie, who thought she identified as a 1 because the test she took told her she was a 1.  But through learning more about the Enneagram as well as self-observation, she knows accurately now that she identifies with the Enneagram 6.

4. One’s Enneagram type is based on a person’s core motivation, not behavior; but testing for motivation is very difficult if not impossible! Personality profiles like DISC, Insights, Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, and the like work with a test because they are based on behavior.  Someone is “answering” the questions or prompts based on what they do.  The Enneagram is rooted in why one does what they do.  It takes significant self-awareness and honesty about one’s self to know your motivation well enough to then respond on a test or inventory in ways that are true to who you are.  

5. Circumstances of the moment impact one’s inventory/test-taking, therefore making them susceptible to mistyping. Someone could take an Enneagram inventory or test multiple days in a row and come out a different number simply because the circumstances of their day are impacting their answers!  If someone was to take an inventory or test at the end of a stressful day while still at the office, there’s a decent chance their results will say they are their “stress” number of the Enneagram or the results would reveal the number that corresponds with who they think they need to be at work.  Or let’s say someone was on vacation with friends who were talking about the Enneagram, so they went back to their condo and hopped online to take the first test that the SEO popped up.  That person has a good chance of “testing” as their secure number or the number they’ve idealized in their head as the preferred number to be.  In other words, the complexity of the Enneagram wisdom coupled with the circumstances surrounding one’s taking of an inventory or test can and most often, in my perspective, will affect the Enneagram core style that they test as.

I could probably come up with more reasons, but that’s enough for now.  Though let me add: these reasons are true for ANY Enneagram inventory or test, not just the free ones.  Just because you paid for an inventory or test – even paid for an expensive one - don’t assume it is better than the free ones and hence going to somehow be definitively accurate.  The inventories and tests that have a cost are just as susceptible to all of the reasons I have described; you’re just out your money, and in some cases, a lot of it!  Taking an Enneagram inventory that costs $120 may give you a 40+ page report about an Enneagram number; there’s no guarantee, however, that it’s describing you.

The Enneagram is a journey of self-reflection to self-identification; neither a test nor for that matter even another person, ought to be telling someone their type.

So what is the best way for discovering the Enneagram type one identifies with?  I’m glad you asked.  That’s the subject of another post!