Why You Need a 5 on Your Team

Today I'm pleased to share a guest post written by Liz Williams of Collaboration Zone.Avarice.Stinginess.Protecting myself from energy drain by apportioning my time and choosing my focus.Believing that no one will support me.If I squint my eyes and look sideways, just so, I can make those words fit. But there’s another that brings coherence to these other words: Transcendence. I’m always looking for a way to make an enterprise get up and dance, to find the third rail that plugs right into the source. That’s why I’m so bloody impossible sometimes.It’s why you want me, an Enneagram Type 5, on your team.

“This business of maintaining both the “I” and the “we” – and not losing either when the going gets rough – is the largest of all human challenges.” –Harriet Lerner, Marriage Rules

When the pressure to turn “I” and “we” into “I” versus “we” escalates, I won’t. Why settle for choosing one over the other when committing to both “I” and “we” transcends the limits of either? This is why you want some 5 on your team.I strengthen the “we” by walking the path of “I” and inviting others to join me. Wildly divergent views don’t bother me. I’m unlikely to settle for “living with it” when I can see a way for us to be fully committed without cutting off anyone. Groupthink is repugnant to me. But, if you want to walk out of the room knowing you’ve just made magic together, you might want a little 5 in the mix.Specifically,

• I’ll see things differently and say so.
• I’ll say what’s unspoken.
• I’ll see connections between wildly different viewpoints.
• I’ll ignore details you think important in favor of the picture forming – and reforming - in my head.
• I can get the team all the way to a real yes.

Is there a downside? You betcha.I’m the person most likely to be doodling when you think I should be giving my full attention to the speaker or task at hand. (The accompanying doodle is what I did when I was “supposed” to be writing this article.) I won’t think to tell you about a recent study linking doodling with a 29% increase in retention. I’m full of these irritating little factoids and practices, always geeking out about something.A room full of 5s is likely to yield pristine, beautiful, and perfect ideas that need just a little more tweaking before their utter genius lights up the world. If you don’t shove the occasional pizza under the door, we can waste away in there. A deadline – a real deadline – is critical. Insisting on shopping the idea around is enormously irritating to us 5s, and enormously helpful, especially if we are free to ignore the feedback (we won’t). As much as we’d like to outdo Einstein and turn everything into a breakthrough that transforms the world, planning the company Christmas party probably doesn’t warrant that level of attention. Please stop us.But when the situation is complex or thorny and can only be solved by refusing to choose for “I” versus “we?” Get some 5 on it.Liz Williams owns Collaboration Zone, a consultancy that helps people do their best work ever and enjoy each other in the process. She blogs about collaboration, works with clients primarily in healthcare, teaches at Alliant University in the California School of Professional Psychology, and doodles.