THE META MODEL AND THE ENNEAGRAM CONSULTING MODELS

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Robin MatthewsIntroduction

There are two general types of models used in corporate strategy. The first, are frameworks which are used to partition complex problems into manageable sets, admitting that they are open sets.

The second types of model are causal, in the sense that they express a causal link between a set of dependent variables, let’s call them Y which is determined by a set X of independent variables. In management literature the first general type of strategic model vastly outnumber the second type. Both types are in different senses explanatory. They select variables to focus on. So, a theory underlies both types, although it is implicit in the first type.

The enneagram model (and its sub model, the meta model, see figure 1(b)), typifies the first type, but adds another dimension. The purpose is to tune into creative imagination of individuals or groups. In that sense, the Enneagram model is a Mandala. Mandala’s are used in some Buddhist traditions as objects of contemplation. The Enneagram, illustrated as figure 1, has its roots in Sufi traditions.

Figure 1(a)

The nine point enneagram

The strategic enneagram is summarized in figure 5 below.

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The meta model and the enneagram model are two models that I worked on with a number of colleagues, particularly in Moscow at the Institute of Economic Strategies. They form the basis of our consulting models that we have used in published papers.

Mandalas are symbols, used in Hinduism and Buddhism to focus attention, an aspect of mindfulness and to develop creative or active imagination.

Geometrically, enneagrams are a class of nine point figures. The strategic enneagram referred to here, is made up of an inner triangle and an irregular hexagon, a six point figure. It originates in Sufi psychological and mystical teaching, the Pythagorean number system and traditional religions. In the twentieth century the enneagram was developed by Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and more recently by John Bennett.i I first met John Bennett in the late 60s on the cusp of his gifting Coombe Springs to Idris Shah (who subsequently sold it, I guess, at a substantial profit to developers), and setting up his consulting agency. The agency was not terrifically successful in London. I surmise that the consultants who were mainly Bennett’s pupils, were rather more interested in their own contemplations, then operating as business people. However I rather select group, led by Bennett’s wife, Elizabeth, and his sons and preeminently by Anthony Blake, work out of Yorkshire and have reduced quite a formidable set of publications based around Bennett’s work and their subsequent practical work after Bennett’s death in 1973.

The Strategic Enneagram is symmetric. It is based on recurring decimals; 1/3 (0.3333…) 2/3 (0.666…..) and 3/3 (0.9999….) expressed in the inner triangle, representing the meta model and hexagram based on 1/7 (0.1428571428571….), 2/7 (0.285714285714… and so on.

As a mandala, the Strategic Enneagram, illustrated in figure 1, is used to focus attention, which links it to mindfulness and to developing creative or active imagination. Mindfulness has been recently imported into management thinking, from Buddhism, as a technique for reflection and managing stress.

Active imagination was developed by the psychologist Carl Jung as a technique understanding that comes from intuition and imagination rather than purely logical processes. The philosopher Bertrand Russell illustrates the idea; the greatest scientists, he says, use a combination of imagination and logic. They are able to bridge science and mysticism and visualise problems through the active imagination and see solutions that would not be otherwise apparent.

Nothing is perceived directly, but everything is perceived indirectly via a grammar. Approximately, grammar describes ways of looking at things, organizing things, or making sense of things. Creative imagination is to see things from the perspective of a different grammar, to understand differently and perhaps as a result to begin to organize and structure things differently. Mindfulness is very similar. It is a set of techniques for simply observing habitual often unconscious behaviour not judgementally; that is observing them from the perspective of a different grammar.

The Enneagram methodology is framework for analysing strategic problems and designing creative strategies, combining intellect (analysis and logic) and imagination (creativity and intuition). Application of the Enneagram mandala, to management to business and strategy reflects the proposition that spiritual and mystical aspects of life are not separate from material and practical aspects. Probably creativity cannot be taught. But it can be encouraged.

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The Strategic Enneagram as a mandala is a way of evoking creativity in individuals and groups. It incorporates, strategy, mindfulness and creativity.

The phrase strategic process is a series of states of a system over time. So we begin by considering the process which we think of as being to some extent deliberate and second the state itself, represented by the inner triangle in figure 1. In figure 1 both the process and system state are embedded in grammar. Process is traced out by the hexagram 1, 4, 2, 8, 5, …… It has a cognitive aspect (1,4,2), an implementation aspect (8,5,7) and since the situation is dynamic, and adaptive or learning process (7,1) relating what is implemented to what is intended and what values were intended and what was achieved (2,8). The enneagram is symmetric around risk which arises when the purely cognitive is implemented. Purely cognitively, anything is possible. In space and time only some things are.

The term meta is used because each of the models embraces many sub models some of which you may be familiar with and some not. The meta model consists of four categories used to describe the system state of an organisation. It partitions organizations into;

3. inner dynamics,

6. outer dynamics,

9. payoffs (to stakeholders) and grammar.

The enneagram model is a way of describing a strategy: either linearly as a roadmap, one step following another that begins and ends as follows;

1. organisational vision and

2. values,

4. envisioning future scenarios (priorities, impact and likelihood),

5. deciding upon strategy (strategies),

7. implementation and

8. monitoring and control of organisational performance.

What is an organisation?

What is an organisation? It is a system that is organized for a purpose (or purposes). In what follows organization may refer to small or large businesses, institutions such as governments, universities, religious institutions, governments and international institutions, the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, OECD, NATO. Alternatively, organization refers to subsets of all of the above; functional areas (marketing, finance, operations, resources), business units and departments within businesses, projects and project teams.

Organizations are hierarchical systems

Any organization is made up of subsets of itself. They are hierarchical systems. Large corporations for example are organized regionally, and each region may be organized into

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national entities, and national entities into business units and business units organized into functions, projects and within them teams of individuals. Such is the formal organization; systems within systems within systems; systems each consisting of connected subsystems. Large corporations are connected to others via alliances, partnerships, off-shoring, outsourcing, or be connected by mergers and acquisitions. They are also connected to governments and international institutions.

Complex systems

there are many many examples of complex systems; the universe, the climate system, the autonomic nervous system in mammals, the human brain, or indeed the brains of all living things, ecosystems, societies, cities, international relations and the European Union which as negotiators of Brexit are finding, much more complex than they imagined. The global economy is a complex system illustrated in the presentation, which also summarises aspects of complex systems.

Oganizations are complex systems. What is a complex system? A complex system is made up of a large number of connected entities that evolve in unpredictable ways. Complex systems can be illustrated by network diagrams where entities in the complex system correspond to nodes (vertices) in a network. Connections correspond to the edges (linkages) between nodes.

It is difficult to define complex systems precisely. The Russian scientist Kolgomorov said that the complexity of the system could be measured by the length of the shortest precise description of the system.

The meta model partitions organizations into; inner dynamics, outer dynamics, payoffs (to stakeholders) and grammar.

The enneagram model is a way of describing a strategy roadmap that includes; organisational vision and values, envisioning future scenarios (priorities, impact and likelihood), deciding upon strategy (strategies), implementation and monitoring and control of organisational performance.

The meta model

The meta model is a way of describing the current state of an organization. The current state never lasts for long. It is always subject to change. Hence the following categories are identified in the meta model.

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Figure 1 (b)

a. Organization cannot happen without formal and informal rules including; laws, traditions, regulations, systems and structures, cultural and historical influences (including religions), and the mindsets and ways of thinking and doing common to individuals and groups in an era, nation, region, society and family. The examples in the previous sentence are organizing principles. In computer programming they are described as Standard Operating Procedures .They make organizations work. And all these organizing principles are represented artefacts; architecture, the layout of cities, works of art, the creative arts (music, literature, cinema, theatre, sculpture, new media), consumer goods and services and the technology of an era; generally what we see and experience around us, that changes like all things over time. I refer these organizing principles as organizational grammar, for short grammar. Grammar summarizes the coplex organizational principles that underlie outer and inner dynamics and payoffs.

b. Outer dynamics; outside forces, for example, competition, new and often disruptive technologies, political, economic, ecological and so on. Organizations live in a global capitalist environment (described sometimes as neo-liberalism), which evolves and changes. They also live in a global postmodern grammar (see the previous paragraph) of which culture is a part. Grammar, and all the informal and formal rules, including culture, referred to in the previous paragraph, is to some extent homogeneous (global similarity), spread by information networks, media, advertising, the internet, social networks that are created by science, technology and the arts. And grammar also varies between regions, nations, ethnic and religious groups. And like fashion it varies from era to era. Grammar in the form environmental damage, animal and human rights issues increasingly impacts upon organizations.

c. Inner dynamics; include tangible and intangible assets, the organization’s dynamic capabilities (competences). Tangible assets include; physical capital, human beings and nature’s resources, access to finance (debt and equity), access to information and data, tacit and explicit knowledge contained in an organization. Intangible assets include; brand, reputation, and corporate image. Included in intangible assets are the elements of corporate culture; mind sets, ways of thinking and doing by individuals

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and groups in an organization and their assumptions and traditions. So grammar operates within organizations too; it’s the ORGANIZING principle.

d. Payoffs to stakeholders include financial returns, measured by profit, EBIT, CAGR, sales, market share and many financial ratios. Capitalism focuses on returns to shareholders; market capitalization, returns to equity, debt liabilities for example and teachers often parrot the importance of shareholder value. You might say that capitalism is part of the grammar of the current era. There are many versions of capitalism ranging from the state socialism of China and Russia, to relatively liberal versions in Scandinavia and less so in the UK, to the laissez faire versions in the USA. But no organization is an island. Hence an organization has many stakeholders; employees, customers, governments and future generations, who to some extent have payoffs that conflict with one another. All production has effects upon the environment, the biosphere (global warming and pollution); effects that are governed by grammar in the form of scientific laws, discovered or undiscovered; and grammar in the form of moral imperatives such as human and animal rights.

Figure 2

The enneagram model

The snake metaphor in figure 3 captures the idea of strategy made up of concepts that are

turned into actions once choices are made and implemented and adapted as circumstances

change. What we should notice is that any organization, many decisions are taking place at

the same time. So we have parallel decision making in organizations.

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Figure 3

Figure 4 looks at strategy as a roadmap; dividing strategic processes into search, making

choices, implementing those choices and adapting them as circumstances change. Risk and

uncertainty emerges as concepts turn into action.

Figure 4

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Figure 5 sets out the full enneagram picture, relating system states and processes. The system

state is made up of outer dynamics, inner dynamics and payoffs. Processes are a succession

of states; vision and intentions, values, choosing among alternatives or scenarios, committing

to a choice attempting to implement it choice, evaluating the outcome and adapting

continuously.

Figure 5

.

Figure 6 deconstructs the strategy process into the concept formation, implementation and

adaptation.

(a) (b)

Figure 6

a. Conceptual; analysis, perhaps alluding to the vision and values of the company. Both are part of the grammar of the company. Try to identify feasible alternatives open at the moment; feasible is a strong consideration

b. Action; choosing and implementing a set of actions and deciding the criteria against which these actions are going to be evaluated.

c. Adaptation; a process has to be set up of evaluating the conceptual and action stages against one another. Do outcomes or payoffs from implementation correspond to the

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original intention and vision; or are they on track to do so? Do they correspond to the values of the company

I have set the strategy into the enneagram framework focusing on concepts, figure 7(a);

action figure&(b), and adaptation figure 7(c).

Figure 7a. Figure 7b. Figure

7c.

Appendix

One of the themes of the strategy into action course has been complexity. Figure A1 is a rich picture of a complex system that contains complex subsystems. Complex systems is illustrated in figure 1 contained large numbers of inter-connected elements, that must be seen as a whole rather than as disconnected parts. New properties emerge from complex systems that are quite different from the parts considered independently.

Organisations are complex systems, networks of assets that are linked in order to create synergy and feedback. We can also think of the balance business scorecard as a framework of interconnected nodes, customers, staff, finance and so on, their purpose being to enable managers to measure actual against target performance.

Networks can be used to illustrate many complex systems; connections between assets or functions of people or teams in a business firm or relationships between family members, or actors in movies, stage plays or TV programmes, or pieces in the board game or stages in a strategy roadmap. As elements are connected in a complex system the properties emerge that could not be predicted by examining the parts separately.

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The rich picture we drew showed that links could take many forms: some of them from hard systems and some involving soft systems. The value chain is linked by hard systems: hard systems such as the internet and intranets, production and performance data, and soft systems such as relationships, gossip, rumour, body language and shared their culture.

Systems = Organizations = Networks

The examples above and many more networks consist of nodes (vertices) and linkages (edges). The brain is a network made up of something like hundred billion neurons. Neurons communicate information to one another across synapses using neurotransmitters that enable receive and transmit electrochemical signals. Neurons consist of dendrites that take in signals from other neurons, and axons that carry information to other neurons. Learning emerges as synoptic connections grow stronger.

Figure A1

Figure A1 which was intended to illustrate an organisation as a system or network and figure A2, which is like a photographic negative that focuses on the underling system and sub systems.

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Figure A2

Lionel asked a real question about the nature of the information and signals that transmit information. The purple section in both figures are, entitled grammar. The first, A1 conveys the variety of transmission mechanisms.

NOTE

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i I first met John Bennett in the late 60s on the cusp of his gifting Coombe Springs to Idris Shah (who subsequently sold it, I guess, at a substantial profit to developers), and setting up his consulting agency. The agency was not terrifically successful in London. I surmise that the consultants who were mainly Bennett’s pupils, were rather more interested in their own contemplations, then operating as business people. However I rather select group, led by Bennett’s wife, Elizabeth, and his sons and Anthony Blake, work out of Yorkshire and have published papers based around Bennett’s work and their subsequent practical work after Bennett’s death in 1973. Papers from this group focus on their understanding of the psychological/spiritual aspects for the Enneagram.

Coincidentally John Bennett lived in Kingston, and ran a school teaching many mystical systems, including Gurdjieff and Ouspensky and other traditions, Buddhist, Hindu and Sufism. After closing Coombe springs, Bennett set up a consulting agency, financed by a leading (at that time) UK software company. The outputs of the agency were published in a house journal, Systematics. Also perhaps coincidentally, House contains a bust of George Gurdjieff, which as far as I know, I am one of the few people to recognise it as such. The bust was sculpted by Dora P. In the 1920s, when Dora was a pupil at Gurdjieff’s school in Fontainebleau. Dora was a Russian émigré, married to a British diplomat who had served as ambassador to Russia. Gurdjieff too was Russian, or, perhaps we should say, he was an Armenian, born in the Russian. He left Moscow around 1914, when he moved to Paris. Ouspensky emigrated at the same time, to London. The Priere attracted many intellectuals, artists and people who we would now call celebrities; among them the critic and poet, A.R. Orage, the composer, Thomas de Hartmann, the novelist, Catherine Mansfield, who died at the Priere.