You’ve Got Harmony (Prelude)

“Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord.” Plutarch

“Virtue is Harmony.” Pythagoras

We all love a good harmony. The collaboration and integration that creates harmony doesn’t happen alone. The “good vibrations” of groups like the Beach Boys, Pentatonix, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Anonymous Four and Take 6 require personal efforts that support a common harmony. Harmony in music or relationships depends on some sort of agreement. How is your inner concert these days? Do you feel harmonized or off key?

As pastors, trainers, and consultants we believe the harmony that exists in the Holy Three in One God is our pattern for community. We long for our work to bring the harmony and shalom of God’s presence to disharmonious people and systems. In our experience, harmony doesn’t happen by accident. Harmony is the fruit of intention and awareness and God’s good spirit within. Our efforts to create harmony have been greatly aided by the Enneagram. The Enneagram is a tool for diagnosing inner discord and its impact on relationships. The Enneagram can diagnose our jam, our soloist agenda, our preoccupation with “my favorite tunes,” and our resistance to music on any other station. The Enneagram names our disharmony and where we break shalom.   

Traditional Enneagram arrow theory divides the nine numbers into three triads: head triad (5,6,7), heart triad (2,3,4), and gut triad (8,9,1). This arrow theory gives numbers 2, 4, 5, and 7 access to only two triads, rather than three, leaving them out of touch with either the head, heart, or gut (see diagram below).

The Enneagram with Harmony Triads reimagines the arrows in ways that create three balanced triads: 8-2-5, 9-3-6, and 1-4-7. Harmony Triads connect every number to gut, heart, and head so they can draw upon these harmonies (see below).

Stay ‘tuned’, and we’ll tell you more soon…