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Welcome to the Awareness To Action blog. We hope this blog serves you with insight and understanding in your journey deeper into the Enneagram.
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Latest Articles
Dealing with Misinformation: Fake News, Social Media, and the ”Post-Truth” World
By Mario Sikora Part of an ongoing series of articles on clear-thinking skills, excerpted from “How to Think Well, and Why: The Awareness to Action Guide to Clear Thinking” by Mario Sikora (available at www.awarenesstoactionbooks.com). Fake news and distorted truths...
Developing General Knowledge: Overcoming Ignorance
Part of an ongoing series of articles on clear-thinking skills, excerpted from “How to Think Well, and Why: The Awareness to Action Guide to Clear Thinking” by Mario Sikora (available at http://www.awarenesstoactionbooks.com). Last time we discussed ignorance; below are some...
Why We See What We Expect to See: Confirmation Bias and the Enneagram
By Mario Sikora The voice came from behind me in a moment of downtime after an exercise during the training. “So, Mario, have you identified your subtype?” I turned around to see Don Riso standing a few feet away. “Yes, I’m a self-pres Eight.” “No you’re not. You’re...
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The Enneagram
Mitt Romney: Profile of a Preserving (Self Pres) Three
It would be difficult to write a more vivid account of a Preserving (Self-Preservation) Three than this article about Mitt Romney. He is portrayed as someone who is both incredibly thrifty, despite his enormous wealth, who is driven to work incessantly. This need to...
Beware the Halo: What to Watch Out for When It Comes to Enneagram Training
Linus Pauling was one of the most brilliant scientists of all time, and the only person to be awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes (one in chemistry and one for peace). There will always be a cloud over his legacy, however, because Pauling made the mistake that many...
Madrid by Instinct
I've just returned from 10 days in Madrid, one of my favorite cities, where I did a five-day training on the Enneagram for Coaches and also got to do a bit of sight-seeing. The time off in this enchanted place was much needed after four full days of meetings in...
Critical Thinking
Built-in Biases, Continued: Two Systems of the Brain, Cognitive Dissonance, and the Confirmation Bias
Part of an ongoing series on Clear-Thinking Skills. These articles excerpted from “How to Think Well, and Why: The Awareness to Action Guide to Clear Thinking,” which is available in paperback and e-book via amazon.com. Two Systems of the Brain Daniel Kahneman’s book...
The First Obstacle to Clear Thinking: Our Built-in Biases
Part of an ongoing series on Clear-Thinking Skills. This articles excerpted from “How to Think Well, and Why: The Awareness to Action Guide to Clear Thinking,” which is available in paperback and e-book via amazon.com. There are many factors that lead to our inability...
First Things First: Foundational Ideas for Clear Thinking
Part of an ongoing series on Clear-Thinking Skills. This articles excerpted from “How to Think Well, and Why: The Awareness to Action Guide to Clear Thinking,” which is available in paperback and e-book via amazon.com. We Need a Network of Models and Tools We are...
Emotional Intelligence / Self Awareness
Instinctual Leadership: Signaling Warmth and Competence
Humans are contradictory creatures. We have the capacity to step back, think rationally, and reason through complex problems, but we often don’t use that capacity—relying instead on snap judgments to guide us. Daniel Kahneman’s book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow,”...
Instinctual Leadership (2)
Each of us is wired with instinctual drives that shape what we value and what aspects of life we focus on. These drives have been wired into us through millions of years of evolutionary pressures and they enhance our ability to survive and reproduce. Understanding how...
The Missing Piece in Creating Change
Most advice on how to change is very straightforward (and simplistic): Become aware of your patterns and what you need to do differently, then make a plan for doing the new behavior. Of course, if it were that easy, everyone would keep their New Year’s...
Leadership
Coaching Eights: Mercy, Grace, and Magnanimity
I was recently asked about an approach to coaching Eights; particularly, how to help them access the “high side of Two.” I’ve coached quite a few Eights over the years and, as I am an Eight myself, I have a few thoughts on the topic. This blog is a slightly...
Problems vs. Conditions
In life, there are problems and there are conditions, and they are not the same thing. Here is an example of what I mean: My 16-year old son is 6’3” with an excellent vertical leap. He plays on a local club basketball team and, being the tallest player on his team and...
Leadership and the Instinctual Biases: Preparing to Scale
Excerpted from the book “Instinctual Leadership: Working with the 27 Subtypes of the Awareness to Action Enneagram” by Mario Sikora with Maria Jose Munita. Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved. As we stated in the previous section, no one can be good at everything. We...