These are the Cooperators. When working on a project, it’s kind of like baseball (you have your own position, you know the rules and there are referees)
- Dutiful: there are structures and ways of doing things
- Want to take time to find out who the team is, understand the framework, what is behind it, clarify expectations, rules and guidelines in more detail.
- More questions about roles such as who is in charge of what
- Explore potential conflict given the different roles and expectations
- Tend to be more predictable and can get overwhelmed by too much material or fast change.
I gave a workshop last week to a team of about 35 people. I asked the Cooperators to share what they’d like us to know about working with them. Here’s what they told us. (Notice how they numbered their responses:) We like:
- Agenda/Format
- Expectations- do what you say you will
- Clarity
- Respect
- Structure/Process
- Focus on all perspectives
- Rules
- Parameters are important
When I was at a board meeting of the International Enneagram Association, this is what a group of IEA Initiators responded when Belinda Gore taught us about Cooperators and asked them what they wanted us to know about working with them:
- Structure can feel boring/limited, but it’s important
- Structure is essential/reassuring/provides clarity
- We feel like a workhorse
- “Why do we always have to be the one’s to do it?”
- We feel required to see things to completion
- Some people see us as being a “wet blanket” but actually we’re giving a pragmatic “reality check”
- The details are how things get done!