Run One Small Balancing Experiment
Where you are: Module 5 · Lesson 21 of 30 · about 29 minutes (reading 11, practice 12, checkpoint 6). This lesson turns one guess from Lesson 20 into one small, safe step that you can try at work, record and then revise. It includes Record Checkpoint 5 and the Module 5 checkpoint.
What you'll be able to do
- Fill in an experiment card: one small, reversible step inside your own role, with a stop condition.
- Check a proposed step against a simple checklist, and say whether it really tests your guess.
- Record what happens in things you can see, and treat "no change", "worse" and "no comparable event yet" as valid results.
- Keep, narrow or drop a guess, with a reason.
What the card is for, and what it is not
"Balancing" is this course's word. As Lesson 20 explained, no source cited in this course gives a workplace procedure for balance or reports that any action works. So the card below is this course's own design, not a tested method. It does not change an instinct. It shows only what happens when you add one look to one kind of work event.
The experiment card (our design)
- My guess, with "may", from Lesson 20.
- The small step: what you will do, when, inside your own role.
- Why it is small and reversible.
- The stop condition: when you skip the step, or stop the experiment (a date, a count or a situation).
- The next two comparable events: what kind of event, and when you expect it.
- What you will record: things you can see, such as what you did, what happened, what was said and how long it took.
The checklist
A step is ready when every line is true.
- Small. It takes minutes, and it is one step, not a change of habit.
- Reversible. You can stop tomorrow and nothing is lost.
- Inside your authority. It needs nobody's approval. If it depends on your manager's decision (hours, budget, staffing), it is a request, not an experiment.
- A stop condition, written before you start.
- No disclosure. You do not tell anyone at work that you are running an experiment, and you do not share your guess, your tags or any idea about instincts.
- Work only. Nothing romantic or intimate, and nothing that draws on anyone's private life.
- Not a fix for a system fact. A staffing gap or a deadline set by someone else is not solved by a self-coaching step.
- Not offered as a balance. A block of focused work is just concentration, not the being "swept up" that Riso and Hudson describe for the third instinct. This course does not offer it as a way to balance the third instinct, and no source cited here describes it that way.
The size we mean: a short check of your own workload before you agree to a request; asking in advance how a decision will land with the group; a set time to compare the day's plan with its priorities. No source matches any of these to an instinct.
Reading a result
Judge a result over at least two comparable events, or one event that really contradicts your guess. "No change", "worse", "cannot tell" and "no comparable event yet" are all valid entries. Then choose one, with the reason in one sentence:
- keep the guess;
- narrow it to the situations where it held; or
- drop it.
Add one question for further observation.
Worked example
In Lesson 20, Bandar narrowed his guess to: "When a change is at short notice, I may not check how it lands with the team." Short notice here means under a day.
| Card line | Bandar's card |
|---|---|
| Guess | "When a change is at short notice, I may not check how it lands with the team. I hold this loosely." |
| Small step | "Before I send a message that moves a start or meeting time at under a day's notice, I ask one person on the shift: 'Does this clash with anything for you?' I wait up to 10 minutes." |
| Small and reversible | "One question and up to 10 minutes, inside my role as shift lead. I can stop any day." |
| Stop condition | "I skip the question when safety is involved. I stop if someone says it delays their work, or after four weeks." |
| Two comparable events | "The next two times I must move a time at under a day's notice. If none comes in four weeks, I write that." |
| What I will record | "Who I asked, how long they took, whether they raised a clash, and whether the change went ahead on time." |
Two events later. Event 1: a Monday stock meeting moved by half an hour. The person he asked answered in four minutes: no clash. Event 2: a delivery needed a 7.30 a.m. start, before the shift. The person he asked said the loading bay stays locked until 7.45 a.m. He moved the start to 7.45 a.m., and it went ahead on time.
Revising. Event 1 shows no change. Event 2 found a fact the message would have missed. Two events cannot show how often a clash happens. Bandar narrows the guess to "changes that move a time outside shift hours", because the question found something in the only event that did. His next question: does a change inside shift hours ever need the question?
What he cannot say: that the step balanced anything; that he has a social or any other instinct; that the next change will go the same way.
Your turn
Work in your private coaching record (Lesson 6). Nothing here is sent anywhere.
Reham leads a finance operations team of six. Every Sunday morning the planning team sends a request for numbers, due on Tuesday at 12.00 noon. The planning team's lead sets each deadline, and Reham cannot change it. Reham decides how her team replies and how its week is planned. Her team's hours and budget belong to her manager. Her guess from Lesson 20: "In my last three answers to the planning team, I may not have looked at what my own team already had on before I replied. I hold this loosely."
- Design the card. Write card lines 2 to 6 for Reham.
- Check three proposals. For each, write "fits the checklist" or "does not fit", then "tests her guess" or "does not test it", with one reason. (a) Before replying on Sunday, she reads the planning team's request twice. (b) She tells her team that her instinct is social and asks them to point out when it shows. (c) Before each reply she works for 20 minutes with her phone off, to balance her third instinct.
- Record Checkpoint 5 (private). Use your own guess from Lesson 20, or write a new one. Fill in card lines 2 to 6 and check them against the checklist. Then leave a line to complete after your next two comparable events at work: "What happened: … Keep, narrow or drop, and why: … One question: …". "No comparable event yet" is a valid entry. In your record, the guess goes in field 5 or 6, the step in field 8, and the result in fields 9 and 10.
Check your work
One good card for Reham:
- Small step: "On Sunday, before replying, I read my team's plan for Monday and Tuesday for about five minutes and write one line on what the team already has on."
- Small and reversible: "Five minutes, inside my role, and no change to anyone's hours. I can stop on any Sunday."
- Stop condition: "I skip it if a request is urgent for a safety or legal reason. I stop after the second event."
- Two comparable events: "This Sunday's request and next Sunday's."
- What I will record: "How long I spent, what the plan showed, whether I changed the reply, when it went, and whether it went on time."
The three proposals:
- (a) Fits the checklist (with a stop condition added), but does not test her guess: her guess is about her own team's workload, and rereading the request does not look at it.
- (b) Does not fit: it discloses an idea about her instinct and treats the framework as settled. It does not test the guess.
- (c) Does not fit: concentration is not offered as a balance of any instinct. It does not look at her team's workload either.
Your card meets the criteria if the step is small, reversible and inside your authority; the planning team's deadline is untouched; a stop condition is written in advance; two comparable events are named; every record is something you can see; and nothing claims a balance. "I will stop when I feel balanced" fails: nobody can see that.
Extra practice (optional)
Zaid leads a stores team of four. His guess: "When a supplier delivery is late, I may not have looked at what my team can do before I tell my manager." His step: before he messages his manager, he asks the team "What can we do in the next hour?" and waits five minutes. His notes on the next two late deliveries:
- Monday: two hours late. A team member said the stock for the first order was in the back store. The order went out on time.
- Thursday: three hours late. Nobody had anything to add. The order went out the next working morning.
Write what you can see, then keep, narrow or drop the guess with one reason, and one question.
Key: the question found something in one of two events. Zaid keeps the guess as a question, because two events are too few to show how often asking finds anything. Question: "Does asking first find anything on late deliveries in general, or only on some?" He cannot say that the step balanced anything, or why nobody had anything to add on Thursday: the notes do not say.
Knowledge check
Which small step meets the checklist?
After two comparable events, a manager's records show no change. What is a valid next entry?
Answers explained
- B. It is small, reversible, inside the role and has a stop date. A discloses the guess. C is large and needs approval. D is not small and changes the team's plan.
- C. "No change" is a valid result, and the manager then decides with a reason. A claims a balance that no source cited here shows. B waits for proof that more events cannot give. D edits the evidence.
Module 5 checkpoint
Six short items on new fictional cases. Answer all six, then check.
Wejdan writes: 'In the first minute, my attention went to how the director would see the figures.' Which step is this?
Fares writes: 'I may not have looked at what my team already had on before I agreed. I hold this loosely.' Which step is this?
Layla writes: 'One of the two events found a clash, so I narrow my guess to changes outside shift hours.' Which step is this?
Anwar wants to test the guess 'I may agree before checking my own week.' Which step is small, reversible and inside his role?
Lubna worked late twice because her manager's budget does not cover a vacant post. How should she treat this in her record?
Osama's step found nothing new at either of the next two comparable events. What is a valid entry?
Answers explained
- B (Notice). It records where attention went first, not what the decision left out. Revisit Lesson 20.
- D (Guess). It says "may" and names what one decision may have left out. Revisit Lesson 20.
- A (Revise). It judges two events and narrows the guess. Revisit Lesson 21, "Reading a result".
- C. Five minutes, his own plan, a count to stop at. A needs his manager's approval, B is large, and D discloses the guess. Revisit Lesson 21, the checklist.
- D. A budget the manager decides is a system fact, not a neglected need or an instinct. Revisit Lesson 20, "Check for a system fact first".
- A. "No change" is a valid result, followed by a reasoned choice. B overreads two events, C claims a balance, and D waits for proof that will not come. Revisit Lesson 21.
If you had fewer than five of six right, re-read the lesson named for each item you missed, then try again.
Key takeaways
- An experiment card has a guess, one small step, why it is small and reversible, a stop condition, two named comparable events and records you can see.
- A step is small, reversible, inside your authority, free of disclosure and about work only. Concentration is not offered as a balance of any instinct.
- "No change", "worse", "cannot tell" and "no comparable event yet" are valid results. Keep, narrow or drop the guess, with a reason.
- The card is this course's own design. No source cited here tests it or shows that any step balances an instinct.
Sources
- Fauvre, K. C. with Fauvre, D. W. (2013) The 27 Tritypes Revealed, 7th edition (booklet). PDF page 12. It names no action; the steps in this lesson are not from Fauvre.
- The Enneagram Institute, How the Enneagram System Works, section "The Three Instincts" (read in a copy saved in October 2026). A keyword search of that section for "balance" found nothing.
- Riso, D. R. with Hudson, R. (1996) Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery (revised edition). Houghton Mifflin. PDF page 445, the description of being swept up, used here only to say that ordinary concentration is not that description.
- This course's own design: the experiment card, the checklist, the three kinds of small step, the reading of results, Record Checkpoint 5, the Module 5 checkpoint, and the cases of Bandar, Reham, Zaid, Wejdan, Fares, Layla, Anwar, Lubna and Osama (fictional). No source cited for this lesson gives a workplace procedure for balance or reports a tested result. That statement is about the sources cited, not about every source.