Can both tools be used with the same team?

Yes, and it is often worthwhile, provided they are introduced in this order. DISC first gives a shared vocabulary for how people communicate, usable straight away. The Enneagram comes next, once the team has built trust and wants to understand what lies behind the behaviour. Presenting both together from the outset mainly creates confusion.

Are these tools suitable for recruitment?

No. Neither DISC nor the Enneagram measures a skill or suitability for a job, and using them to select candidates misuses them. They help people understand themselves and work better together, in a setting where everyone takes part voluntarily and keeps control over what they share.

How long does it take to use them as a team?

One day is enough for DISC to become a shared language usable day to day. The Enneagram takes more: a first day lets people discover the nine types and identify their own, but its value mainly shows when it is revisited over time, for example as part of team coaching.

DISC or Enneagram: choosing a self-awareness tool

An executive committee decides to invest in self-awareness. One member came across DISC at a previous employer and recommends it. Another attended a course on the Enneagram and found it “far deeper”. The discussion turns into personal preference, and in the end the choice goes to whoever spoke last.

Yet the two tools are easy to tell apart, as long as you know what each one measures.

What DISC describes

DISC is concerned with behaviour. It describes how a person acts and communicates in a work setting: the pace at which they decide, their relationship to detail, their need to connect before getting down to business, how they react to pressure. These preferences group into four broad tendencies.

Its main strength is that it is observable. You can recognise a colleague’s preferences in a meeting and adjust how you present an idea to them. That is why DISC is quick to learn and can be used the next day, as in our course DISC and Driving Forces.

What the Enneagram describes

The Enneagram is concerned with motivation. It describes nine types, each organised around a core need and a fear, which explain why a person acts the way they do.

Two colleagues can behave in exactly the same way — decisive, impatient with detail — for opposite reasons: one wants to succeed, the other wants to avoid being controlled. They look alike in a meeting and respond to management in completely different ways. That is what the Enneagram makes visible, and what DISC does not show.

Choosing according to the problem

The right question is not “which is the best tool?” but “what is the team’s problem?”.

If the problem is friction — laborious meetings, repeated misunderstandings, colleagues who “don’t get each other” — start with DISC. Most friction comes down to different communication styles.

If the problem runs deeper — persistent tensions despite good intentions, unexplained loss of motivation, recurring conflicts — the Enneagram offers an insight that behaviour alone does not provide. It requires more time and trust, as in Know yourself to communicate and assert yourself better.

The mistake to avoid

The main risk is not choosing the wrong tool. It is turning a profile into a label: “that’s normal, he’s a red”, “she’s a type 6, she doubts everything”. At that point, the tool no longer helps people understand; it serves to excuse or to pigeonhole.

A profile is a starting point for a conversation, never a conclusion. That is the thread running through Know yourself to communicate and assert yourself better, where the work focuses on the team’s real situations rather than on the typologies themselves.