Don Riso
Don is an Enneagram writer, teacher, and one of the main developers of the modern Enneagram. He has an MA in communication / social science from Stanford as a Ford Foundation Fellow, and was a Jesuit seminarian for 13 years. He has been working full time developing the Enneagram since September,1975, writing 5 best selling books, numerous tests and other applications of the Enneagram (such as the RHETI questionnaire) which have become “the standard” around the world. In 1977, he discovered the Levels of Development, the nine internal strata which form the logical “backbone” of each type. He met Russ Hudson in 1988 and invited him to be his teaching and writing partner, which they have been since 1991. Together they have trained well over 2,000 students around the world.
I had been thinking about how to apply the Levels of Development to groups and organizations for some time. After a couple of years of thinking about the challenge of describing groups from a “horizontal” point of view across all nine types, one day I simply sat down and started to write what would become the TOLAT. Other Surveys soon followed as they seem to be “downloaded” from some unconscious or more objective place. But it was not until word of this test got to Monika Adelfang (and her colleagues Barry and Joni)—and they let me know of their interest in it—that things started to happen. I immediately asked Joyce and Russ to join the effort, and this team of incredibly intelligent, dedicated, good humored, hard working people of vision and heart was formed.
For me, the Nine Domains Approach is, from one point of view, simply another practical development and application of the Enneagram—something I have been doing for over 35 years. But it became apparent that there was something special about this work, a kind of “homecoming” for the Enneagram to its archetypal, universal roots. I believe that the Nine Domains can revitalize the Enneagram field as a whole. It can reorient both thinking and practice away from a simplistic, one-dimensional view of personality to a more holistic and systemic approach. Of course, I hope it will be helpful to many in the on-goiing struggle to understand themselves and each other in many different contexts.