Why do we think, feel or act as we do? What motivates us? Could there be a tool to understand human motivation?

If motivation is one of the most fascinating areas of human enquiry, the Enneagram can be seen as a useful tool to understand why we do what we do.

If in the world of work, we understood why we and other people reacted in certain ways to different things, we could better harness people's talents, and the workplace could be more typified by positive, free and creative effort rather than negative, compulsive reactions.

Believed to have originated in the Middle East some 2,000 years ago, the Enneagram offers insight into human motivation.

Self-knowledge is a dangerous thing. Workplaces where workers have to do monotonous tasks might balk at the notion of workers increasing self-awareness. If workers realised their untapped talents and potential, some people engaged in work that didn't fulfil their potential might leave. According to Mr Aidan Hart, a retired school inspector who recently gave a weekend on the Enneagram at Bellinter House in Co Meath, the Enneagram can help people discover types of work in which they will find fulfilment.

While the Enneagram is "basically a spiritual tool", it is also a relationship and management tool. Managers familiar with the Enneagram can use it to tap into workers' strengths rather than their weaknesses, he says. "It can give deeper and wider perspectives into relationships at home and at work."

One person spends hours working too long and too hard. Another loses no sleep over a missed comma. One person works long and late to be top dog. Another thinks life is too important to be taken seriously and prefers to play, joke and have fun. One person is loyal to the point of abandoning their critical faculty. Another is critical to the neglect of harmony with others.

The Enneagram presents nine basic personality "types". It suggests that each person is predominantly characterised by the madness or obsession of one of these types. The hardest thing can be to discover which of the nine "types" one belongs to. But arrange a group of people in a room according to their "type" and even the greatest doubter in the Enneagram can be impressed.

However, it can be difficult to decide which "type" you are. People of different types will behave in identical ways. But the Enneagram is a motivational tool. Only the individual can say why it is they do as they do. So only the individual can know what "type" they belong to.

When I was first introduced to the Enneagram I was both appalled and excited. Appalled because it suggests that whatever motivates us, even the apparently virtuous, can in fact be its opposite: a vice. The obsessive helper might be helpful because they exult in being helpful. They need - ironically enough - to be helpful more than the person helped needs to be helped.

I was excited because it is a wonderful tool for self-knowledge. Once you recognise what hook you're on, you can, based on self-knowledge, get off the hook. You can choose not to act out of the obsession.

So the perfectionist can spot the folly of perfectionism - recognise it as a vice - stop working and take time out to play. Or the compulsive comic - ever- optimistic, life and soul of the party - can permit themselves to grieve for a lost friend or loved one.

A business attuned to the real lives and motivations of workers and customers will have a much greater chance of thriving than one that ignores motivation.

A tool such as the Enneagram can help employers and workers to know themselves, know what makes them tick and so better understand each other's perspectives. Understanding ourselves and our differences, we are more likely to see the bigger picture. We will be less likely to act out of our obsessions and more inclined to become self-aware and make better choices.

The Enneagram can help you to deal with conflict in the workplace and inner conflict. It can help individuals and groups to function better and be less obsessive and negative. It can help each of us to know ourselves better and become freer of the obsessions that could otherwise prove detrimental to ourselves and others. [SBX]

Details of future Enneagram workshops conducted by Mr Aidan Hart are available by contacting Bellinter House, Bellinter, Co Meath. Telephone: 046 21241. E-mail: bellinter@eircom.net jmarms@irish-times.ie