International Enneagram Association Podcast – Interview with Flemming Christensen – Enneagram Blind Type – Book about the Power of the Blind Type.
Introduction to the podcast on the International Enneagram Association Podcast
This is a transcription of the interview with Flemming Christensen by Seth Creekmore and Ahmad Morton on the International Enneagram Association Podcast. The conversation quickly moved beyond biography and background. It became a reflection on a life of practice, one shaped through business, loss, spiritual exploration, and a long engagement with the Enneagram. The episode explored how the Enneagram is not simply a classification system, but a mindset, a way of living, and a method for creating meaning in both professional and personal experiences.
Check out the online training about the power of your blind type
Over four decades, Flemming’s work has evolved from traditional consulting with a strong focus on tools and models into a more integrated approach. He described how his early success and productivity, characteristics that aligned with his experience of Enneagram Type 3, were gradually balanced by the lightness and creativity found in the point he least identified with, Enneagram Type 7. This discovery changed how he viewed relationships, leadership, and his own limitations.
The conversation also included reflections on how culture shapes Enneagram expression, the role of leaders in creating psychological safety, and the influence of Zen Buddhism in Flemming Christensen’s life and teaching. His story offers practical insights as well as deeper themes around identity, loss, and transformation.
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Listeners who use the Enneagram in teaching, therapy, coaching, leadership, or personal development might find this episode relevant. The dialogue between Flemming, Seth, and Ahmad is an invitation to see the Enneagram not as a fixed map, but as a way of being present with what life asks of us moment by moment.
Summary of this episode on the International Enneagram Association Podcast
Flemming Christensen began the conversation by recalling his early career. He started his own company at age 23, and within a few years, it had grown to include 60 consultants. The company culture was focused on performance, productivity, and ambition. At first, this worked well, but over time, people began to change. They got married, their values shifted, and Flemming found himself confused by the changes in motivation. Looking for guidance, he explored NLP and the Myers-Briggs system before encountering the Enneagram. It immediately felt different. Unlike other tools, it pointed not just to behavior, but to deeper motivation and the possibility of growth over time.
He shared how his understanding of the Enneagram deepened during the pandemic, when he created a new workshop structure based on Oscar Ichazo’s idea of points rather than types. Each session focused on one point, allowing participants to explore a wide range of qualities. During these sessions, some participants reacted strongly to specific points, saying they disliked certain qualities, even though they were not talking about people. This led Flemming to the idea of the blind type, the type whose qualities are hardest for us to access or appreciate.
For him, his blind type was Enneagram Type 7. As someone who identifies with Enneagram Type 3, he often dismissed the spontaneity and optimism of Type 7 as unserious or wasteful. But learning to value those qualities changed his approach to collaboration and softened his personal style, unlocking a stronger sense of awareness and empathy. He began to understand that the type we reject may contain exactly what we need.
The podcast episode on the International Enneagram Association Podcast also addressed how culture influences how types are expressed. Flemming described the Danish context, where values like equality and co-creation are central. In Denmark, leaders are not seen as above others but as part of a shared process. In other cultures, such as Egypt, the teacher holds a higher position, and challenging authority is less common. These cultural differences shape how the Enneagram is taught and received and how the Enneagram Life Theme® between the primary Enneagram Type and the Blind Enneagram Type is expressed in life.
The conversation also explored Flemming’s spiritual life, especially his connection to Zen Buddhism. He described how meditation and presence have helped him live through experiences of personal loss, including the deaths of his wife and sister. These practices taught him to hold opposites at once, such as life and death, connection and separation. Rather than try to resolve these tensions, he learned to live with them.
Over time, his understanding of the Enneagram has shifted. In the early years, he used it as a business tool. Now he also sees it as a mindset, a way of being, and a spiritual framework. He still uses it in organizational settings, where people need clear tools and models, but in his retreats and personal teaching, it has become something more. The Enneagram is now part of how he listens, relates, and meets and connects with the unknown.
Three key topics from the podcast
1. The blind type as a doorway to growth
A central idea in the conversation was the concept of the blind type. Flemming explained that most people focus on understanding their primary type, the one that drives most of their behavior and choices. But the blind type, the one we resist or reject, may hold just as much importance.
As someone oriented toward Enneagram Type 3, he had spent years focused on achievement and efficiency. He viewed playfulness as a threat to his identity. But when he began to explore the qualities of Type 7 with openness, he found something unexpected. Playfulness did not diminish his effectiveness; it expanded it. He became more collaborative, more relaxed, and more open to improvisation. The blind type became a space of discovery, not failure.
Flemming emphasized that we are not only our primary type. We carry all nine points within us, and the type that feels most foreign may be the one we need to embrace. The blind type is not just a shadow. It is a forgotten source of strength, waiting to be reclaimed.
2. Culture and psychological safety in leadership
Flemming shared reflections on how leadership must be adapted to culture. He described the Danish cultural values of equality, co-creation, and shared responsibility. These values shape how people relate to leadership, learning, and even Enneagram types. In Denmark, there is an expectation that everyone contributes and that teachers are not above students. This creates a natural foundation for psychological safety.
He contrasted the Danish model with what he had experienced in other countries. In some places, hierarchy is more accepted, and it is harder to challenge authority. In those settings, creating psychological safety requires extra care. Leaders must go beyond their instincts and learn new ways of relating. The Enneagram can help by making those dynamics visible and offering new choices, and the culture of a region or organization can also be expressed by having a blind Enneagram type.
3. From tool to mindset
Throughout the episode, Flemming returned to the idea that the Enneagram is more than a tool. When he first encountered it, he used it in his consulting work to improve communication, teamwork, and leadership. Clients appreciated its practical benefits. They saw it as a way to get results. Flemming developed clear models and processes to support this kind of work.
But over time, especially through experiences of loss and spiritual practice, his relationship with the Enneagram changed. He no longer saw it as a tool to be used, but as a mindset to live by. It became a way of seeing himself, others, and the unfolding of life. Meditation, Zen practice, and the study of Buddhist psychology helped him integrate the Enneagram more deeply into his way of being.
He still uses it in business contexts, where people need something concrete. But in retreats and personal settings, the Enneagram becomes a lens for presence, inquiry, and surrender. It helps people meet the moment without needing to control it. For Flemming, this is the deeper promise of the Enneagram. It is not about fixing ourselves, but about becoming more available to life.
Summary
Flemming Christensen’s discovery of the blind Enneagram type did not come from theory alone. It emerged through experience, reflection, and direct engagement with others in the learning process. During the global pandemic, when in-person workshops were no longer possible, Flemming developed a new kind of online training. Instead of focusing on personality types, the program was designed around the nine points of the Enneagram, exploring one point at a time across ten live sessions.
Each session offered participants the opportunity to encounter the essential qualities, fixed ideas, emotional patterns, and distortions of a single point. As people engaged with each point, they began to notice strong reactions – positive or negative – that had little to do with their known type. One person disliked the qualities of Point 1. Another resisted the joyfulness of Point 7. These reactions provided powerful clues. They revealed which points had been neglected or pushed away, not just in theory, but in the person’s everyday behavior and values.
This format created the conditions for Flemming’s own insight. As someone who identifies with Enneagram Type 3, he found himself dismissing the qualities of Point 7 as unproductive or frivolous. Through reflection and dialogue, he realized that those very qualities – lightness, curiosity, play – were not just missing from his life, they were actively avoided. Type 7, he realized, was his blind type.
Out of that realization grew the core idea behind Flemming’s ongoing teaching: that transformation does not only come from knowing one’s dominant type, but from exploring what has been unseen. His online program continues to offer this learning pathway, inviting participants to engage all nine points, recognize their resistance, and access parts of themselves that have long been hidden. In doing so, the Enneagram becomes not just a map of self, but a practice of wholeness.
Links
Find the book – The Enneagram and why your blind type matters – online
