Ian Blei

Ian Blei is the Director of the Institute for Integral Enneagram Studies, President of Optimized Results, a premier consulting organization for over 25 years, and author of "Kind Ambition - Practical Steps to Achieve Success without Losing Your Soul." To understand the diversity and breadth of studies and disciplines that formed the foundation of this book, you need to understand the twisting path taken by its author.

Even as a child, Ian Blei saw things differently. He liked to solve jigsaw puzzles with the picture face down. How the pieces fit together was the most interesting part of the puzzle. In grammar school, his teachers did not appreciate his inquiring mind. This kid asked too many questions, and didn’t take the standard stories as facts. What was worse, he went home, did research, and came back to school with documentation. There were frequent trips to the vice principal's office. He often felt impatient to escape school, which felt like a slow-moving barge, so that he could get back to the real world and learn something. Independent Studies classes with more in-depth academic challenges were all that prevented Ian from leaving High School before graduating. Ian’s hero was Leonardo da Vinci, and he wanted to study everything from paleontology and cosmology, to music, art, and Shakespeare.

After graduating High School, Ian took some time away from conventional education, and began studying philosophy and physics (especially their intersection) while saving for college. Working in window display design, his jigsaw puzzle thinking allowed him to re-design processes that in turn brought the company huge returns. The seed was planted, and Ian began to see what was possible in the professional world.

At San Francisco State University, in the late 1970’s, he began putting together an eclectic mixture of coursework that would become over the next few years what was to be called Process Re-Engineering. This didn’t yet exist as a formal degree, so once again the background of Independent Studies and writing proposals for credits came forward, as he got his degree in Industrial Design/Engineering. Along the way, he patented a copolymer break-resistant drumstick, and an injection molding process that would emulate the acoustic properties of a wood drumstick, while playing guitar and drums in several S.F. bands.

Out in the business world, Ian found himself at odds with how things were done once again. The conventional criteria for decision-making seemed to be mired in company politics, hierarchy, and territory. The design and engineering approach was very involved in process and flow - getting things from Point A to Point B in the most efficient and economical way possible. Ian found that when he applied this approach, in conjunction with aspects of physics and chemistry (self-organizing systems) and social psychology (behavior and communication), he was able to achieve massive positive changes in organizations. These organizations ranged from Fortune 500 corporations to small retail shops to non-profits.

Throughout his work, he found that the overriding obstacle to implementation of improvements was human interaction. Although sufficient authority to enforce a process change resulted in major improvements, Ian wanted the people who would be impacted to be more involved and part of the process. This motivated him to return to his studies of philosophy, psychology, and communications, which in turn led him to the Enneagram.

Using the Enneagram for a system of understanding people’s ego structures and motivations opened the door to their communication styles. This in turn gave Ian a model for communicating directly to their individual motivations, which at last garnered participation in the design and implementation of process improvements. The consistent success of this process encouraged Ian to delve further into the Enneagram. The more philosophy, physics, and psychology he studied, the more the Enneagram seemed to fit the blend of all of them.

Ian used his “secret weapon” of the Enneagram for many years until one day in conversation with a friend, he illustrated the dynamics of his relationship with her in a diagram on paper. Using the premise that a relationship is a universal concept, (everything is in relationship to everything else) atoms coming together to form a molecule would be similar to people coming together to form a relationship. If you could describe the core characteristics of the atoms, you would have a good idea about the characteristics of the resulting molecule. The diagram was both simple and exceptionally accurate in explaining a myriad of relatively complex dynamics. His friend, who was a successful and respected psychologist was impressed enough to share this with her professional peers, and soon Ian was diagramming the relationships of numerous psychologists and their partners. There was no blame, no judgment, and no pathologizing involved in the process, so there was no resistance to understanding the truth.

Taking this concept further, Ian returned to the organizational application, realizing that a team was basically a large couple, and began utilizing and teaching the Enneagram overtly in business settings. Once again, the model proved remarkably successful, and people were able to connect with each other and communicate effectively, enhancing morale, productivity, and everything that the prior 25 years of consulting had been working toward.

“As George Gurdjieff, (who is credited with taking the Enneagram from an oral tradition to a written study) would point out, the Enneagram is more universally applicable than we will ever understand. And yet just the tip of this iceberg provides the schematics of our psyches, our communication, and our paths to spirituality and fulfillment.” – Ian Blei

Throughout his career in consulting and coaching, Ian has been active in San Francisco Small Business, chairing several committees including SF Chamber Business Alliance, SF Chamber Business Alliance Steering Committee, Small Office/Home Office Forum, Consultants Alliance for Information and Support, and the Logistics Committee for the SFSU Design Expo. He also sat on the Board of CryptoRights Foundation, Inc., a global non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the safety of Human Rights Workers through provided technology and security.

These days, Ian is focused on coaching, consulting, writing, and music, and is developing online coursework to enable more people to access their best selves, on their own schedules, and wherever they live.