FARMER NINE - APPETITE

They Said "Sounds Good" and Then Did Absolutely Nothing

Your request just doesn't fit anywhere in their day.

You sent your most reliable team member a message on Tuesday afternoon: "We need a full plan for next quarter. Think deeply about your long-term priorities and get back to me with a comprehensive roadmap. The sooner the better."

They replied "Sounds good!" within minutes. Wednesday passed. Thursday passed. Friday you followed up. "Hey — any progress on that roadmap?" They said they'd been busy but would get to it over the weekend. Monday came. Nothing.

They weren't lying. They genuinely intended to do it. But "think deeply about long-term priorities" has no edges. It doesn't connect to anything they're doing right now, today, at their desk. There's no first step, no time slot, no link to an existing routine. For a Farmer Nine, your request landed as an abstraction. And abstractions don't compete with the concrete, comfortable flow of the work already in front of them. Your message was unanchored.

The problem with generic communication

Most advice about workplace communication treats people as interchangeable. Write clearly. Be concise. Lead with empathy. These are fine defaults, and they fail constantly with specific people for specific reasons.

Personality science has mapped this for decades. The Enneagram identifies 27 distinct subtypes, each with a different instinctual drive that shapes how they filter, prioritize, and react to incoming messages. These are hardwired filters, running beneath conscious awareness, that determine whether your message lands or gets discarded before it's finished.

The Farmer Nine filters incoming messages through one question: can I do this without disrupting my current state of comfortable momentum? They're inertial. Objects in motion stay in motion, objects at rest stay at rest, and your message needs to work with the motion they're already in. Abstract requests, open-ended timelines, and multiple options create friction. Friction creates stalling. Stalling looks like agreement followed by silence.

Meet the Farmer Nine: "Appetite"

Instead of feeling an ongoing connection to their feelings, desires, and power, Farmer Nines focus on merging with physical comforts and routine activities, such as eating, sleeping, reading, or doing crossword puzzles. Farmer Nines are practical, concrete people who focus on everyday things rather than abstractions.

Comfort-merged attention. Their focus naturally flows toward the familiar, the routine, and the physically present. This pull is gravitational. New requests need to attach to existing habits or they float away. When you ask them to "start fresh" on something abstract, you're fighting gravity. When you say "after your 10 AM standup, do this one thing," you're using it.

Concrete over abstract. They process the world through tangible, everyday actions. "Think about Q3 priorities" is vapor. "Open the spreadsheet and fill in row one" is a task. The gap between those two sentences is the gap between action and inertia. They lack traction on anything without a physical, immediate shape.

Low-friction momentum. Once they're moving, they keep moving. The challenge is always the start. Anything that creates internal friction (urgency spikes, conflict framing, too many choices, emotional intensity) triggers a subtle but powerful shutdown, a stillness where the message gets acknowledged, mentally filed, and gently buried under whatever's already happening. Your job is to make starting easier than not starting.

5 ways you're losing them before you start

1. Abstract strategy talk. "Let's think about the big picture for next quarter." They heard syllables, not a task. Translate every idea into a concrete, physical action. What do they open? What do they type? Where do they send it? If you can't answer those questions, your request isn't ready for this person yet.

2. Too many options. "Here are six approaches we could take — pick whichever feels right." You just created a decision maze with no default path. The Farmer Nine will evaluate none of them and do nothing. Offer one recommended default plus one alternative at most. Choose for them, and give them permission to adjust.

3. Pressure and urgency. "This is urgent and I need it ASAP." Urgency freezes them. The gap between their current pace and your demanded pace creates internal friction, and friction produces passive resistance, not speed. Use calm, direct pacing. Give them a specific time ("by 2 PM today") rather than a stress signal ("ASAP").

4. Disruptive change without a bridge. "We're completely overhauling the workflow starting Monday." You just broke the routine that was carrying all their momentum. They'll nod, agree, and quietly continue doing things the old way for as long as possible. Sequence change through routine bridges: connect new steps to existing habits, phase the transition, and keep at least some of the familiar structure intact.

5. Vague asks with no first step. "Please make progress on this soon." Progress how? Starting where? At what time? Vague asks are an open invitation to procrastinate, because "soon" always means "after I finish what I'm already doing." State the exact first step and the exact time to do it. That's traction.

What they actually want to hear

The Farmer Nine needs a groove to slide into.

Try it out: FREE Communication Optimizer for Farmer Nines

Paste your draft message into your LLM, then paste the following prompt after it. The model will rewrite your message specifically for this subtype.

mode: communication_optimizer
target_subtype: FARMER_NINE
subtype_name: Appetite
instinct: self_preservation
core_drive: "maintain comfort and steadiness through routine concrete activity and low internal friction"
communication_stance: "low-friction,routine-linked,concrete,calm"
tone[4]:
  - simple over complex
  - practical over abstract
  - gentle over intense
  - steady over urgent
message_rules[6]:
  - lead with one practical action they can do now
  - tie requests to existing routines and habits
  - limit options to a small clear set
  - use concrete examples instead of abstraction
  - avoid abrupt urgency spikes and conflict framing
  - close with an easy next step and reminder cue
anti_patterns[5]{id,pattern,why_it_fails,fix}:
  1,abstract_strategy_talk,feels distant and disengaging,translate ideas into concrete actions
  2,too_many_options,creates inertia and drift,offer one default plus one alternative
  3,pressure_tactics,trigger shutdown or passive resistance,use calm direct pacing
  4,disruptive_change_jumps,break comfort-based momentum,sequence change through routine bridges
  5,vague_asks,invite procrastination,state exact first step and timing
few_shot[3]{id,generic,optimized}:
  1,"We need a full plan for next quarter.","Start with this one task today at 10 AM and we build from there."
  2,"Think deeply about your long-term priorities.","Choose one concrete priority for this week and schedule it now."
  3,"Please make progress soon.","Do step A after lunch today and send a one-line update."
quality_gate[4]:
  - every sentence should reduce friction to action
  - keep language concrete and routine-compatible
  - avoid emotional overload or abstract drift
  - end with one easy executable move
input_source: prior_thread_message

Twenty-seven subtypes. One message.

The Farmer Nine needs you to reduce friction and attach tasks to their existing rhythm. The Farmer Seven ("Keepers of the Castle") wants the opposite: more options, more speed, more opportunity density. The Hunter Four ("Competition") needs emotional intensity and challenge as fuel. Your calm, one-step message would land perfectly for the Nine, bore the Seven, and feel dismissively flat to the Four. Same request, three different operating systems.

Personalization determines whether your message gets read or discarded.

The managers who learn to match their requests to each person's momentum style will get consistent follow-through from people everyone else has written off as "slow." The difference is whether you gave them a starting point or a void.

They're waiting for a task shaped like something they can actually do, right now, with what's already in front of them.

It's why we're building Rally, communications automatically optimized for each person's instinctual profile. See how we do it: AI Smells Remover.