The Head-Centre Patterns: Five, Six and Seven

What you'll be able to do

• Describe Five, Six and Seven as Chestnut and Paes teach them, and separately as Riso and Hudson teach them.
• Say where each pattern's attention may go and one way it may show in a manager's week.
• Keep your card honest when a description sounds like caution, curiosity or a cheerful mood.
• Explain why this course does not teach every line of the books as something a manager can see.

One group, two names

Chestnut and Paes put Types 5, 6 and 7 in the head centre (PDF page 16). They say these types think and analyse, plan well and make sense of things, and can be too logical and too far from their feelings. Riso and Hudson call the same three types the Thinking Triad (PDF pages 26 and 45). They say the three share strengths and problems that involve thinking (PDF page 53). Two names and two descriptions for one grouping, so we keep them apart.

Type 5

• Chestnut and Paes. The passion is avarice and the virtue is nonattachment. Avarice here is not mainly about money, and nonattachment is not detachment (Lesson 8). The book lists patterns such as over-thinking, fear of connection, and withdrawing when there are "too many requests too often" (PDF pages 138 to 139). It asks whether making learning your first priority leads you to manage projects and relationships badly (PDF page 147).
• Riso and Hudson, "The Investigator". Their Key Motivations line says the type wants to be capable and competent, to master a body of knowledge, and to stay undisturbed by others (PDF page 187).
• Course summary (ours). Attention may go to conserving time and energy, and to understanding before acting. A possible manager hook: asking for more information when a decision is due, or holding back so that the team does not know when to bring a problem. A misuse risk: calling a quiet colleague "a Five".

Type 6

• Chestnut and Paes. The passion is fear and the virtue is courage. The book lists patterns such as needing to feel prepared, testing people and circumstances before trusting, and having problems with authority (PDF pages 166 to 167). It says a need to be prepared for the worst can mean you never finish getting ready. Its growth list includes taking on leadership without hesitating or hiding behind others (PDF page 172).
• Riso and Hudson, "The Loyalist". Their Key Motivations line says the type wants security, support and the approval of others, and wants to defend its beliefs (PDF page 230).
• Course summary (ours). Attention may go to risks and to what could go wrong. A possible manager hook: preparing so thoroughly for every risk that the decision comes late. A misuse risk: treating a team's caution, or a good question about risk, as a type.

Type 7

• Chestnut and Paes. The passion is gluttony and the virtue is sobriety. Gluttony here means a wish for variety and pleasure without limits, not only food; sobriety means satisfaction in focusing on one important thing (Lesson 8). The book lists patterns such as needing many options, focusing on pleasure, avoiding pain, and rationalising, which means finding good reasons for what you already want to do (PDF pages 194 to 195). Its awareness lists include keeping options open until the last minute and then abruptly backing out of commitments (PDF page 200), and a desire to share responsibility with others more than "(perhaps)" is warranted (PDF page 203).
• Riso and Hudson, "The Enthusiast". Their Key Motivations line says the type wants to be happy and satisfied, to have a wide variety of experiences and to keep options open (PDF page 274).
• Course summary (ours). Attention may go to options and pleasant plans. A possible manager hook: leaving a plan open so long that the team cannot prepare. A misuse risk: "that is how Sevens are", used to excuse a missed commitment.

What you can and cannot see

Some lines in the books describe inner states that no manager can observe. For example, Chestnut and Paes say a Five's self-sufficiency may arise from a fear of being ignored (PDF page 138), and they link a calm manner in this type to avarice (PDF page 143). You cannot see a fear in another person, and a quiet or calm colleague may be quiet or calm for many reasons. So this course does not teach such lines as facts about anyone. You use the descriptions only as questions about your own events.

Updating the card

Keep the five lines: Pattern, Fits, Does not fit, What would change my mind, and Revision. Add a block below your earlier blocks; do not erase them. Choose the pattern you doubt most, because Riso and Hudson warn that people tend to pick the type they would like to be (PDF page 58). "Not sure" is still a complete answer. If this work makes you distressed, stop and talk to a suitable professional; if anyone may be in danger now, use your workplace emergency process or local emergency services.

Worked example

Wael leads a six-person finance operations team. Here are three ways he could update his card. None is the "right" one.

An update that narrows.

• Pattern: "I am testing whether Pattern 6 helps explain some of my reactions."
• Fits: "I asked a supplier three times to confirm the same delivery date in writing before I told the team."
• Does not fit: "On Wednesday another supplier phoned with a problem, and I agreed a fix during the call."
• Revision: "Narrow. It may help explain how I check promises from outside the team, not how I answer a live call."

An update that drops.

• Pattern: "I am testing whether Pattern 5 helps explain some of my reactions."
• Fits: "For the third time this month I turned down the team lunch to finish a report alone."
• Does not fit: "On Thursday I joined the team lunch and stayed until the end."
• Revision: "Drop. The report was due, and Thursday shows I join when I have time."

An update that stays "not sure".

• Fits (maybe Pattern 7): "When asked to fix a date for the training day, I offered three dates and did not choose."
• Does not fit: "I fixed the audit date on the day I was asked."
• Revision: "Keep as a question. Two events are too few."

Your turn

Do this privately. Nobody collects or checks it.

Part 1. A supplied record. Rasha leads a logistics planning team. Here are four entries from her record. Update a card as if you were Rasha, in the first person.

• Sunday: Rasha agreed to run two training sessions in the same Wednesday slot. On Tuesday afternoon she told one of the two teams that she could not attend after all.
• Monday: before sending the new loading schedule, Rasha wrote a page of things that could go wrong with it. She sent the schedule at the time she had promised.
• Wednesday: a team member asked, "Can we change the order of the trucks?" Rasha said, "No. I decided on Monday and I will keep to it."
• Thursday: Rasha spent most of the afternoon reading a new safety standard. During that time she did not answer a short email from a team member about something else.

Choose one of Five, Six or Seven that the entries let you test, or write "not sure". Fill in the five lines. Then, for each of the three patterns, name one entry that may fit (or "nothing here to test yet") and one that does not fit or does not bear on it. Do not say why Rasha did anything.

Part 2. Your own card (private). Add a block to your own card. Test one of Five, Six or Seven, or write "not sure", with one event that fits, one that does not, and a Revision line.

Extra practice (optional)

A fifth entry: Friday, in a team meeting Rasha said she would take the next escalated customer complaint herself. She took one within the first hour, without a prepared list. Rewrite your Part 1 card: keep, narrow or drop, and why.

Knowledge check

Key takeaways

• Chestnut and Paes call Five, Six and Seven the head centre. Riso and Hudson call them the Thinking Triad. Their descriptions stay separate.
• Each pattern has an attention habit, a possible manager hook and a misuse risk. These are author descriptions and course summaries, not measurements.
• Some lines in the books describe inner states a manager cannot see. This course does not teach them as facts about anyone.
• Caution, curiosity and a cheerful mood are not patterns. Keep a contrary event and give a reason in the Revision line.
• Next, Lesson 12 looks at how a strength can become automatic.

Sources

• Chestnut, B. and Paes, U. (2021) The Enneagram Guide to Waking Up. Hampton Roads Publishing. PDF pages 16 (the head centre), 138 to 139 (Type 5 patterns, including the fear of being ignored, page 138), 143 (calm linked to avarice; not taught as fact), 147 (learning as a first priority), 166 to 167 (Type 6 patterns), 172 (leadership without hesitating or hiding behind others), 194 to 195 (Type 7 patterns, including rationalising), 200 (keeping options open until the last minute), 203 (sharing responsibility more than "(perhaps)" is warranted). Passion and virtue pairs: PDF pages 140 and 157 (Five), 168 and 185 (Six), 196, 209 and 214 (Seven). The printed page number is the PDF page minus 13.
• Riso, D. R. with Hudson, R. (1996) Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery (revised edition). Houghton Mifflin. PDF pages 26, 45 and 53 (the Thinking Triad), 58 (people tend to pick the type they would like to be), 186 (The Investigator), 229 (The Loyalist), 273 (The Enthusiast), 187, 230 and 274 (their Key Motivations lines). PDF page numbers are used because the printed pagination was not checked.
• Rules of this lesson that are ours, not the authors': the hypothesis card, its Revision line and the words keep, narrow and drop; choosing the pattern you doubt most; the course summaries, manager hooks and misuse risks; and the rule never to type a colleague. These are this course's design, not tested methods.
• Wael, Rasha and the model cards are this course's own fictional examples, not the authors'.