Sources of Support: G5-Pentads

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield"

"Ulysses", Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Deploy Capability

If G4-relationships are mobilized and balanceis assured, you are in a good position to safely generate an initiative.

Initiatives may succeed or fail, and that is not under personal control. However, without an initiative nothing will happen. So this is where the specifics of attempting the impossible emerge. It follows that the two higher groupings can be expected to guide and strengthen initiatives.

Initiatives call for capability, which refers to both personal abilities and resources that you can command. Deploying capability can be enabled by adding an additional adjacent level to form 3 pentads.

Each pentad has a new qualifier that needs to fit with risking-L5. This is provisionally proposed as «reflective» in the sense of thinking deeply about a matter including a review of personal awareness and conclusions.

This means that each pentad that deploys capability must function reflectively and have g1-confident, g2-unequivocal, g3-explicit, g4-reliabe and g5-reflective components. The labeling of the pentads is as follows:

  • Support (G51)
  • Explore (G52)
  • Lead (G53)

The function of the pentads is proposed as: To take on a demanding responsibility that could change the situation.

Requirements: The initiative is based on your capability and therefore ownership is essential. To get an initiative going, decisiveness is required. Finally, given the responsibility, accountability must be accepted for whatever is done.

The pentads are all demanding but they reveal a progression upwards from an initiative that is relatively straightforward and can be minimal to an initiative that is socially complex and represents a significant intervention.

Dysfunction is evidenced by avoidance which may show up as deferral, evasiveness, procrastination. An initiative may get distorted or blocked due to external disruptions about which little can be done. Outsiders may spoil, sabotage or suppress worthwhile initiatives out of competitiveness, envy, dislike of change, or self-interest that disregards community needs.

Destructiveness shows up as blame-shifting that rejects taking responsibility or refuses accountability.

Function: as the basis for taxonomic identification.

Mishandling

Internal structure of the pentads, explaining absent levels as unnecessary.

Effect of Weakness of each of the internal levels.

Forms of Contribution

Support-G51

Function: To provide a tangible or intangible input that seeks to assist.

As part of any impossible attempt, support is essential and it can take numerous forms. Support involves engagement with recipients or some endeavour. If this goes well, the result is a welcome usefulness, but if it fails then the support is irrelevant.

Common conceptions of support are very thin: giving money, agreeing with someone, listening to a complaint, offering encouragement. But this is why so much support in ordinary life is ineffective or experienced as hollow: see the effects of weakness in particular levels below.

Mishandling: Support that is misdirected, self-aggrandizing, imposed or over-controlled.

Structure: Support is constituted by:

L1: Confidently trying, because while there is no certainty that the support will indeed assist, the approach must remain positive, and if one form of support does not help, then other forms can be attempted.

L2: Unequivocally believing that support is needed, that the recipient deserves support and that the form of support has value.

L3: Explicitly facing the situation and the needs so that the support can be explained and directly targeted.

L4: Reliably participating because support needs to be sustained and that means feeling or becoming part of the group,

L5:  Reflectively risking, because support may be counter-productive, may not be enough or may be rejected. The process and effects need to be observed, thought about and evaluated.

Unnecessary Levels Closed:

L6-Learning may well occur, but it is not intrinsic to supporting-G51which can use what knowledge is available. If something needs to be learned, then the person can do so via exploring-G52. If learning-L6 were a constitutive part of supporting-G51, then it would not be possible to support without acquiring new knowledge: but we know that this is not the case.

L7-Trusting is not necessary. Support carries risks and there is no need to assume it will be properly used or even welcomed for it to be provided.

ClosedEffect of Weakness

Explore-G52

Function: To enter the unknown to obtain knowledge that may be useful.

Exploration is an essential requirement when it appears impossible to remedy a painful or dangerous situation. Without willingly inquiring so as to appreciate details, it may be hard to identify weaknesses and opportunities.

The desired effect of exploring is to discover a breakthrough, but the risk is that it will lead to a sense of futility.

Mishandling: Exploration can be self-indulgent, wasteful of resources, or
impractical.

Structure: Exploring is constituted by:

L2: Confidently believing that what is sought exists and can be discovered: otherwise entering the unknown will not happen.

L3: Unequivocally facing the phenomenon to be explored and the resources to hand without illusions, because self-deception means failure.

L4: Explicitly participating because the process benefits from the support of others, some of whom may need to be actively involved. Also the findings may have group relevance and need to be accepted.

L5: Reliably risking, because there are numerous potential risks—physical, resource-based, reputational, opportunity costs—and these must be continuously appreciated and tolerated.

L6: Reflectively learning, because that is necessary to commence and guide exploration, as well as being the main goal of the process, and its effectiveness must be evaluated.

Unnecessary Levels Closed:

L1-Trying is not necessary or appropriate: exploring is a matter of doing.

L7-Trusting is not required because when exploring anything may emerge and it is understood that nothing of value may be found.

ClosedEffect of Weakness

Lead-G53

Function: To persuade others to follow a course for their own benefit.

Leadership involves convincing others to follow a course which is believed to be good for them and that will achieve something they desire, even if they may not be properly aware of this. The group coalesces around the leader's direction because the aim is to generate group success, even if the ultimate effect turns out to be group failure.

The group is likely to follow, but that is not guaranteed. Natural leaders are more likely to be successful than other types.

Mishandling: Leading that is presumptuous, manipulative or too controlling is likely to generate a negative reaction from others and fail to develop a following.

Structure: Leading is constituted by:

L3: Confidently facing because the leader needs to see reality clearly and not flinch from it in order to identify a viable direction.

L4: Unequivocally participating, which is about being part of the group and the group perceiving the leader as representing them and concerned about their well-being and success.

L5: Explicitly risking, because when setting a direction the leader must highlights potential gains, while revealing or implying dangers including the possibility of losses. Leaders publicly stake their judgement and, if they have miscalculated, a loss of reputation is likely.

L6: Reliably learning, because the leader must get into possession of necessary knowledge about the change, continue to learn as events unfold, and ensure that the inevitable mistakes become opportunities for learning.

L7: Reflectively trusting, because persuasiveness depends on the leader trusting that things will work out given the nature of the group, the situation, and processes as events evolve.

Unnecessary Levels Closed:

L1-Trying is not necessary or appropriate: leading is a matter of doing.

L2-Believing is what followers do: see G32. Leaders will probably have beliefs (e.g. in themselves, in their team about events), but this is not what makes them a leader or enables leading to be effective. Effectiveness depends on the configuration of higher levels operating together according to the qualifiers listed above. Beliefs will be particularly dangerous if they distort the reality that must be faced.

ClosedEffect of Weakness

ClosedSee Table Summary for Easier Comparison

In examining the tetrads, it was possible to identify level characteristics as follows:

  • g1 provides for initiation and ensures a foundation.

  • g2 involves principles and ensures integrity.

  • g3 focuses on engagement and ensures intensity.

  • g4 enables adaptability and ensures sustenance.

These formulations can be checked for the pentads: the reader is left to do this but the formulations are confirmed.

Now the nature of g5 must be formulated and here is a reminder of the findings from above:

In Support-G51, g5 is reflective risking, which is about accepting that support does not always help, and it is necessary to observe the process and effects to confirm whether the support is functioning as anticipated. If this is missing support will not get assessed and altered.

In Explore-G52, g5 is reflective learning, which is about checking that learning has indeed occurred as part of exploring as intended. If this is missing, exploration will misperceive what is encountered and fail to realize what knowledge is worth preserving

In Lead-G53, g5 is reflective trusting, which is about ensuring that the trust that things will work out given the nature of the group, the situation, and evolving events is appropriate and effective for persuasion. If this is missing, leading becomes over-controlling or hyper-anxious, which will alienate followers

Conclusion:

  • g5 provides for evaluation and ensures judgements. In its absence, the function is likely to suffer a breakdown.

The tetrads confirmed the presence of an oscillating pattern:

G1-hoping is a matter of personal assertion directed outwards to the socio-physical milieu.

G2-determination is directed inwards to oneself but dependent on confirmation from others.

G3-endurance is a matter of personal assertion directed outwards to the socio-physical milieu.

G4-relationships are directed inwards to oneself but dependent on social confirmation from others.

It therefore would be expected that:

G5-deploying capability will be a matter of personal assertion directed outwards to permit a contribution, and this appears to be the case. Supporting, exploring and leading all fit that description, and so oscillation is a definite characteristic of this framework.

Studies in the Architecture Room have determined a standard pattern for pressures in the groupings of structural hierarchies. These studies determined 1° pressures that are structural or identity-based.

The identified 1° pressure for G5 is acceptability. This applies here because a person will only deploy capability if it is acceptable personally and for others involved.

Recent studies in a structural hierarchy identified the presence of a 2° pressure related to operating a structure. That becomes evident when focusing on the groups within any grouping. The pressure driving use of the various G5-groups here—supporting, exploring, leading—should be well-being if it follows the standard pattern.

On reflection, that could fit because there will be a strong desire to provide relief and comfort: for the contribution to be welcomed, for exploration to be productive, and for leading to be gratifying.

Looking at the alternatives: ClosedPerformance seems possible; certaintywould neither be assumed nor expected; understanding seems inappropriate given the situation is open-ended; autonomy might seem possible but the situation plays too big a role; selflessness would interfere with these personally-driven functions,

Transition

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It turns out that it is possible to manifest idealsby adding an additional adjacent level to form hexads that reveal powerful sources of proficiency.

Originally posted: 12-Jun-2026.