The last manager had sketched out some suggestions about how they could solve the task I’d given them, but every suggestion ended with a question mark. She needed more input, and it looked like she would have to ask for it. She was in trouble.
I continued on. In the last group, the Blue Group, the room was almost absurdly quiet. After sitting with them for three minutes without anyone uttering so much as a single word, I was seriously concerned. A lot of thought was happening under the surface, but there was no real communication taking place.
A woman was reading silently through the task with her lips moving. I asked if they needed help to get started. I got a few hesitant nods in reply. They soon began a very thorough deliberation. They would absolutely get to the bottom of things. It was obvious that they were on the right track, but on an extremely detailed level. They discussed for a long time what their plan of action should be.
I remember glancing furtively at the clock. Half the allotted time had passed, but they hadn’t produced anything concrete. Proposals had been put forward, but they’d been rejected by the others on a variety of technicalities. Every word was chosen carefully and the advantages and disadvantages weighed carefully. They were far more interested in doing things properly than in actually getting things done.
I left them to their fate and went back to the large conference room.
Before the allotted time was up, the Red Group arrived with triumphant grins. They congratulated one another for being the first back. They’d clearly won the test.
I had to go and fetch all the other groups. The Yellow Group was the slowest. I had to go back twice before they deigned to make an appearance. Two of them were talking on their phones, and the third guy only managed to recover after having some coffee and cake.
When all the groups had returned, I let them present their work.
The Red Group went triumphantly to the podium. They’d turned the task into a race. They were ready in thirty minutes, even though they had been given an hour. The rest of the time they’d spent phoning around to their coworkers, checking what they were doing with their time. It was a sound presentation, a well-organized structure, and properly thought out. But about thirty seconds into the report, it was clear that the Red Group had solved a completely different problem than what I’d given them. It wasn’t at all what I had asked for.
When I asked if they had actually read the instructions, they all began arguing. One of the men stated confidently that they’d adapted the task to reality. They’d done a brilliant job. He expected applause, but when the standing ovation didn’t materialize, the members of the group shrugged their shoulders and returned to their seats. A second after sitting down, the woman in the group began playing with her phone. A vital text message had to be sent immediately.
After that, it was the Yellow Group’s turn. This group consisted of three women and two men. All of them smiled and stood at the front. Who should begin? A brief deliberation took place before one of the women charmed her way to the podium. She quickly plunged into her topic, presenting the exciting discussions they’d had for the past hour. She spoke for a while about the whole thing being an inspirational exercise; she described how she was going to use the insights she’d gained when she returned to her work. Her presentation was very entertaining, and everyone laughed. I was also amused by the woman’s story, especially considering that it only had one purpose: to camouflage the fact that the group hadn’t solved the task. However, the Yellow Group did manage to get some applause, mostly due to the high entertainment value of their presentation.
Now it was time for the Green Group. It took a while to get everyone up to the podium. While the Yellow Group had squabbled about who was going first, the Green Group was anxious. “Do all of us go up?” “Who should present the report? Should I?” “Shouldn’t you do it?” At least half of the six participants looked as if they had a stomachache. Sure, this was the largest group but, nevertheless, they were all nervous.
No one took command. After a moment of low-key deliberations, one of the men began to speak. He faced the whiteboard most of the time. He talked softly, turning towards the members of his team for support. He was so subtle in his observations that the message was hopelessly lost. With growing desperation, he looked at his team for help.
When their presentation was over, not even the Green Group had solved the task, even though they had made more progress than the Yellow Group. I asked if everyone in the group was in agreement about the material that was presented.
The unfortunate spokesperson said that he thought that it was probably true that most of them were relatively in agreement. I asked the group, and they all nodded in unison. At least four of the participants in the group had grim faces, their arms crossed tightly around their bodies—body language that proclaimed they were far from agreeing with what had been said. One of the women looked resentfully at the spokesperson. But, by Jove, she was in agreement.
Finally, the Blue Group marched up in line and stood in alphabetical order, according to a prearranged agenda. Arne went through the instructions, revealing that there were several points that had made the task challenging. Among other things, he remarked on the sentence structure in the document that I had handed out—he spent most of the time explaining that it was better to say “advisor” rather than “adviser,” although both forms are technically correct—and pointed out no fewer than two additional grammatical errors, on the very first page.
Then it was Berit’s turn to go through the structure they had based their work on, after being interrupted twice by Arne, who believed that a few minor details needed to be clarified. When Kjell took over, they still weren’t even close to providing a solution to the problem. Stefan didn’t straighten out any issues, and when Yolanda finally announced they needed more time to finish the task properly, chaos erupted in the conference room.
The Red Group quickly branded the members of the Blue Group complete idiots, the Yellow Group felt it was the most boring thing they’d ever experienced, and the Green Group just suffered silently through the whole show.
Conclusions
The purpose of the whole exercise was to highlight that no group should be composed solely of individuals of the same type. Diversity is the only possible route. The best way to put a group of people together is by mixing different types of people. This is the only way to achieve decent dynamics in any group. This seems intuitive, but despite this, most of the organizations I have encountered fail on this fundamental requirement when they recruit people. Managers bring in new people who are just like themselves because they understand each other.
This book has been about explaining exactly why the groups in this example worked the way they did and giving you the tools to avoid similar problems in your own life. I hope that you found pleasure in reading it and joining in this exciting exploration of how people function, what makes them similar, and what makes them different. Because we are all different. If you keep your eyes open, you’ll find out exactly how different.
The rest is up to you.
The Answers to the Questions in Chapter 20
1. Two Yellows
2. Green with anyone
3. Red
4. Blue
5. Yellow
6. Blue
7. Blue
8. Blue
9. Red
10. Yellow
11. Green
12. Yellow
13. Red
14. Yellow
15. Red
16. Red
17. A mixture of all the colors
18. Yellow
19. Red
20. Red
21. Green
22. Blue
23. To this there is no given answer, as you might understand.
Further Reading
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. New York: Back Bay Books, 2007.
Conversation Transformation: Recognize and Overcome the 6 Most Destructive Commu
nication Patterns by Ben Benjamin, Amy Yeager, and Anita Simon. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2012.
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman. New York: Bantam, 2005.
Feel the Fear … and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. Numerous editions.
Get Your Sh*t Together: How to Stop Worrying About What You Should Do So You Can Finish What You Need to Do and Start Doing What You Want to Do by Sarah Knight. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2016.
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. New York: Gallery Books, 2004.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Numerous editions.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. New York: Harper Business, 2006.
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell. New York: Back Bay Books, 2011.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. New York: Broadway Books, 2013.
Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman. New York: Bantam, 2007.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey. Numerous editions.
The 10 Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make and How to Avoid Them: Simple and Sure Techniques for Gaining Greater Control of Your Life by Arthur Freeman. New York: William Morrow, 1993.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. New York: Random House, 2014.
The Ten Types of Human: A New Understanding of Who We Are, and Who We Can Be by Dexter Dias. London: Random House UK, 2017.
Types of Men by Eduard Spranger. Scottsdale, AZ: Target Training International, 2013.
Index
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
A
accuracy, Blues and
activity, Marston’s model and
adapting
behavior when meeting Blues
behavior when meeting Greens
behavior when meeting Reds
behavior when meeting Yellows
to Blue behavior
to Green behavior
overview of
to Red behavior
to Yellow behavior
aggression, Reds and
air
alcohol
ambition, Reds and
analytic ability
anger. See also Temperament
Reds and
approachability, Yellows and
assessment, quiz for
attitudes and approaches, overview of
Aztecs
B
bad news. See Feedback
balance, Greens and
behavior. See also Core behavior
causes of
defined
as toolbox
when meeting Blues
when meeting Greens
when meeting Reds
when meeting Yellows
black bile
blood
blood pressure
Blues
accuracy and
adapting to
behavior when meeting
body language of
caution and
combining with other colors
control and
criticism and
decision-making and
description of
details and
excuses and
feelings and
giving feedback to
helping with stress
as introverts
intuition and
lethargy and
listening and
logic and
mistakes and
modesty and
overview of
perception of by others
perception of by self
personal interaction and
pessimism and
preparation and
quality and
realism and
risks and
rules and
silence and
speed and
spontaneity and
stress factors for
stress responses of
teamwork example and
temperament of
trust and
body language
of Blues
gaze and
of Greens
hands and
head and face and
importance of
overview of
posture and
of Reds
territory and
of Yellows
Bonnstetter, Bill
boredom, Yellows and
bullying, Reds and
C
Carter, Jimmy
caution, Blues and
change
Greens and
Reds and
Yellows and
children, influences on
choleric behavior
Clark, Walter
Clinton, Bill
clutter, Yellows and
combinations
challenging
of colors within individuals
complementary
effective
natural
overview of
problematic
commitment, Greens and
communication. See also Body language
Blues and
Greens and
listeners and
written
Yellows and
company parties
competition, Reds and
compliance. See also DISA
conflict
Greens and
Reds and
Yellows and
control
Blues and
Reds and
cooperation
Greens and
Reds and
core behavior
as natural condition
origins of
core values, overview of
counterquestioning
creativity, Yellows and
criticism
Blues and
delivery of
Greens and
immunity to
Reds and
Yellows and
curiosity, Yellows and
D
deception
decision-making
Blues and
Reds and
Yellows and
DeGeneres, Ellen
details
Blues and
Reds and
Yellows and
diligence, Reds and
DISA (Dominance, Inducement, Submission, Analytic ability) system
language of
overview of
statistics on use of
disorganization, Yellows and
dominance. See also DISA
E
early adopters
earth
efficiency, Reds and
egocentrism, Yellows and
egotism
Reds and
Yellows and
Einstein, Albert
elements
Elisabeth, feedback from
emails
emotional intelligence (EI)
emotional quotient (EQ)
Emotions of Normal People (Marston)
empathy, Yellows and
energy
Reds and
Yellows and
engagement, Greens and
enthusiasm, Reds and
excitement, Yellows and
exclusion, Reds and
excuses, Blues and
F
face, body language and
fear, Greens and
feedback. See also Criticism
Blues and
delivery of
from Elisabeth
Greens and
from Håkan
from Helena
immunity to
Reds and
from Stefan
Yellows and
feelings, Blues and
fire
flattery, Yellows and
focus, Yellows and
fraud
friendship
Greens and
Yellows and
G
Gandhi, Mahatma
Gates, Bill
gaze, body language and
Gellberg, Sune
genetic factors
Greeks
Greens
adapting to
behavior when meeting
body language of
change and
collective good and
combining with other colors
commitment and
communication and
conflict and
criticism and
description of
engagement and
fear and
friendship and
giving feedback to
helping with stress
as introverts
kindness and
leadership and
listening and
loose ends and
mistakes and
overview of
passivity and
perception of by others
perception of by self
predictability and
relationships and
reliability and
repetition and
responsibility and
routine and
security and
speed and
spotlight and
stability and
stress factors for
stress responses of
teamwork and
teamwork example and
temperament of
thoughtfulness and
tolerance and
unknown and
group dynamics, overview of
gut feelings
Blues and
Yellows and
H
Håkan, feedback from
hands, body language and
handshakes
head, body language and
Helena, feedback from
Hippocrates
honesty, Reds and
humiliation, Yellows and
humoral pathology
I
impatience, Reds and
initiative, Reds and
inspiration. See also DISA
Surrounded by Idiots Page 25
