Surrounded by idiots - Book

This book made me realize just how no colour, system or individual is perfect. Those 4 colours define 4 different personalities and each colour has its strengths and weaknesses.

Let's say we bought 4 bookshelves and gave them to 4 persons :

🔴 R : Opened the box, threw the guide away and started to open the screws' plastics and put the panels one on the other randomly. He spent 30 minutes figuring out where every screw goes just to finally realize that he didn't have all the required tools to finish the work. He got upset and went looking for any sharp tool to get the work done. He finished putting the pieces together in about 45 minutes. The result wasn't too fascinating but acceptable although many pieces were left on the floor and everywhere. He pretended that those extra pieces were just there and aren't necessarily used in the process, so he threw them in the trash.

🟡 Y : Received the box, took a picture of it and sent it to her friends. She asked them to come over and snap her out of it. They all came except for one of her friends who was busy. When she figured out that one of her friends is missing, she made a story out of it and started talking about everything but the bookshelf. After 3 hours of gossiping around, she remembered that she has invited them to help her unbox the bookshelf and build it. She took another 2 hours to put the bookshelf together. Talking, laughing, drinking and watching TV in the process didn't help make her work faster so she spent more than 4 hours to build this furniture. She wrecked a couple of pieces because she wasn't careful and made a joke of it. Even if the bookshelf looked a little bit slant, she was fine with it.

🟢 G : Once he saw the bookshelf box, he was like "Oh no! Not me. For God sake! I don't want to do this 😖 ". Then go and put the box in a corner for later. 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks... His wife started getting pissed because of his postponing habit that is actually annoying. Whenever she asked him to make an effort and unbox the bookshelf, he triggered an argument and got sensitive then went to a calm corner & read a book. Finally, it was his wife who managed to assemble the bookshelf herself.

🔵 B : She unboxed the bookshelf carefully in order not to scratch any piece or cut any corner of the guide. First of all, she took the guide and read every line of it: from specs to dimensions to different pieces to the final shape. After that, she started regrouping the items : screws in one corner, planks in another, ranked the tools she'll be using and rewinded to page 1 on the guide so that she can start building. She was slow and precise in what she was doing, she even had a pencil to mark the sensitive spots and important holes. She took a long time building the bookshelf but she did it well and final result : it looked as perfect as the one in the advertising picture.

None of the 4 characters is bad or idiot. They're just different.

A person can hold more than 1 colour. Actually, most people are a mix of 2 colours, some are made of 3 colours but a person can't hold the 4 o f them.

📜 Passages/Quotes from the Book

General

📌 A wise person once said: "just because you're right, I don't have to be wrong"

📌 Whatever people's judgment of me may be, that is the way they perceive me. Regardless of what I really meant or intended. As always, it's all about self-awareness . Good qualities can become drawbacks in the wrong circumstances, no matter what the quality is.

📌 🔴 means fast; 🔵 means high quality in implementation.

📌 "Body language" refers to all forms of nonverbal communication, conscious as well as unconscious.

📌 " If you agree with me, then you're intelligent. However, if you don't agree with me, then you're clearly and undoubtedly an idiot "

📌 I was often stuck by the fact that people who appear to be very intelligent could, at the same time, be such complete idiots.

📌 If you think you can change everyone else, you'll be very disappointed. It would surprise me if you could change anyone at all.

📌 When 🔴s ask what, 🟡s wonder who. When 🔵s ask why, 🟢s want to know how.

📌 When we talk about stress, we often mean the feeling of having too much to do and too little time to do it. [...] Pressure, demands, and expectations create stress and can make you feel self-critical and powerless.

🔴🔴 REDS

📌 Expect that the 🔴 - man or woman - will grip a little bit harder to show who's in charge.

📌 If they have to wait too long to speak, they'll throw themselves into the conversation with a loud voice & simply take over.

📌 If a 🔴 senses that you're uncertain, you'll be grilled on the facts.

📌 When a 🔴 feels that you've left the agenda altogether and are beginning to fiddle-faddle, then conflict isn't that far off.

📌 For a 🔴, "speed" will be synchronous with "efficiency".

📌 He's not here to chat or make friends. He's here to do business.

📌 Don't flatter a 🔴 if you don't know him well. Just leave the compliments at home.

📌 Many people back off in the face of this behaviour.

📌 If he doesn't respect you, he'll eat you alive. And walk over you again and again and again and again until you become completely & totally marginalized.

📌 Don't expect lots of glowing and pleasant praise.

📌 For them, the destination will always be more important than the journey, so 🔴s will do just about anything to achieve the desired results.

📌 Many 🔴s actively search for risky situations just for the thrill of it.

📌 "I'm not here to be your Pal. Or anyone else's for that matter".

📌 A 🔴 won't dress things up. He gets straight to the point.

📌 Character : DOMINANT | Pushy; Strict; Strong-Willed; Tough; Ambitious; Determined; Hard; Effective; Independent.

🟡🟡 YELLOWS

📌 A 🟡 dares to go beyond the usual conventions when he's creative.

📌 Finishing anything 100 percent requires an ability to concentrate that a 🟡 rarely possesses. He gets tired and moves on. And so we think that he's careless. He thinks that his work is good enough.

📌 Open book.

📌 They're with you either 100% or not at all.

📌 These are 🟡s whose mouths simply can't keep up with everything they have to say.

📌 "No problem - that won't take long at all"

📌 [...] you should expect that you've said [to them] has gone in one ear and out the other.

📌 Character : INSPIRING | Manipulative ; Inspiring ; Hot-tempered ; Stimulating ; Undisciplined ; Enthusiastic ; Counteractive ; Dramatic, Egotistic ; Outgoing.

🔵🔵 BLUES

📌 I would say that a fair number of engineers have a distinct 🔵 traits.

📌 🔵 = Silence is Golden.

📌 🔵s are the calm, stable individuals the Aztecs equated with the sea, the element of water.

📌 "Introverted" is not silent; it means active in the inner world. But the effect of this is often quiet.

📌 Sitting in a corner and not being seen or heard makes no difference to them [🔵]

📌 According to 🔵's values [...] if you have nothing to say - keep quiet.

📌 Good enough is not never really good enough.

📌 "I don't really know you, so keep your distance."

📌 A 🔵 doesn't like small talk. [...] He likes being in his own and with immediate family.

📌 "The only thing I can trust is myself and my own eyes"

📌 Let me remind you again that a 🔵 is an introvert, which is to say, most of his emotions simply operate beneath the surface.

📌 🔵s normally look others straight in the eyes. They have no problem with eye contact, even if it makes others uncomfortable.

📌 Speed is of no interest.

📌 🔵 customers don't ask questions to find things out; they ask to confirm what they already know.

📌 Quality is what drives a 🔵

📌 [...] "careful control", "properly inspected", "the importance of quality"

📌 "We must stay on track or we'll miss our next deadline".

📌 "She's not normal. She doesn't have any feelings in her body."

📌 A lot of thought was happening under the surface, but there was no real communication taking place.

📌 Character : ANALYTICAL | Critical ; Diligent ; Indecisive ; Thoughtful ; Narrow-Minded ; Serious-Persistent ; Fastidious ; Demanding ; Moralizing ; Methodical.

🟢🟢 GREENS

📌 In general, 🟢s always expect the worst & therefore tend to lie low.

📌 They're satisfied with doing nothing.

📌 "I've never been so upset, but for God's sake. Don't say anything to anyone".

📌 We all have things we're anxious about; a 🟢 just has more of them.

📌 He won't be happy if you're constantly coming up with new things to do.

📌 I've met 🟢s whose efforts to avoid work cost them more energy than actually doing the work.

📌 He [🟢] does need to be allowed to do a reasonable amount of -nothing.

📌 🟢s have a tendency to blame everything and everyone but themselves.

📌 They made a decision not to make any decisions.

📌 Character : STABLE | Stubborn ; Supportive ; Uncertain ; Respectful ; Compliant ; Obliging ; Dependent ; Reliable ; Awkward ; Pleasant.