This is going to be a short review. It's a book that can really help you conceptualise how people think and interact with the world.
No way of understanding people is foolproof. Whether you use Myers-Briggs, Astrology or this method, you will never really fully understand people. But the point raised by the book is that you should at least attempt to understand people before you judge them.
This book gave me a really interesting perspective and a new set of tools to use in my interpersonal relationships. It was really funny how much I identified with my own alignment. It raised a lot of my strengths and revealed a lot of my shortcomings. Especially in relation to work. I'm very much an ideas person and I'm very bad at being self-motivated and embarking on detailed tasks and taking the initiative with work related activities. In my own life, I'll passionately embark on projects, but I have to be coddled a bit to get the most out of me at work. Something I'll be working on.
Are we all surrounded by idiots? The answer is a pretty simple one. We're the idiots. A lot of our disagreements stem from misunderstanding and miscommunication. The people we interact with have their own ways of handling the world. It's always worth acknowledging our weaknesses and looking at other people's talents and trying to adopt better strategies.
I felt it lacked a little depth on the negatives. Most of these ways of understanding people try to focus on the positives. They do this because no reader wants to learn about their shortcomings. But I think it could have done with exploring them more. Not least for the reader's benefit, but also to help people understand how to work with other people's foibles.
The author is also quick to point out that people shift across the colours a lot. So a person might be half of two colours. Or a mix of three. Given the situation. The art to this framework is keeping an open mind about people and working with them in a way that allows them to be themselves and not judge them before you understand them a bit better.
A lot of reviews point out that this is not a new way of thinking. But I think if you read their reviews, it is pretty clear they just didn't like reading about themselves. You'll have a lot of people that don't enjoy being put into boxes. But the author is very clear to say that isn't the point. It's a tool. A framework. It doesn't mean you're violent if you're a red. It doesn't mean you're a bullshitter if you're a yellow. A pushover as a green. Or boring if you're a blue. If they stumble over the concept, I put that down to a stubborn attitude some people have and it is not a failure of the author. They're very careful to say that it's not about stuffing people into boxes, but about trying to approximately understand people and it's an ongoing process.
If you don't read this with an open mind, you're going to dislike it. Some people just don't enjoy labels and reject them aggressively. They're usually Reds and Yellows.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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