Surrounded by Idiots – The Four Types of Human Behaviour (or, How to Understand those Who Cannot Be Understood) – Thomas Erikson

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ISBN: 978-1-78504-218-8

Verdict:👍👍

I enjoyed reading this book with its elaboration of the concepts that centre around the Dominance, Inducement, Submission and Analytics ability (DISA) system for human communication which the Author breaks into 4 Color Types (Red, Yellow, Blue & Green) and says that "behaviour.Its like a recipe - we need to understand all the ingredients before we bake the cake" p13

The book discusses the various behavioural traits of individuals which the author centers around a 4 square color model, with each color representing a specific trait and some behavioral patterns associated with the colors - here are some snippets;
The Quote "Only Dead Fish Go with the Flow" to describe Reds is classical where Reds are quick thinkers and one on long before everyone else.

 Yellows can be amusing, creative and elevate the mood regardless of who they are with        p64

"Greens are easy to hangout with..unfortunately they can be wishy-washy"                           p64

"the Analytical Blues are calm levelheaded and think before the speak"                                 p64

Several Classic quotes in the book e.g.;

"you have to adapt to people you meet.Good Communication is often matter of adapting to others" p127......"try and tune into the frequency of others and then adapt to them" p167
When it comes to group dynamics the author states :
“The Yellow comes up with the new Idea, The Red makes the decision, The Green has to do all the work and the Blue evaluates and makes sure the results are excellent.”   p191  

Chapter 19 - Voices fro the real world p231-255 didn't do it for me - just got the impression the author was giving himself a pat on the back - but the rest of the book is really worth investing some time and reading !

Below are two images from the inside covers of the book with the first showing the 4 domains of colours and the second showing the traits of the colors

                                  

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