Monday, July 10, 2023

Thomas Erikson - Surrounded By Idiots (Penguin, 2019) ***


A gift from my daughter, possibly because I'm always complaining about the idiocy of people in politics, journalism, industry, unions, social services, in shops, public transport, sports, on the street or just anywhere. 

I am not sure if the gesture is an insult, a real attempt to educate me, or a joke, or possibly some of all this together. 

Erikson's book is an approach to classify people based on their temperament, giving colours to the four major categories. In reality all four are present in all of us, but not to the same degree, and the categories may differ depending on the context. 



I am not a behavioural scientist so it's hard to assess the value of Erikson's analysis, but I have come across it during my career in industry, and I am usually red/yellow/blue/green. The fine thing about Erikson's book is that he also describes how each behavioural type is seen by the others. The real value is to understand that you have to communicate in a very different way to people depending on their type. From a management perspective, your team should be in balance, with the different types present. 

No single colour is either positive or negative. They can be both as the picture below describes. 


I can only recommend that you do it for yourself. It will give you great insights into who you are and how you behave towards other people, and how they potentially see you. 




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