Book Review : Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson
Surrounded by Idiots: How to Understand Those Who Cannot Be Understood by Thomas Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An extremely well written, informative and entertaining book.
Thomas Erikson takes you through a fascinating insight into how we can try to understand human behaviour and interaction – not some new age psycho babble theory but some real insightful observations, which if you’ve been paying any attention at all in your life, you will recognise and be able to use in a practical way.
The observation of the 4 broad categories of human behaviour he presents isn’t new and was 1st postulated in 1928 by William Moulton Marston in his seminal work “Emotions of Normal People” – but even that was based on earlier real life observations going back as far as the Ancient Greek Hippocrates (4th Century BC).
Marston’s observations led to the more common DISC categorisation (Dominant ~ Red / Inspirational ~ Yellow / Stable ~ Green / Compliance ~ Blue) which has been slightly modified by Erikson to DISA (C swapped for A ~ Analytical)
In Summary
I’m a Blue/Red so …
=>An analysis and categorisation of chaotic human beings – blue heaven !
=>After a lifetime of being surrounded by idiots, people are a starting to seem a bit less idiotic to me ~ but that’s the red in me
To understand this you’ll need to read the book ! 🙂
Book Synopsis
‘Official’ Book Description
A runaway bestseller in Sweden that has sold more than a million copies worldwide, Surrounded by Idiots shares a simple, revolutionary method of understanding the people around you that will change how you interact with everyone from your coworkers to your spouse.
Author Thomas Erikson explains that there are four key behavior types that define how we interact with and perceive the people around us. Understanding someone’s pattern of behavior is the key to successful communication. The so-called “idiots” in our lives are most often simply people who have a different behavior profile and style of communication.
Erikson breaks down the four kinds of behavior types–Reds who are dominant and commanding, Yellows who are social and optimistic, Greens who are laid back and friendly, and Blues who are analytical and precise–and explains how to identify and interact with each type of person. Instead of being bogged down with overly technical categorizations, the simple four-color system allows you to speedily identify a friend or coworker and adjust how you speak and share with them.
Surrounded by Idiots is full of practical information for interacting with people based on their color, including the strengths and weaknesses of all the profiles, how to give positive and negative feedback to each, and the best way to word an email when writing to someone with a different profile.
