I had a scary thought the other day when I was at an annual general meeting of an association I’m involved with. Looking around at the organization, micro management of the meeting, pages and pages of agendas, the way everyone was dressed and many other clues, I realized that almost everyone in the room was very high Gold. While the meeting certainly went smoothly (it had better, with all the planning that went into it) it wasn’t much fun, there was no socializing, much interacting, exchange of ideas, or flexibility. In other words it was all Gold all the time.
While this group and field certainly attracts huge numbers of Gold members, I wonder how many other Colors would just be turned off from attending, or even getting into the field for that matter. Half way through the meeting I had a choice. I could start acting out as Orange and inject some energy, discussion and fun into the meeting, or I could leave quietly. Since the group certainly wouldn’t have appreciated the former, and I’m a Gold introvert…I was out of there.
While this is a Gold example, wouldn’t it apply in different ways just as much if it were exclusively made up of another Color? What would be missing and what would they have in spades?
What’s your office like? Chances are it’s a big rainbow of all the Colors from front-line staff through to management. I hope you stop every once in a while and really appreciate that. It’s what makes you successful as a team and such a value to your customers. Because, alone we certainly can’t be everything to everybody, when we’re actually specialists in our first or second Color.
Some of the biggest thrill I get is when corporations realize the power of Colors and see that their team is missing this Color or that, when social committees realize who’s missing, when teachers actually look for an opposite Color to team-teach with, or we all just realize how valuable our different friends of different Colors are to us and how one-dimensional our lives and offices would be if we were all the same first Color. It’s the reason I keep asking for your referrals to share the tools of Colors!