Agile-Lean Ireland (ALI) Podcast

Colourful Connections – harnessing personality colours for team performance with Lou Mills - Agile-Lean Ireland

Agile-Lean Ireland Episode 35

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In the realm of team dynamics, understanding behavioural preference is paramount. Enter the world of personality colours: Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green. Each color provides a lens to view not just individual motivations and strengths, but also how they interplay in a team setting.

Red personalities, with their assertiveness and drive, often lead the charge, setting the pace and direction. They thrive on challenges and are quick decision-makers.

Blue personalities, meticulous and thoughtful, ensure that every detail is considered, making them invaluable in planning and execution phases. Their analytical nature complements the Reds by providing depth and structure.

Yellow personalities infuse teams with creativity and enthusiasm. Their adaptability and spontaneous nature can spark innovation, making them crucial during brainstorming sessions or when a fresh perspective is needed.

Meanwhile, Green personalities, with their nurturing and harmonious nature, play the role of team glue. They ensure cohesion, mediate conflicts, and provide the emotional support that teams often need during stressful times.

We all have all four energies within us, simply in different orders of preference. By recognizing and valuing these colour personalities, teams can optimize collaboration. Leaders can assign roles that play to each member's strengths, ensuring not just task completion, but also team harmony. This talk will delve into the practical applications of personality colours in team settings, offering insights on building resilient, harmonious, and high-performing teams through the power of understanding.


Find us here: www.agileleanireland.org

So welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us today and my name is Claudia, and I'll be your host for today's session. And as it's a community based and self organised need to please mute yourself, uh, you can turn on the video if you want. Just please be aware the meeting will be recorded as we would like to convert it later. Into podcast so and your face definitely won't be visible, but just just saying. OK then you don't want to be recorded. OK, so both for the Edu and today we're diving into something very interesting and how different personalities in a team can have a big impact on. How the team works together and our speaker near Mills is a true expert in the subject. She's been working in the field of helping people get better at their jobs for more than two decades. And she's going to share some great insights with us, and we'll be talking about four personality types, red, blue, yellow and green. Each of these has its unique strength and strengths, and knowing how to work with them can make. And our team perform even better. And Lou is an expert in leadership team development, coaching. She's all about helping people be the best they can and she's going to show us how to do just that in. Our teens. And so get ready to learn and be inspired. And who is here to help us understand how to make our team? Stronger and walk together. Smoothly. OK. We offer to you.

Thank you, Claudia. Thank you for that lovely introduction there. I hope I can reach the stunted that you've suggested there, but good evening, everybody, and welcome to today's session, which is colourful connections all about embracing behavioural diversity. In the hopes that this will not only. Improve our own one on. One relationships, but also enhance team performance as well. Everything OK? I could just hear a voice over the shop of mine. Let me talk to you about what? I hope to cover today. We are only here for 40 minutes, so I will do my best to share as much in a comprehensive way as I can so that the things that you do take away you can understand and reference back to at a later date. But I'm sharing a particular tool with you today, which is known as the Insights discovery tool, and it is one of a number of psychometrics. That are out. There in the field of learning and development, and I'm sure many of you who are on today's session, are either familiar with insights itself or potentially familiar with other psychometrics. So if I name a few of those, I say for instance, Myers, bro. Indicators people probably familiar with that, that's where you get your 4 letters, your ENTJ, etcetera. Some people are familiar with the disc profile tool as well. When you're ad and I and S or AC, there's we're still learning social styles. There's lots of things as well as team ones such as Belbin team roles. And team management system. So lots of different things out there. The good thing to know. Is that the majority of those psychometrics are based on the same behavioural theory, and those are the behavioural theories of Carl Jung. So he actually was one of The Pioneers, I suppose in the 20th century, in looking at, you know, what were our natural tendencies? What were our common ground in terms of our behaviours and maybe there were patterns to those things as well? So in terms of the tool that we're going to have. A look at today. It is my favourite. I am qualified in other tools, but this one I've been using now for over 15 years and I really do love it and the organisations that I've worked with have really got some great stuff happening as a result of choosing to use the tool. So today we're going to explore some key components. Both the first one. Being all about. Perception everything we think about in the space of behavioural preferences is to do with our own perceptions. And the key thing is to recognising that and actually recognising the limitations that come with that and maybe how mindful we need to be around our own preferences. In our concept. Then we'll talk about full colour energies. We'll break those down and hopefully I'll give you a few exercises where you yourself can have a look at maybe where might you be coming out in terms of your own preferences and that will be underpinned by Carl Jungs three sets of. Dual preferences that we're going. To take a look at. I'm also going to do a quick, you know, clue recognition. So if you were to try and figure out what is somebody's highest behavioural preferences, top behavioural. What might you have a look at? And then I'm going to suggest some other ways in which you can use the insights suite of tools. So without further ado, let's get cracking. So insights Discovery, I've already said it is a psychometric, but there are some key things to note about it. So I'm thinking about what is it and what isn't it, if you like. So actually saying here is considering how our behavioural preferences impact on our interactions with others and it helps us to learn to value those differences so that we can really think about and use to our own benefit to our value the really comprehensive. Diversity that we have within our teams and the idea being that once we understand that once we recognise people's preferences, we can start to adapt our own behaviour to be a bit more versatile with our behaviours or flexible in order to connect better with others. One of the key things to notice it does not measure our competencies. So you'll see here that inner sites it's actually made-up of four different colour energies, even if one of those is low for you, that does not mean that you cannot do those things. It actually means that you choose to do. Others more readily. OK, so it's never about competence. And another important thing as well, which I know some people, when they look at psychometrics, they may be a little bit cynical or perhaps a little. It umm, not quite sure about this. The key thing is it's not an attempt to label us or in fact to put us in a box. So what you will find is with the insights tool, although we begin with just four colours, when you yourself get profiled, actually you can be one of 72. Different types and even if we are standing in the same space often what we find, and I've seen this frequently in the training room, two people will be in the exact same space and they'll be looking at each other as if. You know, what are you doing here? Because I don't see that similarity between the two of us. So it's really diverse in terms of how we approach and look at behaviour. So hopefully that has allayed any concerns that you may have in that space. So I'm not going to avoid you to come on to the mic with me, but I am going to do. Just a few exercises to keep you busy that you can do either in your head or on a piece of paper. So have a look at this picture. Have a think about what are you seeing here. And this picture has been around for some years now. It was published originally in Punch Magazine in the very early 1900s, and in the moment I'll tell. You what? It was used for? But another question I'm going to ask. You is. What age do you think this person is in this particular picture? And now I'm going to show you something different. Now what about now? Do you still see the same thing? So actually what we have here, we have two women in this picture, one who is and I'm probably showing my age here. But I always. Describe her as rather. Audrey Hepburn Esque and she's looking over her shoulder. This actually has a necklace around her. Neckline she's in a fur coat. You can see her ear. She has a feather in her hat and and her little nose. And her eyelashes are just showing. And then you have a much older lady. Huddled into her coat, you can see her chin going down into her coat and her mouth. She does have rather a large nose and that large nose would have previously formed the jawline of the younger lady and actually the ear of the younger lady is now the. Eye of the older lady, so I'd be interested to know how many of you can see young. How many of you can see old? How many of you are seeing both? And what can sometimes happen? Is that we see one we. All of a sudden. We capture the 2nd, but then it's. Gone and we try and look again and we find it and we hold it for a moment, but then it disappears again. And what can be interesting is if we go away and then we see this picture again. Do we first see what we saw first? The original time. So what is this picture used for? Well, it's really used to demonstrate that a number of people can be looking at the same thing and yet interpret that in many different ways. So not so much if you think about, you know, if a police were called to say a road traffic incident and there were a number of people, witnesses, observers to that incident, the salient points, the factual things, would probably be very similar amongst. All those with. Says, but actually how they had interpreted what was happening here and the meaning that they had given it would be unique across those individuals. So this is what this actual picture is used to demonstrate, if you like. So I'm just going to throw a bit of a quote up on screen there. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are and what we're saying here and it's it's a key thing for understanding this behavioural to. All is that when it comes to our perception that perception is gained in a very unique way, and we often talk about having a unique lens through which we view the world through which we view our relationships, the individuals that we meet from time to time. Never lends if you like, that perception that we have formed will come from lots of different. Horses. So it will come from our upbringing. So who were the most influential people in our lives as we aged as we grew? Who told us right from wrong? Who helped us to understand what our principles were? And our values. Uh, maybe that's to do with our ethnicity. Maybe that's to do with our religion. Maybe that's to do with our culture, all those different things will have played a part, but also our own experiences as well. So when we come into contact with certain people, what have we picked up? What have we taken away? It's interesting to know, and this is the you know, for me this is quite an eye opening fact that within 90, sorry, within 9 seconds we will have judged 90% of a person in terms of first impressions. So 9 seconds to make up our mind. About 90% of what is in front of us. That's an eye opening figure, isn't it? And it really gives a caution around how much of that is factual and how much of that has come from our own very unique brands. So we always have to bear this in mind when we look at this idea of behavioural preferences. What I see may be very different to. What you say? But then if we get curious rather than judgmental, that opens up a world of communication and a world of understanding for. So let's now. Start to have a look at some of the ways in which these behavioural preferences differ. I've thrown a lot of words up on screen. What I'd like you to do if you. Can is grab. Six of them. That means something for you. So do they describe you? Are you? Some one who would say was purposeful. Are you someone who's decisive? Maybe you're a bit of a daredevil. Maybe you're somebody who's very determined. Or are you the persuasive type? Are you good at influencing others? Are you very sociable and amenable? Would others talk about you as being reliable? As being caring, maybe somebody who exhibits A calming influence. Over of us. Or would you be seen as somebody who is very objective, very factual? Very correct. So I've just given you a few moments there to grab some words. Now I'm going to show you the colour version of those words and what I'd like you to do is just note down what are the colours of the words that you have chosen and potentially put them in order. So what have I got most of and my words mostly blue? Are my words mostly green et cetera et cetera. Or it may be that actually you've been you've chosen all four different colours in those words that you've chosen. So just just have a moment again just to make. Notes of the different colours of the. Words that you've chosen. And now that you see them on screen in those different colours, perhaps you're starting to see why those particular words are grouped together. And Kate, so I'm hoping that you've got something there for yourself, some kind of result. What we're going to do now is just to almost underline that. So I'm going to give you a few statements. And again, have a think about if you would order them most like you least like you. What order would you put them in? So are you a make friends quickly or a finger on the pulse? Or always sensitive to. Others or. Thought of as. Responsible and methodical and good at dealing with facts and figures. So. What order would? You put those for in. I'm now going to give you another 4. What does that look like? Is it the same? So out of those eight cards, what order would you be looking at in terms of colours for most like you least like you? Now I'm just going to underline that at this point, I'm not expecting anybody to go. Oh, well, it was just the red. Words and nothing else. What I'm hoping to say is that people have got representation of a number of these different colours. Some people might have immediately been able to say, Oh no, that's that's really not me at all or ohh spot on. Yeah. Umm there is some kind of alignment here with all those blue words that I've been looking at and those blue. But others of you might be saying, well, I can see the yellow. I can see the green. I can see the red under different circumstances. I might do all these different things. OK, So what we're looking at here is what might be our natural tendency, because our behaviour is also impacted by. Learned behaviour, isn't it? So when we come into different situations, different scenarios over time, we learn strategies for dealing with those particular scenarios. So we. We fall conscious responses and we fill up our toolbox with all these new ways of doing things. But what insights he's asking you to first look at is if we take away, perhaps that conscious thought, what is naturally you? So were you just comfortable, relaxed, feeling good about the world? How would you be? And I'm going to again ask you to do something for me now, just where you are. Just fold your arms, give your. Arms a fold. We all have a very natural way of folding our arms. Now I'm going to. Say, fold them the other way. And This is why I even have to look and check and. Am I doing? It correctly some of you have probably just gone woo folding my arms the other way, folded them back, but for a number of us that will now feel very uncomfortable and we'll just be waiting to put them back again. And that's the interesting thing about behaviour is that we have our comfort zone. That's the way we behave most times under most circumstances. We can adapt. We can change our behaviour in order to better connect, to build rapport with others who do things differently. But actually what we like to then be able to do is to come back into our comfort zone, so we stretch to meet others, we interact in a way that makes people comfortable, and then we come back and it's OK to be who we naturally are in our comfort space.

OK.

The important thing with insights is that we all have all full colour energies within us. Some of them may be a much smaller percentage than others. In fact, we may have some that are this big and. Then some that. Are this big? But we have all four, so as it says there you are a scrumptious mix. Of four different colour energies. But it's the combination of those four that creates the very unique you. And puts you in one of 72 different spaces. So let's have a bit more of an in depth look at these particular colour energies. You'll note on this slide that for the first time we're getting descriptors to go with these colour energies and as we move through the next set of slides, you'll see why these descriptors apply. So red is known as. Fiery rat. Sunshine yellow. You could almost feel warm radiating towards you. Earth green, the stability, the feeling of groundedness all blue. The depth of the ocean, perhaps certain things spring to mind, don't they? And. You know, not just with psychometrics, but for centuries. Colour has had meaning for people, and therefore, when we hear a colour or we see a colour, we have a picture in our own minds of what that means. So we're going to take. This fiery red 1st and here are just. Some words to describe it. It can be competitive, it can be demanding because actually it wants. To be the best. And it wants not only the best from others, but also from itself, and that's why it's very strong willed. It's very determined and it's very purposeful, fiery red energy. Is driven to get results and that is very. Important for it. So what might we see fiery red doing? So when we are using our energy in a fiery red way, what are we doing? We're active. We're firm in direction and positive. Single minded determined focusing on results we are direct and straightforward. We don't mince words. We tell it like it is. We want specific and tangible outcomes, things that we can put our arms around, things that are concrete. And we have. Strong determination that can influence and win over. Those that we interact. The way of. So just have a moment. Just think to yourself, is this me? Are these words describing the way that I naturally operate? This is just one. Maybe we turn on fiery red under particular circumstances, or in particular relationships. Or maybe this just feels comfortable. This is who you are. Let's have a look at the other three. Here's our earth green. And caring, encouraging of others, likes to share is very patient and calm and relaxed. Earth Queen is very principled. It's very value driven and those values are important. If people tread on those values, this energy will respond in a very stubborn way. It will dig. Its heels in when values are being compromised, so how might we see this in? When green energy is being used. We view the world through what we value. So what is important to us at our core, we like harmony. We don't like conflict. We like everything to be OK and we like to have probably fewer relationships, but deep and meaningful relationships. Deep trusting relationship. Green energy will defend what it values again, there's a determination here, but it's in a different space. There's a persistence here, but it's about defending what is important. So it prefers. Democratic approaches, because it's about people respect the individual and ensure that all perspectives are heard, ensure that people believe they have been listened to. OK. So maybe again, are you seeing yourself here naturally or is it a space that you move into at different times under different circumstances? Now let's take a look at sunshine yellow. It's sociable, it's dynamic, demonstrative. You'll see a lot of gestures and facial expressions with our yellow energy. It's enthusiastic and persuasive. It's a very optimistic energy. It loves to be involved. Loves to be with others this time. Similar to the Earth ring in terms of a people perspective. But whereas earth green energy has few deep relationships, sunshine energy will have lots of acquaintances. Lots of people that they know but potentially not in as deep away, not as much information. So how does it? Show up. Well, when we're using our sunshine yellow energy, we enjoy and we seek out the company of others. It was very difficult during COVID and when we're working from home for people who have high levels of yellow energy because they need. Need that energy from the others around them. They need to pull on that and they need to use their own energy in that space. They have a desire to always be involved. They can be very persuasive, very engaging, very inviting. Yellow energy is. Good with the words. Likes to share information, but they radiate enthusiasm and they like to encourage others. They also like to be noticed and they like to be appreciated for what they're contributing. It can be very stressful for yellow energy to be left. Out because of this need for involvement. So let's take a look at our final energy. Cool blue. Cautious, precise, very deliberate. Lots of questions, likes to ask the why question it's quite born or quite reserved if you like. So very different to that yellow energy that shares information. The blue energy is much more formal, potentially much more guarded. About the information that it will share. Let's have a look at what that looks like. So when cool blue energy is being used, it can be detached and objective, so there's no getting emotionally involved with our blue energy. They have this real need for knowledge, a real thirst for knowledge, so the desire to know, to understand the world around them, they very much value intellect. They want to be independent, they want to be given a level of autonomy to be trusted as a subject matter expert and to go away. And do that piece of work. They want to think things through so there can be a level of caution around the blue energy as well needs to do its homework and one of the real driving forces behind the blue energy is to be correct. So it can be very stressful for somebody with high blue energy to be put in a position where they're asked to do something and give a decision without being able to do their research or their homework. And often what you'll find if you have done that with somebody who is middle energy, they'll OfferUp a number of years. So you know this. Is my decision at this point given this amount of information were I given time to look further that may be different. So then you like that. Information to be accurate and complete before proceeding. OK so. Those are. In a few words, it's not everything by any means, but it just gives you a feeling, I think, for what those four different colour energies are. So imagine you were going to go out and you were going to have a slogan on your T-shirt to represent your colour energy. Well, what would fiery red be all about? Fiery red is. Let's do it now.

There is a.

Real time urgency to fiery red. Get it done. Move on. So it's a. Real pushing forward, pushing through energy, get the results. That are need. What about sunshine yellow? Well, sunshine yellow is. Let's do it together. Involve everybody. Make sure everybody feels. Part of something. Earth green energy. Let's do it in a way that shows we care. And cool blue energy. Let's make damn sure we do it right. So even just. Looking at some of those statements, you can perhaps see where some people who are in different spaces might actually find some challenge here with the way that people operate with the way that people behave. Let's just take those top two colours are fiery red and our cool blue energy. One of those is saying do it now, edit, done, move on, you know, maybe let's apply the 8020 rule. No energy is saying do it right. Take time to get the right information. And because it's a logical energy would say. Why would you do otherwise? Why would you move? Quickly knowing that you may not have it right first time so. You can start to. See where may be? You know, not even just in those opposites, which often we look at opposites and things. You know, polar differences here, maybe there's going to be some stresses, some challenges. Sometimes we get them. When we're close together as well, sometimes we get those when we're side by side. OK, hope everyone's OK so far. I hope I have an overloaded you with information, but here's just another point for consideration. You know if we saw ourselves in a particular space more so than any others. Sometimes we can get into an. Area where we're. Relying too heavily on one of those colour energies and there is a risk there of overplaying it. You know that. What's that us saying? It's easy to see everything is a nail. If the only tool you have is a hammer. You know, so actually, are we doing ourselves a disservice by not building strategies in all four of those colour energies? Actually, you know. Trying to use different ways of adapting and connecting to others, but how might that show up if indeed we are? Overplaying one of our colour energies well, this is how fiery red might look. So when does? Determined become controlling or single minded become. It's a fine line, isn't there? Between actually working in that healthy way, respectful of others way, and actually pushing forward in a way which may be is. Not as positive for those around us and there. Can be different. Reasons for us going into this space, one of them is most definitely overplaying our stress. Another is maybe that we are just having a bad day and we do, don't we? We all have bad days. We can't all be firing on all cylinders at all times. Sometimes we're just having a bad day and our behaviour just slips into that space where it's not as healthy as we would like it to be. But sometimes what? Can happen is that somebody? Who is very? Different from us actually doesn't see the positives in our behaviour. They see the liabilities in our behaviour, so if somebody is very different to us, may be what we perceive as being strong willed actually does come across. As feeling as being aggressive. So what we look at when we use the insights tool is not only what? Is our very. Of this behaviour, but how does it land with others? How does it feel to be on the receiving end of that behaviour? So let's have a look at all the rest of these what we're calling liabilities and I'll just throw out that none of these are particularly favourable. So you may have looked at some. Of these words and thought, oh God. Not those awful. None of them are complementary. I'll just say that now. So here's our sunshine yellow energy. Flamboyant, excitable can be indiscreet in its need to. Fair can feel frantic and hasty. Too many. Balls up in the air. And get bored easily and move on to the next thing. Again, think about are you seeing yourself maybe in some of these different liabilities? What is the earth green liabilities? It can get stubborn. We talked about that in terms of values. Maybe it all feels a little bit todding a little bit too lazy, fair laid back on. Maybe it comes across as a bit docile not sharing information because it wants to be harmonious. Maybe you know what does green really think? Or is it just agreeing and accommodating everybody else? Is it a bit too reliant? On those around it. And finally, our cool glow. Can it come across as cold rather than simply detached? Can it feel a bit stuffy in its formality? Needing time can appear indecisive. Asking questions all the time can come across as suspicious. And maybe that, you know, not sharing information too reserved. We don't know enough about this person to be able to trust them. OK, so I'm hoping from all those different references. To each of. These four colours. You're now perhaps starting to see where might be your comfort zone, but also what are you doing in other spaces as well? Can you actually flex into those different areas? Maybe you're seeing one in. Particular that you perhaps see as a weaker area or one that could do with. Some more development. So 4 colours we've looked at, but how do we get to these four colours? Finding ourselves profiled in one of these colours is actually a combination of the Carl Young sets of preferences, so we're going to have a look at those. Now in a. Little bit more detail. So Carl Young came up with three different pairs of preferences and they were how we relate to and interact with our environment, how we make decisions and how we take in and process information. And I'm going to go into each of them in a bit more. So how we relate to and interact with our environment? What he was particularly looking at here was the polar opposites of introversion and extroversion. But what did it mean by that? Because sometimes people go oh, I know what that means. Some people are confident some people are shy. Actually, no. Within insights terms, it's a. Little bit different. And when we talk about people who have a preference for extroversion, it's almost as though they are solar powered because they are taking their energy from the outside world, from the world of people and things. And that is where they like to expend. Their own energy. Well, if we describe introversion, this is much more like being battery powered, powered from within. Introverted people need less of the outside world. It's more about their internal world of thoughts and feelings. One of the easiest ways to differentiate between somebody who has a preference for introversion and somebody who has a. Preference for extroversion. Is to think about how they engage in conversation. In a group. Environment. Often what we find with extroverted energy is that it will talk to think. So actually to get to an end game, somebody with extroverted energy will talk it through, and it might not make sense to everybody external to that, but they are using that way of talking to get to their end game. So we say they talk to think people with an introverted preference. Will think. Before talking. So it's internalised. They are observing, listening, thinking about. It reaching conclusions and then sharing and. That will be the. Most obvious difference that you will see in a group environment, but let's have a look. At some more. Words that go with these two sets of polar opposites. Now, as you read these words, what I'd like you to imagine please, is not that we find people over there and then we find people over there. But imagine that there's almost a continuum going between the two and that we will find ourselves somewhere. On that continuum. So some people actually can very comfortably have a foot in both camps. And may even think that, you know certain scenarios will push me into extroversion and certain other scenarios, I just don't have a preference for interpersonal. And vice versa, but it's thinking about maybe what would you do on most occasions? And in most situations. So say for instance, just as an example, you've. Had a horrible day. Everything's gone wrong. That could possibly go wrong. What's your first instinct? Is it to go? Home run a. Bath put some music on. Lie in silence and just. Perhaps ponder over what's happened? Or is it to ring some friends, meet them at the pub and tell them all about your horrible day? The first one being a preference for introversion, the second one being a preference for extroversion. So just have a think about. Where you might. Place yourself on the understanding that there will be. Levels of yeah, from extreme. 2 minor versions, and that idea of a foot in each camp. Now the second one. Excuse me of Young's preference was was about how do we make decisions. So when we make decisions, what are those decisions based on? And he took a look at this idea that some people are very much in the head when they make decisions. Where are the facts? Where's the data? What's the logic and the rationale? Very objective perhaps can we can bring quite detached. Others. Maybe we could say, oh, with the heart when it comes to making decisions. So it's much more about how do I feel? How do others feel about this? How is this impacting relationships? How is this impacting morale? And whereas the head is much more perhaps of a task orientation, the heart is much more of a people orientation now. Again remember, right at the beginning we said this is not about competence. This is not about if I do one, I can't do the other. It is a conscious choice. To behave in this way. Now just to say. That if we have a preference to thinking it doesn't make us more intellectual. And if we have a preference for the feeling, it doesn't make us overly emotional. They are both cognitive processes. So when it comes to a decision, do I make it based on the head or based on the heart? So again, let's have a look at some of these words here and have a think. About where you might place yourself. And as with the other. This is a continuum. So somebody could be absolutely strongly in the thinking space to the point of looking at those feeling words and thinking why on Earth would I do that? Somebody might be in the feeling space looking over at those thinking words going. Oh my goodness, how could anybody do that when it involves people? But we have to realise this is all about preference. What is our preference and the only way we can understand how people arrive? At the decisions they. Arrive at is by understanding what was driving that decision. What is important to that individual, and I always say to people you cannot hope to influence somebody from your standpoint. You have to influence them by showing them that you understand where they are coming from first. And this is probably, you know, in the space of change may be in organisations where this comes up most because people involved in change. Will either be. Let's get the processes in place and the infrastructure and the systems and and others will be. But how do we get people? On board, how do we get? Those people to come with us. And will find that maybe neither meet somewhere in the middle, and that's where it shows up most distinctly, perhaps. OK, so you may have noticed at my words that I've got colours showing there. That's because when it comes to cool blue energy, it's a combination of introversion and thinking preferences. Fiery red energy is in that extroverted preference space, but still with a thinking preference. Sunshine yellow, still an extroverted preference, but this time it's about feeling. And earth green. Is an introverted preference still with feeling? So again, this might give you another indicator of where you might show up. Where do you see yourself most? We're coming. To the third. And final preference, here's a picture to look at. Just never think about what immediately springs to mind for you here. What is there for you? And I'm just going to give you a second. And kite some words I'm sure. Will have come into your mind, were they? Words such as this. Who sees sun grass orange. Or were they words such as this? This represents the distinction between sensation and intuition. So how do we take in? How do we perceive information? Is it with our five senses? If we can see it here, it touch it, taste it, smell it, then it's real. Or is it with? Our six sense, our instinct, our good, our intuition. Have a look at these other words. Sensing all about. Being in the present and dealing with what we have realistic, practical, pragmatic, once specifics. Once to be precise. Future orientated. More about opportunity than solve the problem. Much more blue sky thinking rather than being down. On the ground. Stuck in the specifics, can deal with concepts, can deal with the abstract lights to be in a more spontaneous space. Again, think. About the words. That make sense for you what describes you? Now with this one we cannot Nat, sorry nicely, just split the wheel in half. We can't do that. It doesn't relate to particular colour. These two preferences will be found in most of the colours around the wheel. So what we have here is this move from. If you could see in the middle, we've still got our four colours. We've moved out into eight preference 8 profiles, sorry. And within those eight profiles we now have 72 different spaces. But what we do? Find is. If we look at those profiles around the wheel sensing is most found in the coordinator profile which is a combination of blue and green energy. And intuition is most found in the motivator profile, which is a combination of red and yellow energy together. OK. So just to summarise. Because we've talked about an awful lot here. Three sets of preferences how we relate to and interact with the environment, introversion, extroversion, how we make decisions, thinking and feeling, how we take in perceive and process information, sensation and intuition. OK, so I promised you some quick wins for recognising some of these colours recognising types. Do they speak to think or think to speak? Remember I told you that one earlier speaking to think is. All about this. Extroverted side of the wheel. This right-handed side of. The wheel red and yellow. Energy thinking to speak is the introverted. Preference the cool blue and the earth green energy. Are they more controlled in the way that they present themselves, or are they more engaging? Well when we're talking about controlled, it's usually those thinking people at the top of the wheel. That task focus section, the cool blue and the fiery red energy more engagement. Is down here in this people focused. Energy, the earth green and the sunshine yellow. Are they more enquiring or more expressive? Blue and green tend to ask lots of questions, tend to be more engaged in listening to others. What we find on the other side of the wheel with our red and yellow energy, it's much more declarative. It's much more statement based if you like. Whereas green and blue energy as. Well, you'll you'll hear much. More contextualising in the way that they speak and the final one are we seeing lots of direct eye contact? Perhaps less eye. In all red and yellow energy in the extroverted space, we're going to see more direct eye content. Our green and blue energy less so. OK. So those are just. Some quick wins perhaps that we can have a think about. I just wanted I can see that I think we may have gone a little bit over our time. I know we started a little bit late and I just wanted to throw up this line just to show you some of the other things that can be done with the tool. So we can actually look at, you know, do we get our own profiles done and they are really detailed, really useful not only for ourselves. For sharing with others to have a better understanding of us, we can get these blocks, which are great when. We're in offices.

Or when we're.

On video and we can. Show people the audio the. Order of our preferences. There are other. Tools available such as this one in the bottom right hand corner here. This is 1 which is actually a 360 tool. So once people have had their original profiles, they can then be profiled as teams and give each other 360 feedback. And as you can see, there are numerous people who can respond and provide feedback. And then at the top. On the right. This is what we call the team effectiveness model. So simply using the language of insights discovery which we've been talking about today, we can focus it into a team environment. And there are. These are just a few of the many different things that it can be used for, so there are things that look at change. Things that look at culture, things that look at influencing and selling, et cetera. So lots and lots of different tools out there. So I am at the end of my webinar. I hope you found it interesting. Thank you very much for listening and I I don't know if you have time now. If there are any questions or if anything's been in the chat there, then Claudia that you'd like to share with me.

And yes, Brian just asked the question, are there any quick online? Questionnaires to deal with our teams so you know, so we can. Use the tool and we know.

They probably are, but they're unlikely to be the true insights piece, so unfortunately. You do have. To pay for an insights profile, but there are different profiles that you can have which are different costings. So they have a very simple profile called explore. But all that will tell you will be your top colour, so it'll be one. For colour energies and everybody gets the same descriptor. So if I've profiled aspire read and you've profiled as fiery read will have exactly the same descriptor. The thing about the insights Discovery profile is that it is very much unique to you. So even two people who have profiled in the same place because their percentages in their energy will be different as well, they will still be unique to the individual. So unfortunately there are things out there that are free that might give you some idea, and again, I'll probably based on Youngin preferences, but they won't be as much in depth as the insights tool or other tools like it.

And are there any certificates or courses to become an insights facilitator?

Absolutely. Absolutely yes. If you go online and have a look at insights.com, you will see that there are routes to accreditation. Usually involving. I mean I think you can do them virtually now as well in person. They're usually around about 3 days or so. I think if they're done virtually, they're probably done over different, you know with time scales, whereas in person you would be expected to be in person for three. Or four days. Together, but yes, certainly you can take the accreditation absolutely, which is a fantastic way of introducing it into an organisation, you know, and then helping others to to understand and carry that forward within their teams.

So have you ever seen companies or you know leaders using that, but like creating teams because you know usually they looking at peoples? You know. Competences or what they're good at, let's say. But, but I'm not sure they're looking at. Things like that.

They would all because the British mycological Society say, would always say we would not use psychometric tools as a way of choosing a candidate. How you know? So however, you can use the information that is gleaned from that tool as a guideline. So it may be that you're looking for particular skills or strength in an area, so often people will use it in terms of looking at how do we get a really diverse team. So you know they will use it, but only as one tool of information. So it should never be the defining thing that makes the decision between one person or another. Because actually, when we answer these profiles. It is only ourselves that do the online questionnaire, so it's my awareness, isn't it? My own self-awareness which may actually be different to how I land when I get into. The environment, the organisation so much better. To use it as a way of. Writing good interview questions. Than actually simply to think of, you know, hell. Has somebody profiled? I hope that helps.

And there's a question to be relating to that, but our situation that you already in the organisation and I I guess maybe it's a conversation with your manager, but given your recognised the profile, how to alter the stains or behaviour in a safe way without going into conf. Like uh, for example, I need to push blow engineer towards red for him to stop overcomplicating and start acting. And can you recommend some sources where one can read about that?

OK and. Recommend some sources. I you know, I think there are. Books that you can get the the difficulty with the insights tool is that obviously it is trademarks and and there is a material cost around the insights tool. However I believe with Myers Briggs they did produce a book called Gifts Deep. During gifts, as in presents and differing which does a lot to explain some of the different preferences, behavioural preferences that people have. One thing I always say is think about what is driving the blue energy. So the blue energy has a driver to get things right. To be the expert in terms of you can trust the information that they're presenting to you. So in order to speed them up, what you have to help them with is the blue energy is much more risk averse. Than the red energy. So there has to be some. What would be the word that? I would love to use. You would want to be perhaps talking about consequences, impact. What's the mitigating things that we can do to reduce risk if we need to do things quicker? You know what would be the impacts of doing that? So actually getting on to the blue energy wavelength first understanding where they're coming from, why they want to take time, why they want to do more research and then helping maybe reduce the risk for them of doing things more quickly and with less caution. Hopefully that helps.

Yeah, I saw thumbs up. So yeah, I think you answered the question. And yeah, I think I need to use a little bit more of my red energy now because I'm sure there will be more questions and we can talk much, much longer about the talk. What is as you as well pointed out, we kind of were running out of time and we even used a little bit more and then we anticipated. So thank you very much for joining us very you for a great session and thank you everyone who will join us as well. For other people, of course, if you would like to join us at the next meet up, it will be on Wednesday 8th of November and at the same time 530 Irish time and we'll be joined by Fred and and he will be talking about his journey. From development manager to adult coach. Umm, so that's the next topic and anyway thank you very much for a lovely evening and thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you guys.

Thank you, everybody. Take care. Take care.

Right.

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