Open Comments, hosted by The Open Group
Welcome to Open Comments hosted by The Open Group
Themes and Topics: Lifelong Learning | Career Journeys | Career Advice | Inspiring Conversations | AI | Cybersecurity | Virtual Data Lakes | HR | Enterprise Architecture | Information Technology | Business Careers | Creative Sectors | Education + Beyond
The podcasts feature subject matter experts and panels including industry leaders, and The Open Group staff.
Season 3 premiering from January 2026 onwards.
Host: Ash – CDMP – Certified Copywriter (CMP) – CDMA – Certified Proofreader
and Editor (CMP) – Certified Business Writer (CMP), Content Marketing Manager,
joined The Open Group in 2020, initially working in the Certification Team as a Certification Services Agent, before moving into the Marketing Team, where he now works on marketing collateral, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and produces/hosts The Open Group, Open Comments Podcast.
Disclaimer: The Open Comments Podcast (hosted by The Open Group) is presented purely for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and the guests are their own and are not intended to harm or offend any group, organization, company, individual, anyone, or anything.
Open Comments, hosted by The Open Group
Open Comments: S3 - Mini Episode: Code Meets Color: Aligning Personalities with Tech Roles with Ash
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The Color Personality Quiz offers a practical framework for understanding diverse working styles in IT teams, helping reduce friction and improve collaboration among colleagues with different communication preferences and work approaches.
• Based on Don Lowry's 1970s True Colors personality system with four color-coded categories
• Blue personalities are empathetic, relationship-focused and value harmony
• Green personalities are analytical, logical and driven by competence
• Gold personalities are organized, detail-oriented and thrive on structure
• Orange personalities are energetic, spontaneous and seek variety
• Project kickoffs, code reviews and retrospectives reveal how different personality types approach work
• Match tasks to natural strengths: Golds for documentation, Greens for research, Oranges for creativity, Blues for stakeholder communication
• Use color preferences to recognize when conflicts stem from working style differences rather than substantive disagreements
• Leaders can adapt their approach based on team members' color preferences
Take the Color Personality Quiz here and consider starting a conversation with your team about how different working styles impact your collaboration.
Copyright © The Open Group 2023-2026. All rights reserved.
Hello and welcome back to Open Comments. In this mini episode, we'll be exploring the colour personality quiz. Now, before you dismiss it as another pop psychology trend, please hear me out. In a field driven by logic, process and data, understanding how people think, communicate and collaborate is more critical than ever, especially in IT, where cross-functional teams, tight deadlines and remote communication are the norm. So in this mini episode, we'll look at what the colour personality quiz is, how it maps to workplace behaviour and how IT professionals, developers, engineers, pms and tech leads can apply its insights to improve teamwork, reduce friction and lead more effectively. Let's begin, shall we? The Color Personality Quiz is based on the True Colors personality system developed in the 1970s by Don Lowry. It distills personality traits into four color-coded categories, each representing a distinct set of motivations and behaviours. Here's a quick overview Blue compassionate, empathetic, relationship, focused values, harmony and emotional intelligence.
Speaker 1:Green analytical, logical, independent, driven by competence and understanding how things work. Gold organised, dependable, detail-orientated, motivated by structure, reliability and responsibility. Orange energetic, spontaneous, adaptable, seeks variety, action and opportunities to take initiative. Unlike some rigid typologies, this model is flexible. You might relate to multiple colors, but typically one will resonate most. So why does this matter in IT? Because understanding your own preferences and those of your colleagues can reduce miscommunication, improve project execution and build healthier team dynamics. Let's put this into context with some fictional real-world scenarios.
Speaker 1:Scenario one the project kickoff meeting. You're launching a new software platform. The gold team lead begins by reviewing timelines, milestones and risk management protocols. The orange UX designer suggests exploring new design frameworks on the fly. The green backend developer asks detailed technical questions about the architecture and the blue scrum master brings up team well-being and psychological safety. Different priorities, all valid, but without a shared understanding these stars can create friction. The gold sees the orange as chaotic. The green sees a blue is too emotional. The orange feels stifled by too much structure. Scenario two code review and feedback. A green engineer gives very direct, fact-based feedback on a pull request. The blue developer receiving it feels demoralized. It wasn't just incorrect, it was their work. Meanwhile, the gold tech lead is frustrated that the comments weren't logged in the tracking system.
Speaker 1:Understanding each other's styles helps depersonalize the interaction. Greens aren't being cold, they're being precise. Blues aren't overreacting. They value encouragement. It's not about changing who we are. It's about adjusting our communication to match the context. Scenario 3. Sprint retrospective. In a team retrospective, a blue facilitator invites open sharing. The orange team member dominates conversation with rapid fire suggestions, the gold quietly takes notes waiting for a clear action plan, and the green resists the emotional tone of the meeting. Knowing these dynamics allows leaders to set norms that make space for each type timed contributions, structured feedback and clear follow-up items.
Speaker 1:Here are a few ways you can apply this model within your team Project planning. Use color preferences to delegate work. For example, golds excel at documentation and deadlines, greens thrive in research-heavy tasks, oranges bring creativity to ideation, blues help with stakeholder communication. Conflict resolution when tension arises, ask is this a clash of personality styles or actual goals? Often it's the former. As a leadership tool, managers can adapt their leadership style, being more directed with goals, collaborative with blues, flexible with oranges and autonomy focused with greens. Finally, how can you apply this in your own IT team? Here are a few ways you can apply this model within your team. The first one is project planning. Use color preferences to delegate work, for example. Golds excel at documentation and deadlines, greens thrive in research-heavy tasks, oranges bring creativity to ideation, blues help stakeholder communication. The second one is conflict resolution. When tension arises, ask is this a clash of personality styles or actual goals? Often it's a former, and the third one is a leadership tool. Managers can adapt their leadership style, being more directive with goals, collaborative with blues, flexible with oranges and autonomy focused with greens.
Speaker 1:Remember, the goal is not to box people in, but to make space for everyone's strengths and to adjust when necessary. In tech, we spend a lot of time learning how machines work, but the most successful teams also invest in learning how people work. The color personality quiz isn't a silver bullet, but it's a valuable starting point for deeper understanding. Personality quiz isn't a silver bullet, but it's a valuable starting point for deeper understanding, better collaboration and more human-centered IT culture. Thanks for joining me on this mini episode. I'll include the quiz link in the show notes. Please take it if you'd like, reflect on it, maybe even start a conversation within your own team. Until next time, my name is Ash, reminding you the best systems are built by people who understand each other. We hope you enjoyed this mini open comments episode and we look forward to bringing more episodes just like this one into the fold very soon. Thank you, stay safe and happy listening.
