Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Gold - Green

Several years ago, back when I was a fairly miserable teacher, I went to an in-service training where all the faculty took a quiz to determine our personality "color." The things I learned from this training both about my own outlook on life and how to deal with people of contrasting colors stuck with me. I remember taking the booklet home to my family and making them take the quiz as well. Everyone's color combination was spot on. And it gave me an insight into their minds that I had never had before.

For some reason, I started thinking about this in connection with my guild today. I searched around the internet until I found a site that gives a basic breakdown of the colors from that system. (Of course, the quiz booklet itself is not there because the trainers want to make money, too.)

There are four main color blocks: Blue, Orange, Gold and Green. Individuals can have traits from more than one color, but the dominant color will be apparent.

Here's a quick breakdown (the terms in parentheses are mine):

Blue: Nurturer (Touchy Feely)
  • A people person.
  • Sensitive to the needs of others.
  • Sincere. Cooperative. Caring.
  • Idealistic.
Orange: Adventurous (Rebel)
  • An action person.
  • Center of attention.
  • Risk taker. Creative. Bold. Energetic.
  • Spontaneous.
Gold: Traditional (Bossy)
  • A rules oriented person.
  • Sees things as right or wrong.
  • Practical. Punctual. Helpful.
  • Organized.
Green: Visionary (Smart Alec)
  • An inquisitive person.
  • Explores all angles before making a decision.
  • Logical. Persistent. Systematic.
  • Intellectual.
When I took the quiz, I was a combination of Gold and Green, so I guess I'm a bossy smart alec. Which, actually, isn't all that surprising.

What I like about the system is it helps me to remember that some actions aren't meant to infuriate me, but are simply part of the person's personality. When the raid leader becomes nitpicky about every little spellcast, he isn't really criticizing us, he's trying to understand what happened; he's just being Green. When the new girl feels the need to share intimate details about her life and all that is happening to her, she is just being Blue (too Blue...way too Blue). When I bug the other officers about scheduling or tweaking our Code of Conduct, I'm not being bossy, I'm being Gold (ok, Gold and bossy--I admit I'm bossy).

Remembering this doesn't always make the minor annoyances less annoying, but it can help me to deal with the people. I know that to motivate someone who is orange, I need to make it a challenge or a competition. I know that if someone is Blue, a smiley face may make their day, and being there to listen to them is important, even if I sometimes feel like I'd rather take a piece of sandpaper to my eye than chat about their latest love interest. The Green guy may be a number cruncher, and if he is, he'll be a great asset to have helping you plan out the attack. And the Gold people like me are worth our weight in, well gold, because a guild that lacks organization can't always meet its goals.

So the next time someone in my guild gets on my nerves, I'm going to try hard to just think of it in terms of color. They aren't really a jerk, they're just letting their Orange show.

2 comments:

  1. But doesn't the fact that you thought about this concept and apply it to our guild so you can understand people better make you a little blue too? I think so!!! Hehe

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  2. I think, like my mother before me, I want to be bluer than I am. I think it shows more that I'll go to any lengths to organize things--even organizing people into color groups. :)

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