Getting in "good" with your Green bosses, colleagues, employees, friends, and spouses can be a challenge. Green folks want to respect you for your knowledge and competence above all else.

It's sort of like visiting Boston. There, they pride themselves in not asking how much money you have or what your occupation is. Instead they want to know how much you know. Boston is the seat of Harvard, after all.

Let's say you want to discuss the movie Black Swan with your Green boss. Let's start with a wrong way to win a Green's attention:

YOU: Hey there, Laura, have you seen Black Swan yet?

LAURA: No, not yet. I assume you have. What did you think?

YOU: It was so cool - totally over the top with everything you'd ever want to see in a movie. I mean it really blew your mind with competition, insanity, internal politics, gory scenes. And, you know, lead player Natalie Portman looked anemic with all the weight she lost just to play the role.

LAURA: Alright, don't say another word. Let me see the movie first, and then we'll have this discussion later, okay?

Let's try another way:

YOU: Hey there, Laura, have you seen Black Swan yet?

LAURA: No, not yet. I assume you have. What did you think?

YOU: I think the reaction you get from the lead's psychological crisis is satisfying beyond what even some of the best critics have described. In fact, the couple who went with us to the theater both said the film would probably be "an indelible memory of some kind of deliciously primal experience" - not just a movie one liked or disliked.

LAURA: Am I going to think it's over-the-top, or is there really plenty of stuff to ponder?

YOU: The latter. So don't go alone because you are going to want to dissect it right away. That's it. (Smiling.) I'm not going to say a word more.

You might think that both scenarios are lame. The first one sounds ditzy. The second sounds overly academic and prissy to some folks. You could be right on both counts, but here's the scoop.

Scenario #1 is too vague, emotional, and it lacks a logical flow of ideas.

Scenario #2 flows logically, frames your own opinion against those of respected critics, adds testimony, and definitely captures the attention of a Green listener.

Greens look for clarity and logic. They care very much about word choice. They would like to think that your ideas are quality ideas - even of equal quality to the people who are experts in the field under discussion.

With Greens, if we are regularly too vague, too emotional, i.e., too over-the-top, then they may begin to marginalize us as unworthy when something important comes up later.