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My Green friend Don is a techie. He told me he couldn't think of a single New Year's resolution. "I am pretty happy with myself," he insisted.
I told him straight out I thought he could improve in one area.
"Really?" he asked. "What would that be?"
I said that he was too much of a skeptic and he could work on that.
He asked why.
I told him his Green nature was to certainly be skeptical, but that people of the other Colors saw his unrelenting skepticism as grumpy, non-trusting, passive-aggressive, elitist, arrogant and, frankly, sometimes stupid.
"Stupid????" he roared.
Calling a Green person "incorrect" is bad enough, but to use the word "stupid" is the height of insult.
I said I thought what people meant is that Don's constant filtering system of skepticism made his responses look unreasonable. Both the spontaneous Oranges and idealistic Blues can be quite comfortable with vagueness and a lack of absolute certainty, so they don't understand why their Green friend Don can't also "chill" a little about some things. Even the equally skeptical Golds will say things like, "Get over it, Don. This is the way it is, so live with it, okay. Let's move on!"
Now let's backtrack. Healthy skepticism has to be good. Your doctor should be a skeptic when new drugs come on the market. Leaders need to be skeptical about expensive gifts from strangers. We all need to be skeptical about sales ads. And Green rationals are hired into companies because they will naturally ask the hard, skeptical questions that need to be asked.
But a reputation for hair-trigger skepticism might hurt you. When dealing with other people, it's a good idea to let them feel your relationship begins with faith and trust. If something happens that warrants hard questions, then of course it's time to turn on the skepticism antenna.
And it's even more important to appreciate what the other Colors bring to the table -- talents that few Greens possess. For example, both Blues and Oranges read people intuitively and quite accurately most of the time -- without scientific inquiry. Blues read feelings like Greens read science tracts. Oranges perceive the bottom line long before you get to the end of a proposal. Gold people pride themselves in being right about things before they even open their mouths, so you can imagine how annoyed they are with continual skepticism.
So what is the New Years resolution? If you are Green, you know you'll figure it out.
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