An ETA workshop changed my life! Your life and teaching might also change too as you learn more about personality styles.
At a 1989 Snowbird ETA teachers' retreat, there was a workshop about quick character-building for improvisation. We learned an interesting and rapid way to build improv characters through the use of True Colors. The concepts of this personality styles system had all of us drama teachers laughing and commiserating as we realized commonalities and differences in so many aspects of our lives. It was fun and subtly ever so beneficial.
When I returned home from Snowbird, much to my surprise, UNLV was offering a course in True Colors for Teachers, and I curiously snapped it right up! I discovered that our personality style influences how we teach, how we direct, and how we interact with students, administration, parents, family, friends, significant others, and, well, the world! I was hooked on the system and through further training became an Advanced True Colors Consultant. I benefitted from using this system in the last 28 years of my 52-year teaching career.
This system helps sort out four personality styles based on four quadrants of the Myers-Briggs Temperament Sorter (MBTS). Explaining this is important for the Green Thinker type; there is a scientific basis for this. We are all some balance of the four types. Knowing the various styles' strengths and values helps build understanding, empathy, and balance for everyone. (It can also greatly add to understanding characters in a play.)
First, here's a short explanation of the four types. Hints on where you and your students can survey your types will be at the end of this explanation.
Gold Planners appreciate order, certainty, preparedness, promptness, rules, responsibility, tradition, stability, thriftiness, and being appreciated for doing their duty. Gold Planners do indeed like to set the gold standard and are often selected as leaders and organizers. They get things done! Promptly!
Orange Movers enjoy freedom, options, action, adventure, variety, fun, competition, adrenaline rush, spontaneity, and moving in the NOW! The fiery Orange Movers are known to be courageous, charming, spontaneous, generous, impactful, resourceful, trouble-shooters, and wanting to take action. NOW!
Blue Connectors are "people-people" with lots of feelings. They are creative, considerate, cooperative, and romantic, nourished by harmony and personal connection, and often guided by intuition. These True Blue friends want peace and encourage personal growth for all living things. They feel that everyone is unique and should be appreciated for that.
Green Thinkers think A LOT! Curious about diverse interests and possible solutions, these folks enjoy having time to reflect, working independently, researching, and coming up with inventive solutions and modifications for things. They are very good at being cool, calm, and collected while perfecting their knowledge. They are also known for their logical approach and being visionaries. As Green Thinkers analyze new information, they can readily change their evergreen minds … think of Einstein sprouting more ideas!
Many True Colors surveys can be found online. A Personality Lingo style test that is especially easy to access is found at
https://personalitylingo.com/free-personality-test/.
One that gives a more detailed True Colors survey is a PDF at
https://home.hamptonu.edu/studentaffairs/wpcontent/uploads/sites/59/2021/11/true_colors_test-for-mentoring-fillable.pdf
You can also go to
https://www.truecolorsintl.com/personality-assessment
Remember that we are all combinations of all four styles. Some are very strong in one or two styles and some are balanced in their style. No one style is best. No style is wrong – it is just different from what you are used to. Understanding other styles expands your ability to appreciate things from a fresh lens. You do want to avoid personality-type trashing. The system is extra beneficial when it promotes respect for positive aspects of self and others. Appreciating the differences in a group builds into an attitude of, "We're better together!"
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I used to introduce personality styles in the classroom by holding up a Yoda doll as a prop and saying, "What you focus on grows." We would discuss how it is beneficial to recognize good things and tie that in with understanding our own and other's positive traits.
I introduced the class to each of the styles noting that each would be an exaggeration of one style while in real life we are a combination of styles. I would wear a hat for each style (Gold glittery top hat, Orange fireman's hat, Blue team hat, Green Sherlock Holmes hat) as I gave a quick overview of each type. (The Gold Planner would have exceptionally strong posture, speak crisply with chin held level, and perhaps carry a To-Do list. The Orange Mover would speak rapidly and literally move about the room perhaps holding a musical instrument, work tool, or fugit buster. The Blue Connector would speak in warm tones, smile, seek lots of eye contact, and maybe carry a book of Shakespeare, poetry, or art. The Green Thinker would be lost in thought and have eyes upward, speak slowly and thoughtfully, perhaps have a hand to chin, and not have eye contact.)
After each style description, I asked if students recognized some aspects of that presentation as being like themselves or someone they knew.
Then, after the students went online and took the survey, I would have them read each of the descriptions and fill out a notecard with the order of their personality styles. (Knowing a student's spectrum was helpful for me in coaching particular students. It was extra handy when it came time to write letters of recommendation.)
Next, they would team up in their dominant style groups and list the strengths, qualities, and joys of their dominant style on a group poster. The whole group needed to agree that an aspect was one that everyone shared. (Sometimes a student's second style would come in, and not be one that was true for all.)
The groups would then report out and answer any questions from the rest of the students. I suggested that students listen most closely to the style that was their palest since that would usually be the style they least understood.
After each presentation, I would complement the group on their presentation – Gold Planners = organized (and often neatly numbered lists), Orange Movers = active, lively, (and maybe novel), Blue Connectors = warmhearted and caring (and often filled with artwork), and Green Thinkers = concise, well thought out (and often bullet pointed.) It could be fun to have each group pose for a picture as they demonstrated their group's style.
Lively discussions can be held about each style's study habits, careers, ideal vacations, perfect dates, etc.
We sometimes used these styles in improv. At a play rehearsal, I would sometimes have the actors take the survey as their character and it would give them insights for their portrayals.
Through the years, I had theatre students meet in style groups and list what actors wanted. That list is attached.
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Carol Lommen
Past President, Educational Theatre Association
Past Trustee, Educational Theatre Association
Past Leadership Coach, Educational Theatre Association
Past President and Owner, Take Action Seminars
Past Advanced True Colors Consultant
Past West Coast Thespian Director
Past Nevada Thespian Director
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