Being Green - Feeling Blue An Account of How to Manage your Colored Brain For Higher Productivity
By Leslie Choudhury

This is one of my Journeys, a Journey of discovery and enlightenment. I have learned many things on this Journey and as I have learned - here I document for the benefit of all.

Brain

I learnt about the Cognitive, part (80%) of the brain where the left and right brain functions. This is the intelligent part of the brain. The Limbic (10%) part of the brain where deep emotions are born which translates thinking into action. Lastly the Reptilian (10%) part of the brain which is the most primitive part, designed for self preservation which reacts to environment.

I learnt I had a brain (phew !) and was beginning to understand how it functioned.

Brain Colour

I learnt that Directive Communication Colored Brain (the way people process their environment) affects the interactions and psychology of the way people react to each other. I learned that the colour of my brain is green, meaning I was a person that sees the “Big Picture” , forward moving, where I take in information in random clumps, concentrating on one thing at a time, like receiving feedback to process things, do not necessarily need much details and always try to solve problems quickly. Due to my random processing, my ideas flow quite quickly but others may view me as erratic or even fickle. I learnt how I process things and also how the other coloured brains, red, purple and blue process information. I believe it has helped me see and understand people I engage with better. It will help me function better in working with people.

I also have gathered a great deal of blue software, but recognize I need to adapt and download some red software to be more effective.

Postures

I learnt about the different type of postures, the Warrior, the Child, the Emperor, the Angel, and the Lover and looking forward to learning the new ones being developed the Butler, the Driver, The Cook and the Gardner ! I realized that when you adopt a physical posture it affects the way you are perceived but most importantly the way you will respond. I discovered that I primarily utilize a lot of child posture, and throw in some Lover and Warrior. I realized that when one combines the postures in a presentation or in discussion with others it makes you more interesting, engaging, and more effective in your communication. Audiences will find training more interesting and keeping their attention level will be easier.

Outside of the Pages

There have been lessons I learnt from Directive communication that do not exists within the green, red or black leather-bound books and are as follows :-

CBI Cards are a tool that can uncover the subconscious reasons
That having the synergy of people learning together will bring forth deeper understanding and internalization of facts
The evaluations done at each classroom sessions will improve me
The commitment of the group is real
The commitment of Arthur is genuine
The ability to add to Directive Communication is there
That Directive Communication will make me more effective
That the homework set is driving me bonkers but it is making me more disciplined
Conclusions

You know a dream is like a river, ever changing as it flows.
And a dreamer's just a vessel that must follow where it goes.
Trying to learn from what's behind you and never knowing what's in store
makes each day a constant battle just to stay between the shores.
And I will sail my vessel 'til the river runs dry.
Like a bird upon the wind, these waters are my sky.
I'll never reach my destination if I never try,
So I will sail my vessel 'til the river runs dry.
Too many times we stand aside and let the water slip away.
To what we put off 'til tomorrow has now become today.
So don't you sit upon the shore and say you're satisfied.
Choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tides.

Garth Brooks, song "The River" co-written with Victoria Shaw

Directive Communication is a becoming a family, a home, which has the
People with different talents, abilities, strengths and within this home is all the tools and resources needed to make me more successful as a trainer and consultant

Creating Harmony at Home
Using Directive Communication Psychology

It was the last year of school for my little one, my younger daughter Mridula. The time had come for her to choose what she would do next. From being a student in India getting just average grades, she had blossomed in the nurturing environment of the International school in Singapore, and realized that she could be good at any subject she chose to study. There was a discord in the family because of the different approaches taken by Mridula and her Dad to decide on this issue. My daughter likes to collect lots and lots of data before analyzing and taking action. As per the Using Colored Brain Communication Inventory (CBCI), her brain processor is ‘purple’ in colour. Her Dad has a ‘red’ brain, he likes to analyze quickly whatever information is available. I use a ‘blue’ brain; I can understand and relate to people.

Mridula thought she fancied Psychology and announced it to the family. I was thrilled because Psychology was something I would have chosen if I were in her place. Her father being a Banker and using his red brain, thought that psychology was a waste of time; “You get a degree in Psychology and then what?” He had a point there but she refused to even look at it!

The next question was whether she should apply to Universities in USA and UK. She started collecting the relevant information. Many of her friends were applying to Universities in North America. Being American, they were able to tell her all the advantages of schooling there and she became convinced that it was the right place for her too. However, she continued to look at Universities in UK and what they had to offer.

When she said she wanted to study in USA, her Dad again specified his objections in very clear terms. He said a) you need to spend an additional year to get a degree in USA, which makes it more expensive b) during the first year of college, everyone has a ball, nobody actually does any studies, which is a waste of time and money and c) the annual expenses for a student are more in USA than in the UK. While my daughter was looking at ‘apples’ (life in the Big Apple) her Dad was looking at ‘oranges’ (counting beans). They just couldn’t see eye to eye.

To diffuse the situation, I stepped in with my blue brain. I took my daughter aside and told her that I would support her in whatever she did. I explained that her Dad also wanted the best for her and there was a way to make him see her point of view. She should continue with her research and based on that she should list the pros and cons of studying in USA vs. UK and present it to her father. I assured her she was capable of convincing her Dad that what she thought was best for her could also be acceptable to him.

I then had a word with my husband. I agreed that his arguments were valid and had been noted by our daughter. I told him that she had not made up her mind as yet since she did not have all the information she needed. She was still exploring and we should wait patiently.

Within a week, my daughter announced that she had been invited by her friend whose family lived in New Jersey, to go on a tour of some of the Universities on the East Coast with her. She asked us for permission and we thought it was a capital idea! During that time, we flew to UK to attend the graduation ceremony of our elder daughter, Mallika. Mridula joined us there after her US trip. She said that she was having second thoughts about studying in America! My sensible and accommodating husband then took her to some of the Universities in UK. She found out that the University of Bath was offering a subject combination that appealed to her; Psychology and Communications Engineering (similar to Electrical and Electronic Engineering). She liked the place and she decided she wanted to study there. Her Dad and I were happy with her choice.

During the second year, Mridula realized that Engineering was more challenging and she liked the subject. So she switched to Engineering as her major and Psychology as her second subject. She stayed a bit longer and completed her Masters! We attended her graduation last year and now she is working in London.

We realized that it is important to consider and understand the different styles of processing information. Only then can we create synergy, work together, and live in harmony.

OR

Why I would choose Directive Communication training over other training methods.

About 10 years ago, I was sent by my office to Johor Bahru for a “Supervisory Development Program”. We spent five days there doing the MBTI profiling, some case studies, role play and we had sessions with a senior manager who was not our direct boss. He told us more about our ‘Type’, our strengths and weaknesses and advised us on how we could become more efficient. All I can remember about that training was that the networking with my peers was useful and I found a very good friend (she is in America, I still keep in touch with her!) There was some follow up with the direct boss, but then work pressures took over and all was forgotten.

I started training in Directive Communication in March 2007 and I could see the benefits within the first three sessions. It was like guided meditation. We ‘discovered’ how our brains process information and what brain ‘software’ we have developed to adapt to others who process information differently. This awareness helped us to communicate better, using the thinking part of our brain, instead of just reacting to our environment. We found that as we changed ourselves, people around us also seemed to change in tandem. What appealed to me most was how simple and practical this model was.

Let us look at how DC (Directive Communication) is different compared to two popular and widely used personality inventories – the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and DISC (Dominance, Inducement, Compliance and Submission). The main difference is that DC’s colored brain model is not about behavior or personality but about the inherent way the brain processes and communicates. The CBCI (Colored Brain Communications Inventory) is a tool that identifies an individual’s genetic brain processing inclusive of learned flexibility and areas where one may have difficulty in communicating with others. The DC model also looks at the eight needs of people, the human emotional drivers. This is a very dynamic model because it changes in line with the changes in the environment. We become aware of how we act and react when our needs are met or not met.

MBTI is used to measure a person’s preferences using four basic scales with opposite poles. The four scales are; Extraversion/Introversion, Sensate/Intuitive, Thinking/Feeling and Judging/Perceiving. The various combinations result in 16 different personality types. A profile for each of these types has been developed.

DISC distinguishes between 4 patterns considered "primary emotions", called Dominance, Inducement, Compliance and Submission (hence DISC). DISC gives us a ‘snapshot’ of ourselves at that moment in time. It doesn’t take into account the context or the environment in which we function. Both MBTI and DISC were created to measure a person's personality or behavior. The concept of "Personality" presupposes that a person will react the same way in every situation, an idea that has been proven to wrong by cognitive psychologists in the 1980s. So although the type-casting of MBTI and DISC makes us more aware of ourselves, the environment around us remains the same and even if we change, we rarely see the benefits in the long term because others around us do not change. To bring about radical changes in our lives, we need to know how we act and react in groups in different situations and how we can influence the behavior of others in the group, to our mutual advantage.

This something more is provided by DC in the form of tools. The people who undergo DC training have the tools to bring about changes in themselves and thereby influence changes in others.

Let me give you an example. When I was doing a presentation right at the beginning of the training, I felt as if I wasn’t making an impact on the others. So the next time, I tried using the postures that we had learnt. When I wanted to make a point, I adopted the Emperor posture, when I wanted to persuade them to take action, I took up the Warrior posture and when I was interacting with the audience, I was in the Lover posture, paying full attention to what they were saying. Then I could see the class come alive! Just by changing my posture, I was influencing them.

Since we incorporate what we have learned into our daily lives, the DC training is more sustainable and long lasting. We discover our unified identity, create a supportive environment, learn sustainable methods for change, speak a common language and work towards a greater purpose and all this leads to making us inspired individuals in exceptional teams.