Have you ever walked out of a meeting convinced your colleagues are, frankly, impossible? Swedish behavioural expert Thomas Erikson sympathises and offers a disarmingly simple framework to explain why.
Surrounded by Idiots introduces the DISC colour model, categorising behaviour into four types: Red (dominant, goal-driven), Yellow (social, optimistic), Green (calm, relationship-focused), and Blue (analytical, precise). Erikson’s central argument is refreshingly humble: the person driving you mad isn’t an idiot; they’re just wired differently to you. Understanding those differences, he contends, is the foundation of every productive relationship.
The book’s greatest strength is its accessibility. Erikson writes with warmth and self-deprecating humour, peppering the framework with workplace anecdotes that feel painfully, hilariously familiar. Office politics, difficult meetings, the colleague who simply cannot stop chatting before getting to the agenda – it’s all here, decoded with clarity. For readers new to personality frameworks, the four-colour system lands as a genuine revelation, offering practical tools for adjusting communication style depending on who you’re addressing.
That said, the book is not without its shortcomings. Critics, particularly those versed in psychology, will note that the DISC model lacks robust empirical grounding and risks reducing the extraordinary complexity of human behaviour to a tidy colour wheel. More frustratingly, Erikson says little about whether, or how, people can consciously change their behavioural patterns. The implication that your colour is largely fixed sits uncomfortably in a world that champions personal growth.
Readers already familiar with tools like Myers-Briggs will find little that is genuinely new. And there is always the danger that casual readers will use the colours to label rather than understand the people around them – the very trap Erikson warns against.
Still, as a starting point for self-awareness and interpersonal empathy, Surrounded by Idiots punches well above its pop-psychology weight. It won’t replace a psychology textbook, but it might just make your next team meeting a little more bearable.
Recommended for: professionals, team leaders, and anyone who has ever rolled their eyes at a colleague.
