Surrounded by Idiots: The Four Types of Human Behavior and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business (and in Life)

Written by Thomas Erikson

Narrated by David John

Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? Or does your colleague’s abrasive manner rub you the wrong way?

You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots’, communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people.

Surrounded by Idiots is an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide. It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with – in and out of the office – based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way we speak and share information.

Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication, advice on when to back away or when to push on, and when to speak up or shut up. Packed with ‘aha!’ and ‘oh no!’ moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and communicate with those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension.

And with a bit of luck you can also be confident that the idiot out there isn’t you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jul 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781250234001

Thomas Erikson

Thomas Erikson is a Swedish behavioral expert, active lecturer, and bestselling author. For more than twenty years he has been traveling all over Europe delivering lectures and seminars to executives and managers at a wide range of companies, including IKEA, Coca Cola, Microsoft, and Volvo. Surrounded by Idiots has been a Swedish runaway bestseller since it was first published in 2014. It has sold over 3 million copies worldwide and been translated into 42 languages.

Reviews for Surrounded by Idiots

[Brigitte Dreger · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Useful as a framework but I found it to be a bit sexist in language. As well, a lot of the personalities in this book are likely influenced by culture, and traditional expectations of men and women in the workplace.

[Veronica · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Listened to better understand colleagues I was having conflicts with, red and green personalities, when I am mostly blue with a bit of yellow

[isik-irem · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book!!! I will read again one more time!!!
Everyone should read it

[OmarEl-Mohri · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A detailed explanation of the Insights Discovery personality test. This books requires multiple reads and practice to be effective.

[Ana Palomo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great examples and deep description of DISC profiles applied to the workplace.

[sifeddine · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing book, I would recommend it to any managers or even parents, and people who do have troubles understanding other people.

[UmiMare · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Accurate human behaviour analysis. Excellent examples. Beautiful interpretation. Highly recommended!

[Zanno Jacklin · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Don't bother with this (or any other of his) book, if you're interested in psychology.

The author has studied psychology for exactly zero hours. He hasn't studied anything even remotely close to psychology. All he did was misinterpret, confused and mixed together old theories put them in a stupid-shaker and finally put the things he thought he knew in a book.

He's either too stupid to know he's ignorant (high score on the Dunning-Krüger curve), or he is smart enough to understand what people want to read (fully knowing that he is feeding people lies) and getting rich from others ignorance.

If you don't believe me, Google him.

Sincerely,

On my 6th year studying psychology at the university of Gothenburg.

[Cassandra Gillmore · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Can't recommend. Misleading pseudoscience content and stereotype-based conjecture written by a guy with no real credentials in Psychology or Science, but the narrator is good.