Surrounded by Idiots*Macmillan USA

Master the four basic behavior types and change the way you communicate!

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!

Foreword by David Bonnstetter
Introduction: The Man Who Was Surrounded by Idiots

1. Communication Happens on the Listener’s Terms

2. Why Are We the Way We Are?

3. An Introduction to the System

4. Red Behavior: How to Recognize a Real Alpha and Avoid Getting in His Way

5. Yellow Behavior: How to Recognize Someone Who No Longer Has His Feet on the Ground and
How to Get Him Back to Reality Again

6. Green Behavior: Why Change Is So Difficult-and How to Get Around It

7. Blue Behavior: In Pursuit of Perfection

8. The Annoying Flip Side-or No One Is Completely Perfect: Strengths and Weaknesses-What
No One Wants to Talk About

9. Learning New Things: How to Use What You’ve Learned

10. Body Language: Why How You Move Matters: How Do You Really Look?

11. A Real-Life Example: The Company Party-How to Understand Everyone You Meet

12. Adaptation: How to Handle Idiots (I.E., Everyone Who Isn’t like You)

13. How to Deliver Really Bad News, Because Even Positive Criticism Is Still . . . Criticism: The Challenge
of Speaking Your Mind

14. Who Gets Along-and Why It Works: Group Dynamics in Its Finest Form

15. Written Communication: How to Evaluate Someone When You Can’t Meet Him in Person

16. What Makes Us As Mad As Hell?: Temperament Can Reveal Everything About a Person

17. Stress Factors and Energy Thieves. What Is Stress-Really?

18. A Short Reflection Through History: Nothing Has Changed-People Have Always Been like This

19. Voices from Real Life

20. A Quick Little Quiz to See What You’ve Learned

21. A Final Example from Everyday Life: Perhaps the Most Enlightening Team Project in the History of the World