The History of True Colors
In 1978, founder Don Lowry, the person behind True Colors, became interested in the work of clinical psychologist David Keirsey. Keirsey, author of the best-selling self-help book Please Understand Me, studied the work of psychologists Carl Jung, Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers who theorized that all people fit into one of four broad categories of personality.
Lowry recognized their potential to improve people’s lives, careers and relationships. So he set about developing a fundamental and universal way to package the information into practical guidelines that could be understood and easily applied by both children and adults alike.
True Colors expands upon Keirsey’s four temperament types and simplifies personality and learning theory into “one of the easiest, most convenient ways of understanding and appreciating human behavior.”
The True Colors assessment asks participants to identify their “color spectrum” using four cards that represent key personality types: Blue, Orange, Gold or Green. Each color has particular strengths and each analyzes, conceptualizes, understands, interacts and learns differently. But these differences, if not acknowledged and understood, can become barriers to interpersonal communication, making understanding between people of different types difficult.
Lowry believed that entertainment offers the most broadly appealing and universal context for communicating messages; so he specifically designed the program to be as entertaining and fun as possible. When people are entertained and relaxed, Lowry realized, their resistance to new ideas diminishes, allowing them to fully experience and become aware of their own True Colors, and of others.
The company’s first guidebook, The Keys To Personal Success, was published in 1979. Sales took off, seminars and shows ensued. Before long, devotees were clamoring to become certified True Colors trainers.
True Colors Test is a quick and fun way of discovering your personality based strengths, and of understanding human behavior.
Since 1978, when Don Lowry founded True Colors, its mission has been to enhance the way we live, work, communicate and interact with those around us at work and in our personal lives.
Over the last 26 years, thousands of individuals have experienced the True Colors process, which is widely used in the United States, Canada, Latin America the United Kingdom and parts of Asia and is available in multiple languages.
A distinguishing quality of the True Colors Programs is the artful blending of education and entertainment, into “fun training” programs that combine audience interaction with insightful materials that inform and delight participants because they are easy to understand, to apply on a daily basis and to retain over a lifetime.
True Colors is used in schools, businesses, corporations, government and nonprofit organizations, and in people’s personal, family and social interactions.
What Is Your True Colors?
Orange stands for energy, consuming physiological, power, potency and strength. In temporal terms, Orange is the present. Orange represents desire and all forms of appetite and craving. Those with Orange as a Primary Color feel the will to achieve results, to win, to be successful. They seek things that offer intense living and full experience. Orange generates an impulse toward active doing: sport, struggle, competition and enterprising productivity.
Gold is the body's natural perceptions. It represents a need to be
responsible, to fulfill duties and obligations, to organize and
structure our life and that of others. Those with Gold as a
Primary Color value being practical and sensible. They believe
that people should earn their way in life through work and
service to others.
Gold reflects a need to belong through carrying a share of the load in all areas of living. It represents stability, maintenance of the culture and the organization, efficiency, and dependability. It embraces the concepts of home and family with fierce loyalty and faithfulness.
Green expresses itself psychologically as human will in operation: as
persistence and determination. Green is an expression of
firmness and consistency. Its strength can lead to a resistance
to change if it is not proven that the change will work or is
warranted. Those with Green as a Primary Color value their
intellect and capabilities above all else. Comfort in these
areas creates a sense of personal security and self-esteem.
Green characteristics seek to increase the certainty of their own values through being assertive and requiring differences from others in intellectual areas. They are rarely settled in their countenance, since they depend upon information rather than feelings to create a sense of well-being. Green expresses the grounding of theory and data in its practical applications and creative constructs.
Blue represents calm. Contemplation of this color pacifies the central nervous system. It creates physiological tranquility and psychological contentment. Those with Blue as a Primary Color value balance and harmony. They prefer lives free from tension... settled, united, and secure.
Blue represents loyalty and a sense of belonging, and yet, when friends are involved, a vulnerability. Blue corresponds to depth in feeling and a relaxed sensitivity. It is characterized by empathy, aesthetic experiences, and reflective awareness.
Based on our internal research we have decided to no longer offer the Online True Colors Test. We are recommending the DiSC Classic 2.O or the DiSC Classic 2 Plus personality/behavioral profiles to help clients understand themselves and others better.
Distributed by Center for Internal Change, Inc. a top distributor for the DiSC Classic Paper and online versions of the highly validated and reliable DiSC Personality and Behavioral Profile, used internationally by over 40 million people, Fortune 500 company's, corporations, religious organization, government and municipal agencies, educational institutions and HR or OD consultants and professional for human and employee and organizations change and development.
"True ColorsTM is a trademark of
True Colors International, Inc."
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Last Updated August 31, 2008 9:22 PM