Insights

We had our ship party today for shipping AD FS 2.0 and WIF and it was a blast. But as I quote someone else, this felt like Federated Identity’s last hurrah. It was good times tonight alright, got to see a lot of people who I haven’t had a chance to talk with in awhile. With the last re-org, everyone’s seems to have either gone to a different team or left for a different project. I was happy to see everyone again, but sad to see everyone parting ways after this party.

I finally got to meet Vani’s husband Satish (I hope I’m spelling his name correctly) for the first time and apparently he’s heard of me. I’m always curious what they’ve heard when people tell me they’ve heard of me and Vani claims it was all good things. Not quite sure I trust her completely. ;p Anyway, we started talking about our colored energies since we recently participated in the Insights training session. Funny thing is that Derek and Ryan came up in the conversation (came out of how Satish heard about me) and how both Ryan and Derek had so much to teach us and I agree. We started talking about what colors Derek and Ryan had and how they work so well together. We agreed that Derek was probably primary red followed by yellow. However for Ryan although we agreed on the 2 colors: red and blue, I thought Ryan was more blue, and she thought Ryan was more red. Vani made an interesting statement that it’s hard to be red around me, and I began to wonder. Is it possible I’m so green, that I sort of mellow out people so they’re not as red?

I then provided a little insight that I had been thinking about. My impression is that Asian cultures tend have people who are more green, while western culture tend to have people who are more red. I’m not saying there aren’t many green people in western cultures or there aren’t many red people in Asian cultures. One big aspect of Asian cultures is the concept of harmony (和) and peace/harmony was something we valued highly when growing up in my family. However, I’ve always felt that western cultures tend to value competitive people in a dog eat dog world. Even when people work in teams, it’s trying to win over some other team/company. Of course modern day Asia, many of these harmonious concepts have been lost as we become more and more capitalistic. One can argue that in order to really have a harmonious culture/environment, we’d have to become a socialist society. Just thought this was an interesting thought.

Ever since leaving CardSpace, I’ve felt I’ve grown further and further away from a group that was so tight-knit, I’d like to call family. I miss our gatherings, our lunch/dinners together, our camping trips, etc. Since joining AD FS 2.0 halfway through it’s development cycle (compared to joining CardSpace at its beggining), I’ve felt a lot harder to connect with people. It could also be that I really interfaced with like 2 or 3 people on a daily basis. As you know, connecting with people is very important to people with a dominant green energy. I always felt like I was missing something. Now that I’m on a brand new team, I’m hoping to be able to find my niche once again. 🙂

I’ve also received quite a few compliments/remarks on my new look this evening. Some people haven’t seen me since I got short hair. I forget who was the last to tell me, but the # of people who prefer me with long hair has gone up to 5. Now that I think about it, I haven’t been over to Ryan’s since I gotten short hair. And I haven’t seen Derek and Shanna in ages. It’s always nice when people notice I’ve been working out and have gotten skinnier. Definitely provides motivation to continue. Oh yeah! I finally got to try out my new dress shoes for the 1st time! They were very shiny and slippery.

As the night came to an end, a couple of us stuck around till the very last minute, having very candid conversations, some of us more drunk than others. It’s hard to believe everyone’s moving on. Here’s to Federated Identity!

So work provided an Insights Discovery training session today. It required me to wake up around 8am, which was exceedingly difficult. However, the session was really interesting and rather revealing. They were scarily accurate on their analysis of me based on just 25 questions. I also finally found out where everyone was getting those 4 colored Lego blocks.

Before I continue, here’s some background on the 4 types of energies:

Cool Blue: Cautious, Precise, Deliberate, Questioning, Formal
Earth Green: Collaborative, Encouraging, Mentoring, Patient, Relaxed
Sunshine Yellow: Enthusiastic, Sociable, Dynamic, Demonstrative, Persuasive
Fiery Red: Purposeful, Determined, Strong-willed, Competitive, Demanding

The above is just a small set of adjectives that described that particular energy. Each energy actually covers a lot more. All energies have strengths and weakness. Like anything, too much of a particular trait makes it a weakness. The training session was not only to inform us of what type of energies we utilize/prefer, but how to effectively communicate with others depending on their energy. That’s why there’s those 4 colored Lego blocks on my desk now and now I know to look for the 4 colored Lego blocks on others’ desks.

We did an interesting exercise where we had an energy circle taped to our back and had our colleagues rate where they think we are in the circle. Interestingly, 6 out of 9 people rated me as in between Cool Blue and Earth Green.

According to my report, these are my energy split:

Cool Blue: 59%
Earth Green: 86%
Sunshine Yellow: 52%
Fiery Red: 11%

Earth Green is definitely my dominant/primary energy as peace/harmony is something I valued highly. I didn’t realize my cool blue and sunshine yellow energy were that close. And it’s laughable that I have any fiery red energy.

There was a 2.5 pages which provided an overview of what type of person I am and it was accurate to the point that it was scary. Here are some statements I thought I shared:

He is patient, flexible and usually easy to get along with, having little personal desire to dominate and control others.
He will make an effort to remember names and birthdays and make his office or home a pleasant place in which to work.
He tends to not show his private feelings, yet experiences a strong internal personal reaction to many situations and events.
His strong sense of personal values may make him reserved around strangers whose values he feels may conflict with his own.
He tends to take the things he does well for granted and usually underrates and understates himself.
He may have a tendency to repress anger.
Intent on keeping a low profile, he is quiet and reserved, especially around strangers.
Building harmony, understanding and common acceptance is a life-long assignment for him.
In conflict, he will listen to all sides before forming a conclusion and supporting a particular view.
He will be deeply committed whenever he chooses to undertake a role or task.

These were some that I didn’t realize, but thinking about past experiences, it makes sense:

His natural introversion does not prevent him from making critical and incisive comments with conviction and presence.
He seeks to unite all parties in a controversy and can readily see the validity of alternative points of view.
His quiet demeanor often allows him to get agreement to his alternative solutions.

If you disagree with any of the statements I’ve selected, please do tell. I’d be really interested in finding out what others think of me that do not match my view of myself.

The report contains a bunch of other interesting data like my possible strengths and weaknesses, do’s and don’ts on effectively communicating with me, and lots of other interesting data. Not everything stated really applies to me, but I didn’t even expect this much out of just 25 questions. I wonder if companies actually use these profiles to hire or even fire people.

One thing on the report that scares me is that it says he has a strong sense of duty and faithfulness, but little desire to impress or influence others. The statement is pretty true, but one of the things that Microsoft values highly is impact and influence. My lead has also reiterated that several times. Haha…

Tag: Insights

Federated Identity’s Last Hurrah