The challenge for a Purposeful Tangy Orange person is being asked to keep the end point always in sight (a concern that is often voiced by an Azure Blue)/ The threat for a Tangy Orange person is based on an understandable fear of failing to take all relevant factors into account. This failure is especially likely to occur under conditions of VUCA-Plus. As we noted regarding the Rainbow orientation, it is a matter of learning from our mistakes rather than never making a mistake. Without this action-learning orientation, the Purposeful Tangy Orange person is inclined to never move forward—despite being courageous.
Verdant Green: Analytic Compassion and Visioning
Verdant Green is a combination of Golden Yellow and Azure Blue. Ideally, it brings together the active thoughtfulness and data-based orientation of extraverted Golden Yellow with the caring, service-oriented orientation of introverted Azure Blue. We find this orientation to be abundant in the human service sectors of our society and in the human relations divisions of contemporary organizations.
This Verdant Green preference resides opposite to Ruby Red. Introverted Verdant Green is often the source of critiques about the “human costs” of taking a precipitous action. Recall “Bones” (Dr. McCoy) being critical of both Captain Kirk and Spock for being “careless” about human lives. Analytic, extraverted Verdant Green is about opening the options for action (once again contrasting with the tendency of Ruby Reds to close off the options too quickly). The perceiving function of the MBTI is closely aligned with extraverted Verdant Green. The term Verdant is used because this is a Green that is fully alive (perhaps even overgrown) with abundant foliage (choices).
At the Golden Yellow end of extraverted Verdant Green, we find those human service schools of thought that are highly rational, systematic, and action-oriented. Think of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or the use of career aptitude inventories (such as the Strong Interest Inventory or Holland’s Career Aptitude Test) or career planning processes. By contrast, we find more depth-oriented psychotherapies and aspirational career planning processes, such as those advocated by Richard Bolles (2019), at the Azure Blue and introverted end of Analytic Verdant Green. Rather than immediate action, a client is encouraged to be thoughtful, introspective, and discerning of the multiple factors impacting their present and future life.
For the Verdant Green person and member of an organization, the major source of joy is gaining insight about a relationship or a human development process. Both the introverted and extraverted Verdant Green is in the business of searching for humankind’s “soul.” Enneagram Five tends to align with the introverted Analytic Verdant Green orientation. These people are often quietly observant and careful in the way they care for other people. By contrast, the extraverted Verdant Green is more likely to align with Enneagram Four. They are inclined toward greater psychic depths, rather than observing other people taking this psychic plunge.
