Employees work and learn differently – but what are these differences and how can companies leverage them for sustainable success in training? The answers come from "Insights Discovery" coach Michael Portz in the interview – with exciting practical tips for all HR professionals!
About the person: As a coach, Michael Portz works with people and teams who want to achieve even more. INSIGHTS is a tool he happily uses to support teams in leveraging the differences and strengths of each individual for the benefit of their community.
Excursus to start: What is Insights Discovery?
We all know: Every person is unique! This is reflected in all behaviors: In the way of communication, one’s own working style, and also in collaboration with others. Insights Discovery is a model that analyzes these behavioral preferences and makes them visible through four fundamental color energies.
The special thing about Insights Discovery is not only that the color types are easy to understand and remember. The analysis also considers the individual mixtures of the different colors. This makes unused potentials visible that can help teams and companies be more efficient.
The 4 basic colors in Insights Discovery:
Icy Blue: The Analyst. Precise, calm, and questioning
Earth Green: The Empathic. Compassionate, attentive, and consistent
Sunny Yellow: The Entertainer. Sociable, lively, and entertaining
Fiery Red: The Doer. Determined, goal-oriented, and demanding
You have been working as a coach with the color system of Insights Discovery for many years. Why is it important for companies to know the different color types of their employees?
According to Peter Drucker, I can break down the function of management into two points: Retaining employees and achieving results. And Insights Discovery contributes significantly to both:
The more employees a company has, the more relationships develop among them. Thus, a lot of conflict potential arises. Through personality analysis, employees get to know each other better. Consequently, they can work more efficiently together and feel better in their interactions – which ultimately leads to better results for the companies. Through the analysis, employees also develop more understanding for each other, which results in them staying longer in the company.
The four color types have different preferences in their working styles. What differences in learning behavior can be derived from this?
When we look at the archetypes of the four color energies, we gain insights into how learning ideally looks for this person:
Let’s first consider the blue color energy, where a lot is thought through and the outcome must be 100% perfect. The analyst is absolutely focused on the matter and less on social aspects. Learning for the analyst is very book-oriented and involves many sources – thus it’s about comprehensive studying. Everything must be logical; models and systems are important. Learning is very based on causality, as it is always proven that what I am observing is indeed true. Learning is very fact-based.
For the blue color type, synthesis is the focus: Searching for and synthesizing many facts and pieces of information into a learning outcome.
People with a lot of green color energy are called “the Caring Ones”. Green energy is value-oriented energy. Values and relationships are at the forefront. For this learning type, experiences with other people are the preferred learning method. Learning proceeds systematically and step by step through shared experiences. Green types need time to process things. The green learner thinks and reflects a lot and is generally very introspective.
In the green energy, reflection is central: Reflection requires time and calmness, and also much feeling.
In the yellow energy, learning is quite “hands-on,” meaning it’s tangible and participatory, often very collaborative. Collective learning is the focus. These are usually concrete experiments: Practical trials where everyone is involved and new knowledge is generated. Experimenting can also simply be a nice experience – whether what has been learned can be practically applied is secondary. This is the critical difference from the red energy.
In the yellow energy, experimenting is the preferred learning method: Trying out, touching, and learning together from that.
The red color energy goes straight to concrete action: “getting hands on” is the motto here. This means taking a topic, theoretically understanding it to a certain degree, and then directly looking at how it can be implemented in reality. This is partly experimenting but more about finding out how ideas and concepts can exist in the real world. In red energy, I want to see results in a real context.
Red color types learn pragmatically and goal-oriented: The focus is on application and a concrete result in reality.
Even with these different learning preferences, the mixture matters! This means that within employees, these different approaches are individually mixed situationally.
Own representation: The four color preferences in the Insights Discovery model and their respective preferred learning methods.
What prerequisites must companies create so that they can address these four different learning types during training?
There are two possible approaches:
The first approach is a mixed group in a seminar room or in a virtual space. In a mixed group, it is the trainer's job to ensure that all color energies and preferences are equally supported. This means scheduling time for reflection for employees with a green color preference, even if other participants may require more patience for that. Equally important is to go into the details and synthesis, which is important for the blue color energy present. In between, open-ended experiments should be possible, simple trying out – which appeals to the yellow energy. Finally, the red energy must also be supported through pragmatic, reality-based application in learning.
This sequence - from blue to green to yellow and red - has proven effective. This is challenging for employees with a lot of red energy since they have the least patience, but it allows the green and blue types the necessary time in the learning process.
The second approach is to offer different learning models for different learning types. This is, of course, very time-consuming. For example, having a science lab for blue energy, with lots of facts and data for synthesis. We can form another group that does a lot of reflection exercises. Another group can conduct open-ended experiments. And one group can pragmatically apply a concept.
With the second approach, there is always a risk of monoculture, as I’m suggesting to employees that they can only learn with one method. From years of experience, I always recommend the integrative method!
Thank you for the exciting insights, Mr. Portz!
Conclusion
Different learning types show that successful further education cannot work on the principle of "one method fits all".
People learn in different ways: analytically through facts, reflectively through exchange, experimentally through joint trying out, or pragmatically through direct application. Training and education become particularly effective when they combine different forms of learning.
For trainers and personnel developers, this means primarily one thing: Learning offerings should be designed as diversely as possible. Through different methods, exercises, and learning formats, various preferences can be addressed without excluding individual learning types.
This creates further education that not only imparts knowledge but also meets the differing learning habits of participants, resulting in more sustainable effects.
Updated on 06.03.2026
