How Good Are You at HBDI? Try an HBDI Quiz.
This HBDI quiz has two sections: Standard and Advanced. Use the jump links to navigate between the question and answer sections.
Standard Quiz Questions
1. Which colour is this?
- Completes sentences and paragraphs.
- Very concrete in speaking.
- Asks questions that have answers.
- And thinks step-by-step.
2. What are the three types of brains that we have?
3. Which colour is this NOT?
- Speaks in phrases.
- Stops in mid-sentence, thinking others obviously know.
- Very abstract in speaking – uses metaphors and musical words.
- Asks questions that lead to other questions.
4. Which colour would prefer a slide showing the dates of implementation across the top from January to December?
5. State the order of colours of these 4 picture slides in this HBDI quiz:
Questions 7-15
6. I am giving feedback to someone in this way…
- Be organised & structured.
- Use a sequential approach.
- Pay attention to details.
Which colour is the feedback to?
7. Why is communication from yellow to green hard?
8. I am giving feedback to a blue, how would you advise me to do this?
9. What are the 4 F words we associate with the quadrants?
10. Which colour would this work environment float the boat of?
- Taking Risks
- Inventing Solutions
- Providing Vision
- Having Variety
- Bringing About Change
- Opportunity to Experiment
- Selling Ideas
- Developing New Things
- Excitement
11. Which colour was Mahatma Gandhi and why?
12. What score does each circle of the profile get?
13. When we are at work are we more the pressured or the not pressured profile and why?
14. Is HBDI a personality profiling tool, a thinking profiling tool, or a values profiling tool?
15. Titanic: Which colour is the Captain, which colour is Mr Andrews, and which colour is Mr Ismay?
Standard Answers
1. Green because they are left-brain logical people and think in next steps.
2. You might describe the 3 brains as the reptilian brain, the monkey brain and the human brain.
3. Not a Blue, Green or Red, because it is someone with a Yellow thinking preference.
4. A Green because they like structure and a timeline is a good example of a structured piece of thinking.
5. See answers below:
Ans: Green because they can be risk-averse.
Ans: Yellow because they can struggle to share the details and see only the big picture.
Ans: Red because relationships are important.
Ans: Blue because they can calculate things coldly and see the numbers.
6. A Green because they like a structured approach with details to support it.
Answers 7-15
7. This is because communication is diametrically opposed; yellow to green, green to yellow, and blue to red, and red to blue. Communication like this is hardest because the other person has a thinking preference that is least like ours.
8. See answers below:
- Be precise & logical
- Use facts
- Pay attention to the data
9. See answers below:
- Blue is ‘Fact.’
- Green is ‘Form.’
- Red is ‘Feelings.’
- And Yello is ‘Future.’
10. Yellows.
11. He was red because he valued people hugely.
12. You can see from this diagram that the circle scores are 1, 1, 2, and 3. In essence, the further towards the outer circle the more preference to think in this way.
13. We are more pressured because Herrmann believes that when we are at work we are under pressure.
14. It is a thinking tool. Whereas Myers Briggs is a personality tool.
15. The Captain is a Red because he asks about the people and he is annoyed with Mr Ismay. Mr Andrews is being a Blue because he shares facts (Though an argument could be made for Green also as he talks a lot in next steps). And Mr Ismay is being a Yellow because he says that the ship cannot sink, which is a big-picture thought.
Advanced Quiz Questions
Use the jump links to navigate between the question and answer sections.
1. When buying a house, this person says to their partner ‘Do you feel that this is a good neighbourhood?’ – Which colour asked the question?
2. ‘When you stand on the top deck of the Titanic you can look into the eyes of the Statue of Liberty’ – Which colour would say this?
3. My daughter categorised all the books in her bedroom into author and genre. What is her predominant colour?
4. Which two pairs of colours struggle to get along with each other the most? And why?
5. Which is the best colour?
6. A higher colour score means a higher preference. True or False?
Questions 7-15
7. ‘Olympus has Fallen’ (film clip below) – which colour is Morgan Freeman being at the end?
8. What does the dotted line on your profile mean?
9. What does a 1221 profile mean?
10. Which two predominant colours do you think Elon Musk is not?
11. In a meeting, what order of colours would you use for the team to solve a problem?
12. Which colour might think this of another colour -‘You’ve got your head stuck in the clouds’.
13. If a person is particularly indecisive what might this suggest about their colour profile?
14. Captain Philips (clip below) – Which colour was the medic? And which colour did Tom Hanks most need?
15. Place these four professions into their respective colours:
- Medical researcher
- Film director
- Dog walker
- and PA
Advanced Answers
1. Red – Using the word ‘feel’. What words might a Green use? ‘Next/Hear’. What would might a Blue use? ‘Fact/Data/Information’. What words might a Yellow use? ‘See’.
2. Yellow – They use metaphors.
3. Green – Organised. Structured. Logical.
4. Red & blue and Green & yellow because they are diametrically opposed. They think the most differently.
5. All. There is no colour better than another. Trick question.
6. True.
Answers 7-15
7. Green.
8. It is where you think under pressure. Not everyone’s profile changes under pressure.
9. The outer two are ‘1’ and then the inner is ‘2’ and then ‘3’.
10. Red and Green.
11. Yellow, then Blue, then Red, and then Green. No absolute answer.
12. Green to Yellow. Yellows might think what of Greens?
13. Square – Colours fighting.
14. Blue. Red.
15. Here they are:
- Medical researcher (blue)
- Film director (yellow)
- PA (green) and
- Dog walker (red)
Finally, if you enjoyed this HBDI quiz and want to know more, check out our content on YouTube. Also, see our Ultimate Guide to HBDI.
