Character trait
Blue trait
BlueOrder in work, things and relationships. Details, rules, quality.
Essence
The blue trait is the drive for order in objects, work and relationships, and a readiness to pull up anyone who disturbs that order. Its two main properties are orderliness and pressure. It is this trait that gives a professional attitude to work: for it, competence is knowing the details rather than general principles. It is the most common trait: most people have it in one share or another.
How it shows in behaviour
A person with a pronounced blue trait goes into the details and dislikes flippancy and haste. They regulate everything around them and expect the right to hold to account those who departed from an agreement. In people they value competence and reliability above all, and treat the rest with suspicion. Speech is concrete, point by point, with criticism and judgements; irritation at disorder builds up and discharges. Movements are precise and measured, the style functional and strict, things and money accounted for, everything in its place.
What drives it
The motive for action is to bring order to work and relationships, and considerations of benefit, social or material. The blue trait gives a partner order, reliability and work brought up to standard; it demands that rules and agreements be kept; it cannot stand unpredictability, lateness and "creative" chaos.
Where it is strong
In any profession where details, technology and a verifiable result matter: engineering, finance, manufacturing, medicine, administration, security. Wherever something has to be brought up to standard, deadlines held and the work kept from sprawling. In a team the blue trait is the one you can rely on: if they said they would do it, they will.
Where it gets in the way
Where speed, lightness and improvisation are needed: in uncertainty the blue trait gets bogged down in details and demands rules that don't exist yet. In relationships it struggles with people who are late, change plans and don't value order; irritation at disorder easily turns into nitpicking. Distrust of people protects against mistakes but makes it hard to let go of control and delegate.
How to recognise it in yourself
What do you do when a colleague hands in work with a mistake: quietly fix it so as not to spoil the relationship, or go and sort it out so that next time it's done by the rules? What irritates you more — other people's slowness or other people's carelessness? If the latter, and if you know how much money you have to the nearest pound, the blue trait is noticeable in you. You probably have little of it if your things and money are in chronic disorder and you take broken agreements lightly.
What it gets confused with: tidiness can be green (so that it's beautiful) and cyan (in case something goes wrong). Blue tidiness is specifically functional.
Questions about the blue trait
I'm tidy — does that mean I have the blue trait?
Not necessarily. Tidiness comes in different kinds: the green trait keeps order because it's beautiful that way, the cyan — in case something goes wrong. Blue tidiness is specifically functional: everything is where it is convenient to use, and accounted for.
Is the blue trait pedantry?
From the outside it sometimes looks that way: attention to detail, a dislike of haste and flippancy. But it is exactly this attention that makes a person a professional: competence is knowing the details, not the general principles. It becomes a hindrance where speed and improvisation are needed.
This is a description of a trait, not of a person: character is always a mix of three or more traits, and in it blue may lead, support or be barely noticeable. Which pairing is yours is for the test to show; the result is a working hypothesis based on your answers.