The Chameleon

Life-Changing Wisdom for Anyone Who has a Personality or Knows Someone Who Does

By: Merrick Rosenberg

Narrated by: Allyson Briggs, Merrick Rosenberg

Imagine what it would be like to understand the actions and motivations of others - and to know how to apply such knowledge to be a more effective leader, teacher, coach, or salesperson - or even a better partner, or parent. The Chameleon, by Merrick Rosenberg, a fun, easy-to-understand listen, teaches powerful lessons about gaining deeper self-awareness, maximizing personal strengths, and empowering others around you. The Chameleon contains 22 fables based on the Eagle, Parrot, Dove, and Owl personality styles Rosenberg introduced in his first book, Taking Flight!

Guided by an all-knowing chameleon, the characters help listeners gain meaningful insights into understanding themselves and others.

The Introduction fable provides an overview of the four personality styles. The fables chronicle the bird's interactions over a one-year period and are followed by a "Chameleon Wisdom" section which expands on the fable's lessons and provides practical applications and scenarios of the story's moral. These deeper insights include examples of how to employ the styles to increase effectiveness at work, deepen personal relationships, parent with compassion, and generally live a more fulfilling life.

©2016 Merrick Rosenberg (P)2017 Take Flight Media

Reads like a children's book

Normally I am not into this writing style however, when looking at the context of the story it was necessary. I've learned a lot about personality studies since I was first introduced to them at a conference many years ago, but I've never seen the communication styles between two more more personality types in this format. A great read for anyone looking to understand others and themselves better whether a novice or an expert.

I'll listen to it over and over again.

The book was great. Listening to the stories was even better. Very well done, thanks.

practical life skills in a relatable way

I have taken coaching before with Merrick, and thought the DISC styles were very interesting with a goal using the lessons to understand and relate better to other people in personal and professional life. However, the allegory of this book using stories and the bird characters make it easier to remember. I think this will help people more. Finally, the summary by the author at the end with key takeaways and advice helps even further and makes it easier to digest. I took notes of these summaries, and it made even more sense.

What’s your bird avatar?

This book was extremely helpful in identifying communication styles by not only using the different types of birds but also giving examples of how our styles of communication are not always as effective as we think. The examples show how our different styles can be perceived by others and gives guidance on what we can do to minimize breakdowns in communication. It was very entertaining to listen to as well.

Wish there was more

Wish there was more like a second installment. Each time I listen I pick up new information!

I wish I had this wisdom 50 years ago!

This book will become required listening for the leaders in my company. And highly recommended for everyone else in my life. Well done, Merric Rosenberg and Allyson Briggs!

Great fabelized depiction of the personality types

Really enjoyed this book. Narration is excellent (and I've listened to enough to know when it's good!). The Chameleon is a fictionalized depiction of the 4 personality types and how they should (and should not!) deal with one another. The examples are really simple to understand, but the telling of each one brings in a lot of detail, which makes them very memorable. I actually pondered the description of how the different personality types express creativity for several days after I heard it! Merrick brought up some points that would never have occurred to me. Highly recommend this for anyone wanting to improve their interactions with others.

hate false positivity? avoid like the plague.

if you want to learn how your personality might be categorized in relation to other people's categorized personalities just do the Myers-Briggs test and research that. if you want to do an in-depth and purposeful deep dive into your own personality look into a really good big 5/big 10 OCEAN test. (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.)
if you've done those things and are still confused this might be the book for you. it is a dumbed-down, unreasonably over simplified, anthropomorphised mess attempting to be personality theory. and God help you if you don't like the way news anchors sound, or motivational speakers. this is the worst hyperemphasized performance that tries to be so unbelievably positive that it becomes supremely infuriating. nobody talks like that. and anybody that does is trying to sell you something. it's also got hints of condescension in it- but l, admittedly, that may be my projection. if somebody tried to talk to me like this face to face, we'd have serious problems. God awful.
even if it was brilliant- the performance makes it unlistenable. perhaps the worst author/narrator simul-screwup in audibles entire catalog.