I have read all of the Strengths books and have implemented the philosophy at our school. I am a huge believer in them as I have seen the use in many areas and the atmosphere at work improve.
One example: I am not an organized person. In so many self-improvement conversations (books, forums, etc.) I have heard people say basically, "just get it done." When I decided to search my strengths for ways to be more organized, I realized that my competition theme (comparing to others, keeping score, etc.) could help. I had a grant monitoring project that needed organized and I realized if I approached it with a mindset of having a better process and organization than others, I would get it done. And did.
Anyway, I really believe it works if we continue to look at and search for the nuances of our strengths. I've been working with Strengths in a school setting for three years and can't wait to see the results after we do some work with our students.
My top 5 (and you'll see why action can be an issue
) - Ideation, Learner, Futuristic, Strategic, Competition.