The New Personality Poker Cards are Available!
The Personality Poker book is available in 6 weeks and 2 days.
But starting today, you can buy the new and improved Personality Poker cards from the “Change This” site. These are the guys who bring you the Change This manifestos.
For the past few years, we have been selling the cards for $200 for 6 decks with instructions. But after printing 50,000 decks of cards, our production costs have dropped significantly. Therefore we are pleased to offer the cards for:
- 5 decks plus instruction manual, quick start guide, and online streaming video for $75 -
enough for 35 people - 10 decks plus instruction manual, quick start guide, and online streaming video for $125 -
enough for 70 people
Aside from the reduced price (over 50% less), the cards have 2 major improvements.
- The cards have new words: We partnered with a psychology professor from Columbia College who did some scientific analysis.
- The cards have a new design: When you hold them in your hand you can read the words along the side. This makes playing the game even easier.
If you want to energize a meeting, supercharge your innovation team, or just have some fun, you’ll want to get your decks of Personality Poker now.
P.S. The 800 CEO READ guys, the owners of Change This, wrote a blog entry on Personality Poker
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Is Your Organization Playing with a Full Deck?
Look at any group of people who effortlessly work well together. Odds are the individuals share a lot in common with each other. They might have similar backgrounds, expertise, interests, or personalities. This is natural. Contrary to conventional wisdom, opposites do not attract. We find it easier to work with people who are like us. As a result, teams that lack diversity are the norm.
In fact, there is plenty of scientific research suggesting that homogeneous teams do indeed perform better than more heterogeneous ones for “low difficulty” tasks – those with lower levels of ambiguity, uncertainty and complexity.
However, research also shows that in situations involving “high difficulty” tasks, heterogeneous groups consistently perform the best. Innovation is, by its very nature, fraught with uncertainty and complexity. It is obviously a high-difficulty task. Although homogeneous teams are more efficient, it is the uniformity of thinking on these types of teams that limits breakthrough ideas and reduces innovation. Ensuring a range of innovation styles should be the goal in constructing such groups in order to maximize team performance.
Unfortunately, diverse teams, left to their own devices, are rarely efficient. Differences of opinion, creative tension, and infighting will naturally emerge. Individuals who think differently do not naturally communicate well with each other. Therefore, it is important that innovation teams be given the tools to “play well together.”
Putting this together, we end up with three simple principles. And these are the three key principles of Personality Poker:
- People in your organization must “play to their strong suit.” That is, make sure that everyone understands how they contribute to and detract from the innovation process. This includes ensuring that you have the right people with the right leadership styles in your organization.
- As an organization, you need to “play with a full deck.” Embrace a wide range of innovation styles. Instead of hiring on competency and chemistry, also hire for a diversity of innovation styles. Every step of the innovation process must be addressed with people with the right innovation styles.
- “Deal out the work.” That is, you must divide and conquer. You can’t have everyone in your organization do everything. Instead, get them to divvy up the work based on which style is most effective at a given task. You can’t have everyone generating ideas, or focusing on planning.
Innovation is the life-blood of your organization. It is crucial for long-term growth. Without it, your business will almost certainly become irrelevant and commoditized. Unfortunately, although it is important, it is not always easy. However, applying these three simple principles can help you create high-performing innovation teams that consistently “beat the house.”
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Pictures of My Baby, Delivered Today
No, I did not give birth to a boy or a girl. I gave birth to a book. I’ll be handing out cigars later.
But in the meantime, I wanted to share the photos of my new baby. Here is the first copy of the Personality Poker book, hot off the press. Previous photos were “glamor shots.” These are the real deal. You have to see it to appreciate how cool it is.
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Looking for Reviewers of the Personality Poker Book
Today marks 10 weeks before the release of the Personality Poker book.
And just a few hours ago I received 100 copies of the “galleys” (the uncorrected paperback proofs).
Over the next few weeks, we will be compiling a list of those in the media, including bloggers, who we think would be interested in receiving the book, along with a deck of the specially designed cards.
Unfortunately, I don’t know everyone out there who might be want to read this “masterpiece.” Therefore, I am reaching out to see if YOU want to receive a copy.
If you are in the media (TV, print, radio, internet, etc) and would like a copy, please email us at info (at) personalitypokerbook (dot) com.
P.S. Be sure to read my article, Is Your Organizations Playing with a Full Deck?, published on the Pearson Learning Solutions website.
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Everything Has a Personality
While developing Personality Poker, one thing I discovered is that lots of things have personalities: People, Political Parties, Products, Places, and Organizations (I could not find a “p” for this last one).
When you look at everything through the lens of a personality, you begin to see why individuals gravitate towards (or away from) certain people, companies, political affiliations, products, and geographies.
Contrary to convention wisdom, opposites do not attract. Human beings prefer to be surrounded by people who are “like” them.
Therefore, the desire for “sameness” creates homogeneous personalities in everything we see.
Saying that people have personalities is nothing new. Personality typing has been around for over 2,000 years, since the days of Hippocrates.
But organizations also have personalities. In some circles, this might be referred to as a company’s “culture.” The personality of a company impacts the people they hire and the methods they use to motivate and retain employees. People who don’t fit the mold, never join or eventually leave. The result? More of the same. Although highly creative individuals may thrive in a company with an innovation-driven personality, they will most likely whiter in one which is overly bottom-line, short-term focused. If you want to change your company culture, a good first step is to distinguish its personality.
The same is true with political parties, which are basically organizations with common points of view. The Republican party has a very different personality than the Democratic Party. Because like attracts like, the beliefs associated with each party get cemented. It also makes it difficult to understand and appreciate the perspectives of opposing party beliefs.
Even products have personalities. The personality of an Apple MacBook is quite different than that of a Window’s based PC. And the people who buy each product is a reflection of the individual’s personality. A person who drives a BMW is making a statement about their personality. Someone driving a Ford F150 is saying something quite different. Yes, sometimes we buy a product for its features and functions. But more often, we buy things because they are a reflection of our personality. [Or maybe we buy a product based on what personality we want others to think we are, such as buying a Ferrari during a midlife crisis].
Places (cities, states, and countries) have personalities too. Although both are in Texas, Austin has a very different personality than Dallas. Austin is weird (proudly so) while Dallas is more conservative. Due to the perceived differences in personality, the influx of new residents into each city helps cement their personality over time. What’s the personality of your hometown? Does it reflect who you are? Are there cities where you would not live because the personality clashes?
Maybe everything has a personality. In a class I am taking, I am supposed to ask people a number of questions about me. One of them is, “If I were on the cover of a magazine, which one would it be? And what would be the title of the article?” Nearly everyone I spoke with gravitated towards business magazines, saying that Fast Company, Wired, or Entrepreneur were the right choices for me. Most felt that Forbes or Fortune were too serious. Clearly that says something about my personality, and the personalities of the magazine.
It is fun to look at everything through the lens of personality. And when you remember that we naturally gravitate towards those (people, places, products, etc) with similar personalities, you will begin to see why we make the decisions we make.
From an organizational perspective, there is a greater opportunity. If you are struggling to innovate, it might be because you do not have a wide range of personalities in your organizations. Your company’s personality might be repelling potential and current employees. As a result, you attract and retain only those who fit the personality. This is the enemy of innovation. But more on this in future blog entries…
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