Yes, And! With Avish Parashar
Avish Parashar
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059 - Say "Yes, And!" to Playing with a Full Deck with Stephen Shapiro
What if understanding who you're NOT is actually more important than understanding who you are? In this episode, I sit down with innovation expert, Hall of Fame speaker, and author Stephen Shapiro for a wide-ranging conversation about innovation, goals, productivity, personality, collaboration, and creating cultures where different types of people can do their best work. Stephen and I go back more than 20 years — although he probably didn't know it at the time! — and I've followed and learned from his work throughout my speaking career. So I took advantage of this conversation to revisit some of his ideas that have stuck with me over the years. We talk about his counterintuitive philosophy of "Goal-Free Living," why being called "the laziest person" became a compliment that shaped the way he thinks about work, and why he believes most of the best practices we learn from successful people should probably be ignored. Then we dive into Stephen's Personality Poker methodology and his new book, You're Not Playing with a Full Deck. Stephen explains how understanding your natural strengths — and, more importantly, what's missing from your "hand" — can help you figure out who you need around you. I even let Stephen analyze my own Personality Poker results, which leads us into a fascinating conversation about the difference between our innate traits and the traits we learn in order to become successful — and whether some of those learned behaviors can eventually start holding us back. Finally, we explore how these ideas apply beyond the individual to teams and entire organizations, including how leaders can identify what's missing from their teams, improve collaboration, and create lasting culture change. Key Takeaways Why Stephen prefers using a "compass" instead of a "map" when thinking about goals and the future How to "meander with purpose" while still moving your life and business forward Why being "lazy" can actually force you to rethink systems and focus on the work that creates the most value Why you should be skeptical of other people's "best practices" — even when their advice is good How Personality Poker helps you understand both who you are and who you are NOT Why the missing "cards" in your hand can reveal the people you most need to collaborate with The difference between innate personality traits and traits you've learned in order to succeed Why playing to learned strengths might sometimes pull you away from what naturally energizes you How teams can diagnose gaps that are hurting creativity, execution, decision-making, and collaboration Why the person who annoys you the most may actually be the person you need the most How organizations can move beyond one-time training and create culture change that actually sticks Relevant Links Stephen Shapiro: theinnovationspeaker.com Personality Poker: personalitypoker.com You're Not Playing with a Full Deck book by Stephen Shapiro Avish's website: AvishParashar.com
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