Exploring New Ideas for a Summer of Growth

Between the Lines of Leadership · A Headhunter's Picks (29)

Summer's almost here, and I want to share what I'm digging into to keep growing! 😊 These card decks will be my companions during my summer reflection 😉. I don't just want to tell you what I've lived, I want to share the road my exploration is taking. So here's what each deck focuses on and why it matters. Honestly, it's a really clever idea: it packs the wisdom of a whole shelf of books into a few cards.

https://pipdecks.com/

Pip Decks offers a range of decks built to sharpen different sides of running a business and growing as a person. The founder and creator is 🎴 Charles Burdett

Here's a full rundown of the decks out there and what they're good for:

1. Storyteller Tactics

What it's for: This deck helps you tell better stories in a business setting. It gives you techniques to build stories that convince, motivate, connect and explain, and do it well. It's great for presentations, sales, leadership and internal comms, handing you narrative structures and styles that make your stories land harder and stick longer.

(this video is really visual and walks you through something we've already covered here, the importance of Simon Sinek's Why. How to use the deck)

2. Workshop Tactics

What it's for: This deck is built to run effective workshops, especially with agile teams. It packs exercises for creative ideation, energizers, root-cause analysis, decision matrices and facilitation techniques. It's perfect for sharpening collaboration, spotting and solving problems, and making informed decisions as a team.

3. Team Tactics

What it's for: Aimed at managing and growing teams, this deck gives you tactics to design and run effective teams for the long haul. It covers strategies to build a safe environment, define roles, set a clear direction, support the team, and drive communication and recognition. It's great for managers, designers, coaches and consultants who want to sharpen how they manage teams and build a culture of collaboration and success.

What the Decks Have in Common

Each of these decks comes with a range of categories and recipes to tackle specific problems and design practical solutions. The usual categories include:

• Recipe: Ways to mix different tactics to crack complex problems.
• Environment: Strategies to build a safe, collaborative work environment.
• Direction: Define visions, values and principles to guide the team.
• Support: Give the team the support it needs to succeed.
• Health: Monitor and maintain the team's health.
• Collaborate: Drive effective collaboration within the team.
• Communicate: Sharpen clear, effective communication.
• Recognition: Recognize and reward the team's effort.

Examples of Techniques in the Decks

• Storyteller Tactics: Techniques like "Stories that Sell", "Three Great Conflicts" and "Hero & Guide" help you structure and tell stories that grab and hold an audience's attention.
• Workshop Tactics: Exercises like "G.R.O.W", "Empathy Map" and "Rose, Thorn, Bud" are built to drive critical thinking and generate ideas.
• Team Tactics: Strategies like "Build Psychological Safety", "Team Vision" and "Health Monitor" guide you in building a healthy, productive work environment.

These decks are practical tools that people in all kinds of roles can use to get better at storytelling, facilitating workshops and managing teams.

As I said, I'm just starting to work with these decks, so if you'd like me to go deeper, drop it in the comments and I'll dig into more detail in future editions.

(a video's also worth a thousand words ;) here's the ad I like, and it's nice and visual)

Here are two cards (as a little spoiler alert forW Executive España 😊). Now that we're setting up a W Culture committee (culture and the focus on cultivating talent is where we want to stand out), these cards could spark some inspiration (we'll see). These are two possible new projects to make our culture even stronger.

PS: I know this might read like an ad, but as of today I don't get any kind of commission (the author can say otherwise :)), so it's a free opinion, just like plenty of others I've already shared. See you after the summer.