No More Mondays Podcast

This was a FUN interview with Angie Marasco Callen! Here’s the session description: Explore how leaders can innovate effectively in an unpredictable world with Stephen Shapiro. This episode dives into why copying best practices fails, how to leverage human uniqueness against automation, and the power of diverse team dynamics. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction to Stephen Shapiro […]

Take Our “Why Does This Person Drive Me Crazy?” QUIZ

That person who drives you nuts? They’re the ace up your sleeve. We like to be with people who are similar to us. So we hire people who fit the mold. But here’s the problem: When everyone fits the mold, your organization grows mold. You get stale thinking. Safe ideas. No breakthroughs. The perspectives you […]

What I Learned from Creating 100+ Cover Concepts

Six months ago, I started designing the cover for my 8th book, and my first self-published one. In the past, my publisher handled the cover and I simply approved it. This time, every decision was mine. The book is called You’re Not Playing with a Full Deck. It’s a business book on innovation, collaboration, and […]

Animated Book Cover

Something cool from my book cover designer…an animated cover! ♠️ ♥️ ♦️ ♣️

Opposites Don’t Attract – And This is a Problem

Contrary to conventional wisdom, opposites do not attract. They detract. They repel. But what if the person who is least like you is the person you need most? I learned this the hard way. I once led a project with a $30M budget, and it failed miserably because my co-leader and the team were too […]

The Five Levels of Personality

Everyone talks about the personality of a person, the individual. But almost everything in an organization has a personality. Teams have personalities. They shape how work gets done, what gets done well, and what gets missed. Meetings have personalities. They reflect what the meeting is designed to do. Many companies have too many of one […]

Find the One Who Drives You Crazy

My most successful project was co-led by someone who drove me crazy. He was my opposite. He was detail-oriented and focused on deliverables, whereas I was driven by novelty and coolness. When I look back, I can see that we didn’t succeed in spite of our differences. We succeeded because of them. When we figured […]

Full Deck Proofs

With the book launch one month away, it was exciting to receive the first proofs of the paperback version. It looks significantly more impressive in its physical form!

Play to Your Strong Suit

You can’t be great at everything. If you try, you’ll be great at nothing. You want to “play to your strong suit.” These are the traits that give you energy and reflect your superpower. And the cards you don’t have? Those aren’t weaknesses to fix. They’re opportunities for collaboration. *** From “You’re Not Playing with […]

Full Deck Speech Synopsis from Global Innovation Management Institute (GIMI)

I recently delivered a session for members of the Global Innovation Management Institute. After I was done, the Institute pulled together a valuable five-page resource based on my presentation. They did a fantastic job of highlighting some of my key messages, including why: innovation fails when teams think alike diversity alone does not work; the […]