You're Not Playing With a Full Deck:
Why the Coworkers Who Drive You Crazy Are Your Unfair Advantage
That person who drives you nuts? They're the ace up your sleeve.
With the best of intentions, you 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.
You end up playing with only half a deck.
The perspectives you avoid, the colleagues who make you cringe, the ideas that sound crazy, are the missing cards you need most. And ignoring them is costing you.
In this book, you'll discover the four thinking styles required for true innovation, and learn to:
- Turn the colleagues who drive you crazy into your competitive advantage. They unlock what you've been missing.
- Identify which cards are missing from your team, and why that's costing you breakthrough results.
- Rethink culture fit. It's blocking your growth by making you overlook the people who could change everything.
- Ensure your meetings are playing with a full deck. The right balance, with the right people leading the way.
- Build what AI can't replace. When every digital tool becomes a commodity, how your people think together is your only real differentiator.
No endless assessments. No 47-page report. No corporate BS.
Just a fast read that'll change how you see everyone you work with, especially the ones you'd rather avoid.
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It's not about personalities.
It's for innovation, collaboration & growth.
At the core of Stephen Shapiro's latest book is a powerful insight: to do your best work, you don't need to be well-rounded. You need to be well-paired. His card-suit framework makes different thinking styles easy to spot, and easier to combine. You'll come away ready to rethink your assumptions and reshuffle your team.
Daniel H. Pink#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret and Drive
In You're Not Playing with a Full Deck, innovation expert Stephen M. Shapiro reveals that true business success requires a diverse hand. This is not just another personality test; it is an organizational diagnostic tool that identifies precisely why your team has stalled, and why innovation isn't happening.
Using the metaphor of a deck of cards, Shapiro introduces four essential thinking styles:
Each suit links to a step of the innovation process. So if your team is missing even one of these suits, you won't play to your full potential.
Based on Personality Poker, the card-based system that has been played by over 250,000 people. Written for executives and team leaders who are tired of corporate fluff and just want results.
I've used Personality Poker throughout my 13 years as CEO. It's an invaluable tool for building high-performing teams, improving collaboration, and supporting a culture of innovation.
Eric Dickson, MDPresident and CEO, UMass Memorial Health