[00:00:04] Chad: Hey Chad here coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% better podcast.  If any of you have seen my work space or maybe my my closet at home, you know that I'm a real [00:00:20] stickler for like cards. Books any kind of like physical materials and tools when it comes to learning or training facilitation Etc.

[00:00:32] And I wanted to give a shout out to a really cool deck of cards that I just got this week [00:00:40] from a neighbor. It turns out but his name is Matthias. Jakob senoir. Jacobsson. I hope I'm saying that right Matthias he. He's from the think clearly.com and that's think clearly without any vowels. So it's th in K C [00:01:00] LR L why he's a really cool thinker.

[00:01:06] But even more than that, he's a visual thinker which is one of my favorite kinds of thinkers for all of you Visual facilitators and expert doodlers. I am quite envious. So that might be something that [00:01:20] I'm going to turn my attention to when it comes to getting one percent better. But Matthias had just come out with these deck of cards one is called question cards, and the other is called strategy cards and.

[00:01:35] Not only when I'm working with clients, but also if I'm interviewing someone on a [00:01:40] podcast or you know, even just discussing things with friends being able to ask the right question is invaluable.  My my favorite or my favorite way to get into questions actually is just saying, you know, I'm curious and [00:02:00] signaling to the other person that you're curious helps them open up and be a little bit.

[00:02:04] More vulnerable maybe with what they're sharing with you and it just signals are than that you're generally interested in understanding what they want to know, but I think having a range of questions in your toolbox is invaluable when it comes to [00:02:20] just connecting deeper with friends or you know, helping clients understand what their their challenges are and how they might overcome them.

[00:02:27] So I'm just gonna unbox these cards right here on the podcast. So I'm looking at the question cards. And Matthias says it's deck of cards each with one powerful question or prompt [00:02:40] we can use these cards to get clarity for ourselves and others. So if we open up the pack here, there's a couple of cards on how to use them.

[00:02:51] And so he's talking about why questions and reflection is important for us. It's a structured way of [00:03:00] processing our experiences. I can say that journaling the reflection process of journaling is is invaluable.  And then he says okay here's how to reflect. He gives a process for pulling out your pen and notebook and then [00:03:20] drawing a card and then by writing or drawing without pausing.

[00:03:26] Respond to the prompt. It's important not to judge. What comes out.

Matias also gives us a way to reflect as a group and how we might do this as a group and share everything in the group as I'm it's [00:03:40] about the size of a normal deck of cards. I don't know how many cars that maybe about 50 cards and it looks like it's broken into one two, three four sections section one is Beginnings section 2 is feelings.

[00:03:55] Section 3 is insights in section 4 is [00:04:00] actions. I think that's a really interesting way to break up. Not only the Reflection process but to be able to capture the feelings. That are brought up by those Reflections the insights from those feelings. And then I think most importantly what actions you might take.

[00:04:19] So I'm [00:04:20] just going to read maybe one or two cards from each of these to give you a sense of.  Of what's included? So in the beginnings section, he says draw a timeline of what has already happened.  This is interesting reflecting on maybe a project that you've done in capture. Everything that's happened [00:04:40] to date.

[00:04:41] So looking in the feelings sections. I might ask myself. What doubts do I have?  So looking at the timeline and seeing well, maybe we've slipped on a couple of these dates. Maybe a doubt is that I don't know that we're going to be able to get it done on time. And that scares [00:05:00] me. So in the inside section, there's a question that says what is truly important to me and list those priorities in order.

[00:05:11] So if I'm afraid that these dates are going to be slipping this question can really help me understand. Okay. Well if we have to make some compromises what am I [00:05:20] willing to compromise on and what am I not?  and I think this last one for actions is. This ties into the last episode on Walden perfectly.

[00:05:32] The last one in the actions section says who will I ask to hold me accountable.  I think that's a [00:05:40] really perfect and emergent reflection process of me. Just drawing cards at random from this question stack so Matthias, I wanted to say thank you for this question deck. I can't wait to use it. Not only here as I'm making the 1% better podcast, but [00:06:00] again also like maybe with client work and having fun discussions with with friends or colleagues.

[00:06:07] So I'm going to put this deck away and open up the strategy deck.  So I found through the questions deck beforehand, but I haven't opened this one up. So the strategy deck is a deck of cards to help you make strategy more simple and clear using visuals. All right, that sounds [00:06:20] cool. Each card has a drawing organize the cards on the table to show a strategy and so we'll see.

[00:06:28] Let's see what these look like.

[00:06:34] So again, there's kind of some how to use cards like what is a strategy.  And [00:06:40] then on the on the backs of the cards. There's a bunch of words. So I'm just going to take one. This one says content contract file proposal writing reading paperwork and documenting and [00:07:00] then on the other side, there's a there's like a little icon of three pieces of paper in the top one has some writing on it.

[00:07:06] So it's like an icon for a document that you might see So I think what he's asking us to do is so he says strategies the art and practice of getting from here to there and he's asking us to select images to [00:07:20] answer these questions. So, where are we now? Where do we want to go? What's standing in the way? What choices do we have? And what choices are we making?

[00:07:34] And I love his drawing style. It's really what drew me to think clearly and Matthias [00:07:40] his work in the first place. Very simple kind of pen drawings. I think the way he draws people is is is very cute and unique. It's not just like the star the star person with a circle head. And I mean there's there's a guy parachuting.

[00:07:59] There's a guy running. [00:08:00] There's a guy holding a 50-pound kettlebell over his head other things like a balance. Here's a really fun just scribbly hairball. It's interesting because. On The Backs, he's kind of giving key words of what it might represent. So the the crazy scribble hairball is [00:08:20] chaos complexity unpredictable Evolution mess and pattern so I'm really fascinated by how how we might be able to like storyboard a strategy using these visuals.

[00:08:40] [00:08:40] I think when I'm facilitating meetings or work with clients.  Getting out of the chairs getting away from the Whiteboard actually can be really helpful in a tool. Like these cards is really fascinating. You know, there's the kind. Joke of Consultants [00:09:00] or in design thinkers using like a thousand Post-its in there stuck, you know everywhere from the Whiteboard to the table to to the door, but these cards are really interesting prompt that I'd be fascinated to see how how the conversation how the meeting goes a little bit differently.

[00:09:19] Just [00:09:20] working in a different way. I think if there's a theme to my work it's trying to find new ways of working to unlock Collective creativity and I'm really excited to use these cards. So I'll put a link in the show notes to think clearly and these cars from Matthias again. Shout out to you been listening to Matthias is podcast, which she [00:09:40] records from the streets of Brooklyn and New York.

[00:09:42]And I think if you're looking for a new tool to think and do work a little bit differently that these questions strategy cards could be a great fit. So that's this episode of one percent better again. Text me if you got any questions recommendations, or just where you [00:10:00] are in your journey to getting one percent better.

[00:10:02] That's 917.971.3737.