On the School of Thought Podcast we play my team building card game #cardsagainstmundanity. The host of show came from Los Angeles to Dallas and we played the game in my condo (with a mimosa and my Jack Russell and better half, Angie). See how it works live. 12,000 people are using it. Short 20min episode.
Here is what Ryan Cowden, podcast host, had to say:
“Hi everyone! This is just a reminder to check out an extra special bonus of the School of Thought Podcast! This week Jason and I play his card game Cards Against Mundanity. In this special episode, Jason talks about the research that went into the game and how he uses it to create community between coworkers. Then we dove in and played it for real. If you want to create the same openness and dialogue in your classroom I think this is a great place to start.”
Jason Treu is an executive coach who works with leaders, managers, and teams to maximize engagement, trust, teamwork and performance.
He is the author of Social Wealth, guide to building business relationships.
He created a game called Cards Against Mundanity, which he has used to help teams at Google and other organizations build better relationships in the workplace. More than 12,000 employees have played it.
Jason debuted this card game in a TED Talk in 2017. He’s a team building expert.
EGGS 100: JASON TREU – EXECUTIVE BUSINESS COACH AND TEAM BUILDER
This week on Eggs we have special guest Jason Treu. Jason Treu is an executive business coach who works with leaders, entrepreneurs, and rising start-ups to maximize their leadership potential and performance. With more than 60,000 copies sold, he is the best-selling author of Social Wealth, a how-to guide on building an extraordinary business. Jason also hosts a podcast called Executive Breakthroughs, where game-changing CEO’s, entrepreneurs, and experts are invited to share their breakthroughs and breakdowns. This conversation was super valuable and contains a lot of practical nuggets that will help you understand the importance of people in your business and life.
“I just wanted to say thank you so much for coming on the show. We actually used your card game in one of our professional development sessions with teachers a few months back and it went really well. Your episode has been doing really well. I have gotten rave reviews from my audience with many feeling as if they received great coaching during your episode.”
Dominic Lawson
Host of The Startup Life Podcast & Owner of Owls (an education consulting firm that tailors professional learning and instructional content to help school and district leaders improve the way teachers and students learn, interact and perform.)
Train Your Business Team Like the Navy SEALs w/ Jason Treu on the B2B Revenue Podcast. http://b2brevexec.libsyn.com/train-your-business-team-like-the-navy-seals-w-jason-treu
If you want to be a good leader, take accountability for finding the potential in people and developing it.
I recently interviewed Jason Treu, an executive coach who focuses on leadership.
I learned that if you want to proactively reach your team, it’s better to look at someone’s behavior pattern like a computer program. Objectively.
That’s exactly what the Navy SEALs do. They ask these questions:
– What were our intended results?
– What were the actual results?
– What went well?
– What didn’t go well?
– What did we learn from this?
– What can we implement moving forward?
It is not emotional. It’s looking at a situation objectively. They don’t place blame. It’s not about failure.
Even if everything went right, the mentality is to discover what they can get better.
It’s neither good nor bad. It’s a computer program. You have the choice to be right or you have a choice to be happy, successful, and fulfilled because the pattern that was successful then, is now sabotaging your success and eventually will crater it.
Re-training yourself to approach problems in this way is “part science, and part art.” But it can result in huge payoffs for the individual and the company.
Listen to the to the podcast link in the first comment below.
Jason Treu returns to Vroom Vroom Veer for episode #3 to talk about how to get people to like and trust each other at work, a fun game called “Cards Against Mundanity” and a little bit about self-awareness.
From Jason Treu’s website:
“You know those times when everything lines up perfectly and you want to pump your fist and yell, “YES!!!”? We all have those brief moments when we’re at our best. Everything flows powerfully and naturally. We’re like Michael Jordan shooting the ball into the hoop. Like Adele hitting that impossible note.
Most people reach that place infrequently at best. They spend their entire life searching for it, just to keep hitting dead ends. I’ve solved this. When you work with me, “peak state” becomes your normal state. I help top people like you smash through goals, build extraordinary relationships and become a leader who easily hits the high notes and makes the shots.”
Jason Treu Vroom Veer Stories
How to use “Card Against Mundanity” in a team building workshop to help people connect and create deeper relationships
Wanted to do a TEDx speech and wanted a topic with real impact; followed “grounded research”; let the data lead you to the conclusions rather than having a theory and prove or disprove it
Found project “Aristotle” which was Goggle’s attempt answer the question; How do we build the perfect team? How do we re-invent the company to increase everything across the board?
One key finding is that a team of ivy league super stars doesn’t make a high performance team
The #1 key factor required found universally in all high performing teams was “psychological safety” which includes 1) vulnerability, 2) caring; 3) sharing; knowing people on a deep personal level
People can throw out crazy ideas and questions; and those are not only supported; but the group actually wants and encourages team members to share them
Teams of average people with psychological safety consistently out perform teams of “superstars”
In traditional teams with “super stars” you may have 1 or 2 leaders generating all the ideas in a group of 10; when you have 10 “regular folks with psychological safety you are getting 10 people working in a true collaboration
Senior people in leadership roles have less self-awareness and almost always assume they are right; where as average people are more open to thinking they might be wrong
Google this: Harvard debate team lost to a team of prison inmates
People believe that trust leads to vulnerability; the opposite is true; sharing vulnerability leads to building trust
Once trust and friendships are established in teams, people are motivated and inspired to work harder to avoid disappointing their teammates and friends; they do this because they know their teammates care about them personally and professionally
Professor Arthur Aron 1997 asked the question: “How can we enable people to become fast friends?” 54 grad students played a question and answer game for 45 minutes; 30% said they made closer relationships than they ever had in their lives
No one questions a leader if they drive a company to earn $1 billion; no one asks the question; do your employees like each other
Part of the magic of the “game” is that the cards are random and it’s not a stranger or someone you don’t like asking the questions, it’s just a random card in a game, so the fight or flight mechanism is bypassed automatically and people feel safe to share
A highly developed skill can hide a lack of self-awareness; like a great sales person is really not a very good manager but they get by because of their high skill in sales; a person who is more self-aware and socially aware may not be a great manager but will be aware and open enough to learn from others what corrections need to be made
A leader with low self awareness asks for help to improve performance; the team says the boss doesn’t listen. What doesn’t work is just tell the boss that the team says he doesn’t listen; he will shut down. If you look for the pattern in the bosses history that supports the behavior; you can help the boss change that pattern is small easy ways.
