Welcome to the new Manager podcast. I'm your host, Kim Nichol. Hello and welcome. I'm glad you're here and I hope you're doing well. I just got this box and inside is the Ester Perel Culture Amp card deck. Where should we begin at work? And so I'm going to open this up. We're going to see what's inside. I'm excited. OK, so let me see here. Be very careful with sharp objects. Close that away. OK, let's see here. Oh, this is pretty. I like it. OK where should we begin? At work.
I'm going to get my knife out again. I'm going to open this up. Very careful here. So I'm been a fan of Ester Pearl for a long time. I think the way she talks about relationships is really smart and practical and useful, and I love that she talks about relationships in the workplace, not just in our romantic life. Oh, this is nice. It feels like, oh, what's happening here? Oh, I see. Yes. OK, so cool.
We've got a little satisfying magnetic closure and then, oh, it opens up and let's see, we've got more shrink wrap, which is good. OK, we got all the cards staying together. Let's try to open this up one more time and get the shrink wrap off. All right, so we have got a bunch of cards here and maybe what I'll do is I'll bring it back up so we can talk through this and look through this very substantial card deck together. Well, very cool. OK, one second.
So these are the cards and I haven't shuffled them so that it's one side of the card. It looks all the same. It's just this nice pattern and we can put them into the box and we'll just pull the top card. So the top card says I secretly taught myself how to. I secretly taught myself how to. That's a fun one. And I'll also note that on the box there is this QR code for how to play. I haven't looked at that yet at all. We're just going to dive right into the product.
If I pull up another stack of cards we've got here. Oh, I'm seeing some interesting things. OK, here's another card. It is difficult for me to ask for help when. It is difficult for me to ask for help when. And I'm noticing there's a different icon in the corner. This is a paper clip compared to the first one where the icon in the corner was like this little document shape. So there are different sort of categories or themes here. Let's pull another one of the
paper clip questions. A passion I lost touch with but want to reignite. So one of the things I'm already appreciating about this deck is that it's providing prompts, right? Like, how would you answer the rest of the question? Here's another one I hope to be remembered at our company for. If I were doing this, I would change the word company to organization because not everyone works in a company, right?
Like if you work, you know, in, in higher Ed, if you work for a government agency, sometimes if you work in a nonprofit, you might not use the language of company. You might use the word of organization. I personally like that language because I feel like it's most accurate for, for, for the most people. And it also, I think speaks to the real heart. Like whatever organization you are in, how do you want to be remembered? I hope to be remembered at our
organization for. And so the so coming back. So one of the things I'm really appreciating about these prompts are I can see how it would be a way to, you know, invite reflection both, you know, just for you, if you were going through this deck and you were getting more clear as you were reflecting on some of these prompts, but also with your team, I can see how you might use some of these prompts to get to know each other a little better, but without being too
invasive or personal. And they're all still, you know, kind of related or connected to how we work together and what are, you know, preferences and styles are and kind of, you know, fun facts about us, but they're still, you know, sort of like safe for the work environment and and also interesting, right, and kind of fun. So here's one. It says my go to emoji instead of using words. This would be a fun one to ask of colleagues, right? Like not a lot of pressure, but
sort of fun to learn. Like what's your go to emoji instead of using words? So my guess is that, you know, if I went through the entire deck or if I went through the instructions, I would find that each icon means something specific. Here is 1. It has a like a little pencil icon in the bottom and it says, you bring out the best in me when. That's a wonderful question, right? And you can even think about using that in your personal life too, like you bring out the best in me when.
But think about what this would mean for the workplace. What kind of conversation might ignite by sharing this? You bring out the best in me when I'm even imagining that. If you had this deck, you could use it to help think of what kinds of conversations do you want to have with people on your team without necessarily making it a formal activity. So it doesn't have to be, hey, let's all pull a card and do a
conversation starter. But you might go through these and it might have you pause and think, you know, I actually do want to to talk about, you know, you bring out the best in me when because that helps me clarify what within our relationship allows us to do the best work. And maybe that means going to my manager and saying, you know, I just wanted to let you know, I was thinking about, you know,
the way that we work together. And I just wanted to, to call out, you really bring out the best in me when you do this. You bring out the best in me when you know, like you said this or you help me with this challenge or you, you bring out the best in me when you tell me kind of what the bigger vision is, because that always makes me feel really inspired and helps me focus on what's really important. And I really appreciate that about you.
So I can see how you might be able to use these to enhance your working relationships in a few different ways, like formally, informally, and even thinking about my goodness, your own career journey. You know, if you, if you had that question, you know, you bring out the best in me when and thinking about your, your work experience, you say, wow, actually nothing about this place brings out the best in me.
I feel like this current environment brings out the worst in me. And getting clear about that for yourself, You know, sometimes we forget that what we're experiencing is sometimes in response to an environment around us. And of course, like, this is actually very top of mind right now because I've had a few conversations in the last couple of weeks with people that have made changes in their like career direction or have gotten
new jobs. And a lot of times it was because they didn't feel like the current work environment was bringing, bringing out the best in them. It was more like bringing out the worst in them or bringing out the most exhausted version of them or the most like frustrated version. And there's a point where we say, you know, how much of this is me, how much of this can I work to change? And how much of it is actually you Like this is I don't know. It's not me.
It's, I'm having a very reasonable response to very challenging circumstances. And now that I've, I've attempted to make things better where I am, I'm also now thinking of where do I want to go next? What is the environment or what is the working relationship that would bring out the best in me? And why don't I articulate that for myself so I can start looking for it elsewhere. So, you know, I like this deck. I think that this is pretty cool. I mean, as you can see, it's a
pretty substantive deck, right? There's a lot. There's a very thick stack of cards here with so many different prompts, so many different ways to be thoughtful about using them. Oh, here's a really good one. A team building activity I hope to never do again. Have you ever done a team building activity and you think, please no, never again? That can be a good one too. You know, we all have differences.
For some folks the, you know, the improv activity is their favorite, and for others it's the absolute worst. You know, we're different, we have different preferences. So anyways, I'm going to tuck all of these little cards back into the box. I really do like this container and I'll say too, like the card, it does have like a playing card feel. So it's got some substance to it. Like it's not super flimsy. I like the card feel and it even has a very subtle texture.
So it feels there's just like a good feel to the paper of it and it can sit in this nice little container and just like sit right on your desk. So this is the where should I begin at work card deck from Esther Perel and Culture Amp. A game of stories is what it says a game of stories. And let's look on the back. What does it say here?
Where should we begin at work? Esther Perel, the renowned, renowned, renowned Esther Ferrell, the renowned psychotherapist and relationship expert, joins forces with Culture Amp, the groundbreaking employee experience platform, to introduce a game designed to transform your work culture, one story and one relationship at a time. Oh, contents. 100 cards. So there you go. There are 100 cards and I'll share too. Like I bought this, this, this wasn't, you know, sponsored.
It wasn't gifted to me. I was just genuinely curious about it because I'm, as I mentioned, I'm a big fan of ester's work and I like simple things. If it's simple, then it's more likely to be used simple framework, simple tools. It's so easy to get lost in the complexity. And I think a tool like this, where it's simple and it can be used immediately and easily means that you will have a greater likelihood of it being effective and having a positive effect.
So from what I can tell, this is a recommend, I would say in, in terms of tools to support, you know, you as a manager or you as a colleague and a person at work who wants to have better work relationships. I think you could even use these for journal topics, you know, to think through your own work experience and maybe even the experiences that you would like to have, whether in your current organization or maybe in the next 1. So that's where we're at. That's where what we've got today.
Thanks so much for watching, and I hope to see you again next time. Bye. When you're more effective at work, you're happier in your life. And when you're happier in your life, you're more effective at work. I can help. Go to my website, Kim Nicholcom, and sign up for a coaching consult. It can get better.