Stephen Shapiro

Full Deck Intelligence System

Stephen Shapiro — Sun, 31 May 2026 20:39:49 +0000

For ten years, I envisioned a system where people playing Personality Poker with physical cards could enter their hand during an event and get a real-time interpretation.

More importantly, I wanted to give the organization the ability to see what’s working and what’s missing at a team and enterprise level.

It’s finally here!

We’re still refining the design and UI, but it’s live and it all works.

Individuals enter their five cards and get their results.

But the real power is for leadership. They can see what’s missing at the enterprise level, drill down into each team, and pinpoint exactly where the opportunities for innovation and collaboration are hiding.

This is not a personality test. It’s an organizational diagnostic tool.

This video demonstrates a few of the features: hand entry (which during an event is done through a streamlined mobile version), hand analysis, team diagnostics, and an organization-level assessment.

If your organization wants to pressure test it, please contact me.

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The Full Deck Bundle

Stephen Shapiro — Fri, 29 May 2026 16:20:46 +0000

Do you want the complete You’re Not Playing with a Full Deck experience?

You get:

The paperback version of the book ($15.95 retail)
A deck of Personality Poker cards ($25 retail)
The audiobook ($9.99 retail)
The ebook ($6.99 retail)

A $58 value, all for only $35 – with free shipping in the United States.

The audiobook and ebook will be delivered via BookFunnel and need to be read/listened to in their app.

Please allow two weeks for delivery of the book and deck of cards.

Continental US and Canada ($35 shipping) deliveries only.

Order here

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Fun AI Sketches of Me

Stephen Shapiro — Tue, 26 May 2026 14:00:51 +0000

I typically avoid posting anything AI-generated, unless it is a NotebookLM summary of concepts from my book. Those have real value to you, the reader.

However, when I saw a colleague’s ChatGPT-generated sketch, I was impressed and intrigued. What would it say about me?

I feel that this captures the energy of the real me.

It gave me some ideas on how to communicate my energy, passion, and hobbies in a more powerful way.

Thoughts?

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What’s Your Why? Here’s Mine…

Stephen Shapiro — Fri, 22 May 2026 15:40:13 +0000

I helped a company lay off 10,000 people.

I didn’t fire them. I optimized their processes. The layoffs came after. They always did.

To me, they were just a number on a slide.

Then one night, in a hotel room, I caught a documentary about three executives my client had let go the year before.

One was burning through the last of his inheritance.
One was mowing lawns to feed his family. He cried through the whole interview.
The third had taken his own life.

I confirmed the story was true and walked off the project.

That was thirty years ago. And I haven’t helped a company shrink since.

I went on to found and lead Accenture’s 20,000-person process and innovation practice. A group built around a different mission: helping companies grow. To create jobs. To make existing jobs better. To help people feel powerful and valued at work.

When people ask me why I do what I do, that’s the answer.

Behind every reorganization and “headcount” decision, there are people. People with families, mortgages, and dignity on the line.

The companies that win don’t get bigger by making themselves smaller. They win by getting more out of the people they already have.

That’s what I help them do.

What about you? What’s your why?

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Lessons from Product Managers

Stephen Shapiro — Thu, 21 May 2026 22:01:13 +0000

Last night I judged a ProductTank Orlando competition. The task: design the bookstore of the future in a world where AGI exists.

Four teams of four people each. Three judges.

Here’s what struck me.

Every team arrived at roughly the same theme. Human connection. Sensory experience. Depth. The solutions themselves looked very different. One pitched a bookstore free of all technology. Another blended books and AI throughout.

But how they got there told an even bigger story.

The team that won didn’t just have the best idea. They leveraged everyone’s unique capabilities before diving in. Before anyone shouted out a concept, they mapped each other’s strengths. Then they played to them.

Ironically, the team that pitched a “technology-free bookstore” did all their work on phones. They never touched the flip charts or sticky notes in the room.

And the biggest miss across all four teams? Nobody truly challenged the prompt. Nobody asked “what’s a book?” or “what’s a store?” Everyone started from Barnes & Noble and adjusted from there.

Close behind: nobody designed their process before diving in. Ideas got shouted out, the loudest voices dominated, and the quieter ones faded back. A few minutes of silent individual brainstorming first would have surfaced more ideas and pulled everyone in.

A few things I’ll be carrying into my own work:
– Surface assumptions before you start.
– The loudest voice isn’t always the best idea. Let people think first, then share.
– Different strengths only help when you know what they are.

Thanks to Curtis Michelson, Martin Alaimo, and Sulivan Santiago for putting this together. Brilliant session on so many levels!

(That’s me in the back in the poker chip shirt. One of the winners is holding my book “Best Practices Are Stupid.”)

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Audiobook Preview Video!

Stephen Shapiro — Tue, 19 May 2026 15:10:14 +0000

The audiobook is available!

And here is a cool video created by the production company, John Marshall Media.

The book is available globally in all audiobook stores, including Audible.

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Eric Clapton’s Impostor Syndrome…Before It Had a Name

Stephen Shapiro — Tue, 19 May 2026 14:51:15 +0000

Did Eric Clapton experience “impostor syndrome” years before it even had a name?

I was listening to American Top 40 from May 13, 1978, when Casey Kasem’s fill-in host shared a fascinating story about Eric Clapton.

Back in January 1973, Clapton kept a packed audience at London’s Rainbow Theatre waiting 45 minutes past showtime.

Why? His nerves got the best of him.

According to the broadcast:

“In show business, it’s a psychological fact of life that the bigger a star becomes, the more insecure he gets…. It’s as though the individual is thinking, ‘How can I possibly be as talented as people are telling me I am? It just can’t be true.’”

The host then shared this quote from Clapton:

“I’m thought of as a lead guitarist, and that’s not me. I’m just an unskilled laborer musician who finds it difficult to get in tune, let alone play lead guitar solos.”

The story continued:

“Once in 1973 at the famous Rainbow in London, a packed house was waiting to hear Clapton play, and they had to wait 45 minutes past showtime while Eric sat outside in his car, too uptight and too insecure about being able to deliver. Finally, he got his head together, went into the club, walked out on stage to a standing ovation, and proceeded to bring the house down with his brilliant playing. When he finished, the audience brought him back for four encores.”

Of course, there’s more to the story.

According to accounts from the time, Pete Townshend and others organized the concert to help bring Clapton back into the public eye and encourage him to overcome his drug addiction. So this wasn’t simply insecurity or what we now call impostor syndrome.

Still, it’s fascinating.

The term “impostor phenomenon” was only coined in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in their paper, “The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women.”

Yet years earlier, one of the greatest guitarists in history was sitting in his car, wondering if he was good enough.

The video contains the audio from the American Top 40 broadcast if you are interested in listening…

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Audiobook Available

Stephen Shapiro — Fri, 15 May 2026 01:55:05 +0000

Do you like to listen to your books?

You’re Not Playing with a Full Deck is now available as an audiobook.

And at just $6.95, it’s currently the least expensive way to experience the book.

Get your copy on Audible.

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Some Poker Magic!

Stephen Shapiro — Tue, 12 May 2026 20:30:51 +0000

Some fun magic!

In Personality Poker, one of the core concepts is that opposites don’t attract. They detract. They repel.

The card trick in this post brings that idea to life.

But there’s a twist: with the right structure, even opposites can work together to create something new.

Enjoy!

Learn more about Personality Poker here

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Invisible Solutions Handdrawn Infographic

Stephen Shapiro — Tue, 12 May 2026 20:27:54 +0000

I recently gave a 2.5-hour session on how to find the hidden opportunities in every problem.

In attendance was a graphic artist, Nate Dailey from Collective Next Graphic Facilitation Support, who captured the content beautifully.

Although I have been promoting my Personality Poker game and the You’re Not Playing with a Full Deck book, for many clients, my work on Invisible Solutions is one of the most powerful concepts available on problem-solving in an AI world.

Get your copy of Invisible Solutions here

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