Go Blue or go Black – New Jimmy Cards now available!

I’m blown away of the popularity of the Jimmy Cards I created a few years ago. The massive amount of feedback and appreciative comments inspired me to compile two additional decks. The goal of the original red is to help new teams gel. The new black deck is aimed to challenge mature teams that have worked together for some time. The new blue deck will help the leadership team collaborate more effectively. And now, finally, the labour is done and the physical cards have actually been printed and are available to buy!

The first Red Deck

The first deck, the red one, was born from boredom when I was stuck at a conference booth. Not much was going on when everyone was off listening to keynotes and presentations. I’ve had an idea in the back of my mind for quite some time, and this boredom created the room for me to get started.

I’m humbled by the signs of appreciation I’ve received for the Red Deck. Once in a while I someone orders 20 decks for their department. I’ve heard of job interviews where every single question is from a card drawn from the deck. I’ve read blogs where the author has been inspired by a question. I’ve had people approach me with “Oh! You are THE Jimmy!?”. I’m equally embarrassed every time. I initially intended to name the deck “Team Riddles”, or “Retrospective Appetizers”. I’m happy my colleagues at Crisp proposed the final name, and convinced me to run with it.

Creation of the new decks

Agila Sverige 2016. First brainstorming of the Blue Deck with Per Lundholm.

The blue deck was born when my colleague at Crisp Per Lundholm and I had a creative brainstorming (over a few beers) after the conference Agila Sverige 2016. The black deck was born out of my wish to challenge teams that have worked together for a long time. The process of creating the Black and Blue deck was far more cumbersome than I expected.

Before I had the courage to zoom in on the final set of cards I asked for a lot of feedback. I made the cards public on Google Slides allowing people to comment and give feedback on the questions. I asked people to fill in a survey commenting on their most and least favourite questions. Eventually this helped me decide on the final set of cards. My deepest appreciation to everyone who contributed and helped me in this process! To those of you who answered my survey, free copies of the two new decks are on their way through the postal service to you as I write this.

Get your own Blue or Black Deck

If you want to buy a physical copy of the new black deck, click here. If you are part of a leadership/management team/group and want the blue deck, click here. (Note: The first batch comes without a box, hence it’s a little bit cheaper. The next batch will include a box for storing the cards, but will of course be a little bit more expensive.)

If you don’t mind printing, laminating and cutting your own cards, you can buy all three decks on here.

Cards that didn’t make it

As I mentioned above, many questions didn’t make it to the final decks. Although I loved several of them myself, the feedback and surveys showed that other questions were more popular. But I still want to share them 🙂

Top 7 Blue Deck Cards (for the leadership team) that didn’t make it to the final deck:

  • What mechanism exists to ensure that teams aren’t overloaded?
  • What is your next step to become a little more dispensable?
  • When was the last time you wanted to know who to blame?
  • What tedious work do you wish you didn’t have to do?
  • What information do you gather about people you lead, manage and/or coach?
  • If this leadership team were even tighter, how would you benefit?
  • When is it better to deal with a conflict fast, rather than well?

Top 7 Black Deck Cards (for the strong mature team) that didn’t make it to the final deck:

  • When was the last time you were told what to do (without you asking for it)?
  • If you got a huge pile of money tomorrow (for work related investments), how would you spend it?
  • What do you personally gain from being in this team?
  • What was the last meeting that didn’t need everyone in the room? Who could have been elsewhere? Was it you?
  • What do you all have in common?
  • Instruction: Pair up. Be totally silent for two minutes while looking into each other’s eyes. Then stand up, shake your arms, and draw a new card.

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