The General Deck is a game in the Topaasia family range that answers a question our customers often ask: Which deck should we start playing with?
We have received many questions about the contents of Topaasia® games, but the content of the General Deck in particular has attracted interest. What topics does it cover? Does it have a theoretical framework? Would it suit our teams? This article answers these questions and opens up the contents of the General Deck.
In short, the General Deck is:
Each of the four suits contains 13 different cards related to that suit.
Next, we dig into the suits one at a time and present a few example cards from each.
Leadership
The cards in the Leadership suit relate, as the name suggests, to the team's leadership practices. Leadership here focuses on the team's shared leadership, in other words the things that help the team lead itself as well as possible.
Some of the leadership cards focus on the softer side of leading people, such as ground rules, vision of the future, and meaningfulness.
Other cards cover more concrete and "harder" matters, such as metrics and step-by-step progress.
Collaboration
The cards in the Collaboration suit emphasise the relationships between team members. Collaboration means the ways in which the team can work together as well as possible, without forgetting that every team member is an individual with their own ways of working and their own needs.
Cards emphasising interpersonal relationships include feedback, appreciation, and conflicts. Cards related to collaboration practices include prioritisation, communication habits, and roles.
Customer Value
The Customer Value suit talks about the customer. Almost every team does something whose ultimate goal or purpose is to help a customer in some way. This suit highlights the customer's role, so we remember that the team's development and work are tied to the customer and the value produced for the customer, as the Lean methodology teaches.
Some of the cards emphasise understanding the customer, such as customer need, engagement, impact and expectations. Other cards emphasise the customer's experience and impressions, such as service experience, quality or differentiation.
Development
The Development suit emphasises growth both as a team and as individuals. Development can easily get trampled by everyday work, and it does not happen unless it is consciously invested in. The inspiration for this suit came from the ideas that development is a conscious choice and the greatest practice is returning to the practice.
Some of the cards deal with conscious ways of developing the team's work, such as reflection, professional development, encounters and making use of knowledge.
Other cards relate to continuous change, such as renewal, letting go and root causes.
Thank you for reading!
If your toolkit or office is missing an easy-to-use serious game for solving team problems, you can buy the Topaasia® General Deck from our online store or by calling our game man Jussi Galla directly on 040-0246626.
- industry-independent
- versatile - suitable for internal development sessions as well as for playing with a customer
- focused on the team's ways of working and the team's customers
The contents of the General Deck
Topaasia decks consist of 52 playing cards, divided into four suits, just like a traditional deck of cards. Before creating the General Deck, we made 12 different Topaasia decks together with skilled content partners. The General Deck is a synthesis, a kind of best-of-teamwork collection drawn from these decks. The deck is a general deck because it deals with the fundamentals of teamwork without field-specific terminology or excessive detail. This is also what makes the General Deck so versatile: it works for teams regardless of industry or project. The General Deck is an excellent way to try out and start playing Topaasia games with a team that wants to develop its own ways of working and solve its own challenges with a gamified, fast and easy-to-use tool.
Each of the four suits contains 13 different cards related to that suit.
Next, we dig into the suits one at a time and present a few example cards from each.
Leadership
The cards in the Leadership suit relate, as the name suggests, to the team's leadership practices. Leadership here focuses on the team's shared leadership, in other words the things that help the team lead itself as well as possible.
Some of the leadership cards focus on the softer side of leading people, such as ground rules, vision of the future, and meaningfulness.
Other cards cover more concrete and "harder" matters, such as metrics and step-by-step progress.
Collaboration
The cards in the Collaboration suit emphasise the relationships between team members. Collaboration means the ways in which the team can work together as well as possible, without forgetting that every team member is an individual with their own ways of working and their own needs.
Cards emphasising interpersonal relationships include feedback, appreciation, and conflicts. Cards related to collaboration practices include prioritisation, communication habits, and roles.
Customer Value
The Customer Value suit talks about the customer. Almost every team does something whose ultimate goal or purpose is to help a customer in some way. This suit highlights the customer's role, so we remember that the team's development and work are tied to the customer and the value produced for the customer, as the Lean methodology teaches.
Some of the cards emphasise understanding the customer, such as customer need, engagement, impact and expectations. Other cards emphasise the customer's experience and impressions, such as service experience, quality or differentiation.
Development
The Development suit emphasises growth both as a team and as individuals. Development can easily get trampled by everyday work, and it does not happen unless it is consciously invested in. The inspiration for this suit came from the ideas that development is a conscious choice and the greatest practice is returning to the practice.
Some of the cards deal with conscious ways of developing the team's work, such as reflection, professional development, encounters and making use of knowledge.
Other cards relate to continuous change, such as renewal, letting go and root causes.
Thank you for reading!
If your toolkit or office is missing an easy-to-use serious game for solving team problems, you can buy the Topaasia® General Deck from our online store or by calling our game man Jussi Galla directly on 040-0246626.