wavePod

Get Wave AI

Deck of Brilliance: 3 Ways to Think Differently When You’re Stuck at Work - Squiggly Careers | Wave AI Podcast Notes

Back to Squiggly Careers

Deck of Brilliance: 3 Ways to Think Differently When You’re Stuck at Work

Squiggly Careers

Tue Feb 17 2026

Summary

Squiggly Careers: "Deck of Brilliance – 3 Ways to Think Differently When You’re Stuck at Work"

Hosts: Sarah Ellis & Helen Tupper
Release: February 17, 2026

Episode Overview

In this lively and practical episode, Sarah and Helen delve into the “Deck of Brilliance,” a creative online resource designed to inspire new ways of thinking and problem solving at work—especially when you feel stuck. Borrowing techniques from this deck, they share three specific idea-generating tools, apply them directly to their own business, and encourage listeners to experiment with them in their own careers and teams. The episode balances humor and vulnerability with actionable advice, making “thinking differently” feel both accessible and fun.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to Deck of Brilliance

What is it?
- A free (or affordable) online resource created by Jumpji Ramkrishnan, containing themed “decks” of creative problem-solving techniques, each illustrated with global examples—from ads to products.
- "If you want to get better at creative thinking, I feel like spending some time with a deck of brilliance would help you to do that." —Sarah [02:08]
Why use it?
- Not just for “creative” jobs; useful for anyone looking for fresh ways of thinking.
- Examples are thoughtfully curated and illustrate practical applications.
How it works:
- Choose a deck (e.g., idea generation, storytelling, finding your organization’s mission).
- Each deck gives several techniques, with explanations and global media examples.

2. Technique #1: Make a Bug a Feature

Concept:
- “Take the thing that you’re most self-conscious about and double down on it... Stop fixing it and start flaunting it.” —Sarah [05:12]
Examples:
- Ugly packaging, slow product, hard-to-pronounce names—take the “flaw” and turn it into the hook.
- Sarah: “I've actually worked on a fashion brand before where that was true. The name was hard and people said it in lots of different ways.” [05:38]
Applying it to Squiggly Careers/Amazing If:
- Bugs Identified:
  - Having two coexisting brands (Squiggly Careers & Amazing If)—can be confusing.
  - Small team size compared to ambition.
  - Overwhelming amount of content, hard to navigate.
  - The “bug” in the concept of squiggly careers (e.g., career development equals less money, confusion about progress).
- Process:
  - Instead of hiding or “fixing” these bugs, how could they be celebrated? For example, highlighting the dynamic between the two brands in their branding, or openly acknowledging abundance as a sign of plenty rather than overwhelm.
  - Helen: “So if the bug is, we have two different brand names ... How do you, how do you, so you, you turn that—?” [09:06]
- Reflection:
  - The conversation is “uncomfortable and interesting,” pushing both hosts out of their usual improvement mindset and into curiosity and experimentation.

3. Technique #2: Switch Perspectives

Concept:
- “Give what you do to somebody else to describe or govern—ideally, someone who doesn’t know your work.” —Sarah [11:38]
- As Helen puts it: “A manager could do your job. You could do the manager’s job for a day.” [12:10]
Application:
- The hosts asked their colleagues’ friends and families—many unfamiliar with Squiggly Careers—to explain what a “squiggly career” is. Many responses were recorded by children and adults, revealing new and unexpected perceptions.
  - Henry: “We work together and join in, even if that means stepping out of our comfort zone.” (Helen’s son) [13:45]
  - Madeline: “Even if you have butterflies in your tummy, just keep going.” (Helen’s daughter) [14:00]
  - Max (Sarah’s son): “Bad.”—“I don’t want a squiggly career. I’d want a straight career.” [14:27]
- Key insight:
  - Responses were split: some saw “squiggly” as positive (versatility, learning), others as negative (messiness, lack of direction).
  - “By asking people outside of yourself, it stops you getting stuck in that echo chamber trap.” —Sarah [15:02]
Reflection/Application:
- Especially valuable for breaking out of “project bubble” mentality; fresh perspectives reveal hidden assumptions.
- Helen recounts how a listener focus group changed her view on podcast learning: “I often think about listeners, whereas I think it made me think, 'oh, we should think about learners.' Listening is not the only way people learn.” [20:01]

4. Technique #3: Put the Audience to the Test

Concept:
- “Turn your audience from passive to active participants... let them judge situations or make choices, then reveal what comes next depending on what they choose.” —Sarah [21:18]
- Illustrated with examples: choose-your-own-adventure books, video games with real consequences, or audience-propelled workshops.
Application:
- In a workshop, let participants choose which topics/skills are covered based on their needs, making content audience-led rather than prescriptive.
  - Helen: “You kind of, you know, we could be Helen and Sarah led to squiggly careers, which is this is what we think we should put out in the world. Or we could be audience led and we could say... the next six months of our work is going to be led by you.” [27:41]
- In training, let participants “turn a 6 to an 8”—if they rate an idea as only useful at 6/10, challenge them to make it an 8/10 for themselves. [31:09]
Reflection:
- Audience-led activities drive deeper learning and engagement: “When we are involved in anything, you’re so much more engaged, you’re participating, you feel like you’re shaping something rather than having something happening to you.” —Sarah [29:25]
- The approach can also surface assumptions and biases when participants reflect on and justify their choices.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

"Stop fixing it and start flaunting it." —Sarah, on bugs as features [05:12]
"Even if you have butterflies in your tummy, just keep going." —Madeline (Helen’s daughter), redefining resilience [14:03]
"No, a squiggly career is not a bad thing. It’s not a good thing." —Sarah, reflecting on her son's view and wider public perception [15:02]
"By asking people outside of yourself, it stops you getting stuck in that echo chamber trap." —Sarah [15:02]
"I often think about listeners, whereas I think it made me think, 'oh, we should think about learners.'" —Helen [20:01]
"When we are involved in anything, you're so much more engaged... you feel like you’re shaping something rather than having something happening to you." —Sarah [29:25]

Timestamps for Key Segments

00:46 – Introduction to the episode and what Squiggly Careers/Pod Sheet is
01:28 – What is the Deck of Brilliance and how does it work?
05:12 – Technique #1: Make a Bug a Feature – explanation and examples
09:06 – Squiggly Careers bug: dual branding & how to play with it
11:38 – Technique #2: Switch Perspectives – explaining your work to outsiders
13:41 – Kids and family describe “squiggly careers”
15:02 – How external perspectives break the echo chamber
17:54 – Using this approach beyond branding—project and company initiatives
21:18 – Technique #3: Put the Audience to the Test – gamify participation
27:41 – What it could look like to be fully audience-led
29:25 – Engagement through participation and deepening self-awareness
31:09 – Concrete exercise: Participants co-create better solutions
32:41 – Where to find the Deck of Brilliance; invite to share stories and questions

Final Takeaways

Borrowing brilliance, especially from unfamiliar sources, can unlock new perspectives and pathways when you or your team feels stuck.
Don’t shy away from your flaws—there may be gold in the "bugs" of your brand, product, or project.
Outsider and audience perspectives are essential. They challenge your assumptions, reveal blind spots, and spur innovation.
Engaging your audience as co-creators, not just consumers, drives deeper learning and creativity.

For further resources, including the Deck of Brilliance and practical exercises, check the pod sheet at AmazingIf.com or in the show notes.

Loading summary...

Transcript

A (0:00)

Hi, it's Helen from the Squiggly Careers Podcast and before the episode starts, I just wanted to let you know about something that Sarah and I are so happy about and so grateful for, and that is that our new book, Learn Like a Lobster, which came out in the UK on the 5th of February, is now. I wish I could do a drum roll, but it's now a Sunday Times number one best selling book. We're so proud and we know that lots of the listeners of this podcast are part of what's made that possible. So it is a huge, huge thank you from us. The book actually comes out the US on the 24th of February. So please keep sharing. Please let anyone know in the US that the book is coming very, very soon. But most of all, we just wanted to say a huge thank you for you. And now let's of course get on with learning. Hi, I'm Helen.

B (0:46)

And I'm Sarah.

A (0:47)

And this is the Squiggly Careers Podcast, a weekly podcast where we talk about work and borrow some brilliance from things that we've been seeing, listening to, reading, and try to connect that to your careers in hopefully interesting and useful ways. And all of our episodes, if you new to the Squigger Quiz Podcast, all of our episodes come with a one page summary which we call a pod sheet. It has all of the ideas that we talk about, it has some coaching questions, it has some links. If you want to learn a bit more, you can always find that on our website, which is amazingif.com so Sarah is leading the show today and she has borrowed some brilliance and she's going to tell us more about it and I'm going to, I'm going to learn as we go, I think in the conversation.

B (1:28)

Okay, so, so a bit of a different one today because we're always trying to try different things out and I couldn't resist, partly because this is actually called Deck of Brilliance. So I'm like, well, if you can't borrow brilliance from a deck of brilliance, someone's going wrong. We're either going wrong or the deck has failed. But you'll be, you'll be glad to know it's anything but a failure. And actually Helen asked me before this, she was like, how did you first hear about it? And I actually don't know, you know, like, I can't, I can't remember whether it was someone recommending it to me or whether it popped up on LinkedIn or something, but I just remember start, you know, when you start to have a play with something and then you're like, wow, this is really good and really interesting and really useful.

A (2:06)

What is it?

B (2:08)

So the deck of brilliance is. So it's a guy who's put this together. It's a website, I guess, but it's a very beautiful looking website. And the guy's name is Jumpji Ramkrishnan, and apologies to him if I've not pronounced that right. And what he has done is he has put together a number of decks of brilliance based on a kind of overall theme. So one of them might be generating ideas. So like, if you need to generate ideas, here is a deck that shows you 15 different ways to generate ideas. And then it will give you an example. So it might show you like an advert or a product that like brings that to life. So it could be idea generating, it could be storytelling, it could be working out a mission for your organization. It's all creative. I would say, overall, if you want to get better at creative thinking, I feel like spending some time with a deck of brilliance would help you to do that. I don't think you need to be in a creative job to find it useful. But what is lovely is all of the different examples. So you kind of read about the different ideas. But then like, I've ended up watching old Skoda adverts I've learned about. It's very global, you know, I've learned about different products that just were completely new to me from all across the world. And it's very thoughtfully curated. So it's not just, you know, like throw loads of stuff at the wall and see what sticks for generating ideas you feel like he's really thought about. Okay, well, one way of generating ideas is, let's say, let's choose one we're not going to talk about today. Maybe like Jeopardy. And then maybe he would show Jeopardy in a few different ways, like Jeopardy in a film or Jeopardy in an advert that you really remember. And, you know, generally we talk about borrowed brilliance is about curiosity, looking out, not getting stuck in your silo. It just helps you to do all of those things. And. And it's free, so most of it is free, which is why we felt good about putting it on the podcast. And though I do subscribe, even the subscription is not very much, it's definitely something you could afford individually.

B (15:05)

And we won't play all of the others, but we also got someone in our team to pass a phone around in a pub and say, like, what is a squiggly career? And what is so interesting is these are people who genuinely don't know us, don't know our work. And I heard from people a real 50, 50 split as to whether a squiggly career was a good thing or not a good thing. So still 50% of people saying, yeah, it's like messy. It's when you don't really know what you want to do. Basically a sort of. Even the adults, a kind of more sophisticated version of what you just heard from Max. Like, oh, I don't. I don't want a squiggly career. That doesn't sound. That doesn't sound motivating or that doesn't sound like something you would want. I think one, one person was just like. Yeah. When you just like a bit all over the place. And your kids, as we said, did the, they just did really good motivational statements. They feel like they're just channeling it. Ready, ready to go. And so the point there is, I think by asking people outside of yourself, it stops you getting stuck in that echo chamber trap. And honestly listening to them all this morning and I probably had about 15 to listen to it really made me realize I was like, okay. So for a lot of people, they probably are still attached to the idea of like good looks like climbing a ladder. And if they haven't come across squiggly careers, their first thought, hearing the name is not what we would want. You know, we don't want people to think that it's naughty and messy and all over the place. I mean my 8 year old doesn't want one now, you know, and he's quite, he's quite a long way from. Quite a long way from work. So it would make you challenge yourself on kind of going, okay, like what would we need to do? What would we need to change? How could we help people have a different view of Squiggly career? Do you, you know, if you're being really, if you're being very like dramatic, you might be like, change the name. Is it the word? Does the word Squiggly like get in the way for people? If you ask a different group of people, a non linear career, which we would never want to say, but would you get a different set of answers? Don't know. If you ask people to draw it, what would everybody draw? So the idea really here is just to, it's kind of that taking a moment to sort of step away from your day to day. And I suppose it like for me, I mean it definitely made me laugh but it also sort of bursts the bubble, you know, the bubble of being like, oh well, everyone understands now that squiggly careers are just the reality. I will say for listeners that apparently my son had a little existential crisis in the car with my partner afterwards saying did I get the answer wrong? And should I have said it was a good thing?

B (23:10)

Yes, though perhaps with some of the examples that I've seen, even more involved than that. So that's probably like a good starting point. But I suppose it would be more about an audience choosing. Let's say you gave prompts on a GPT and then they would choose a prompt. Let's say it was, say the Hard thing, the GPT we did recently. And then you, you'd be like, here, say the hard thing scenario, 1, 2, 3, 4, which is how we did it, like micromanaged by your manager. You need to give hard feedback. And then as well as then them maybe learning how to say the hard thing, they would then maybe have some sort of test afterwards. You know, it would actually kind of start to. Then rather than coaching you through it, perhaps at some point it would also switch to going, now I'm going to give you a situation, you tell me what you think you should do and like, take you kind of down that route. So it's just, it's almost like things get revealed as you go. And it's really trying to make the person very active. I mean, there is. It's. It's. I've not seen it. It's. In the us it was a computer game that was done called the Final Exam, and it was created actually by a parent of a kid who had been killed in a school shooting. And it is. I'd not seen it, but it is like watching it is really moving because the idea is that people don't understand the safety measures that schools, like, need to put in place. And so they brought it to life in a computer game. They sort of went. And it's. I mean, it's obviously, it's horrible to watch, but it was this guy going, well, it's the best way we can think of to bring this to life. This dad who really wanted to kind of advocate for these rights and for obviously tougher gun laws. Watching that one, you really see how you can get really creative with like, decision making. So should you put a sign here or a sign here? And then you see the consequences of the sign in part A versus part B. So almost you can. There almost is more of a right answer than a wrong answer. Oh, if you put it there, it's not going to work. But if you put it in this other place, actually that helps to know.

B (25:35)

Well, one thing I was thinking about is scenario planning because I feel like scenario planning gets you to figure out different situations like what might happen next. But that's obviously not putting the audience to the test. That's almost you putting yourself to the test, which is not quite the same, but that's okay, right? The whole point of these is just to, to have a play with them. So I saw it a little bit as scenario. So I think, I think that might work. If we made this decision, then follow it through, you know, like if we made this process twice as fast, this would happen, that would happen. You know, all of the kind of knock on impact and kind of consequences for your audience. I was thinking about, you know, most companies your audience is often another team. You know, it's an internal, you know, like I'm in, I don't know, I'm in sales and it's marketing or in my marketing. And I'm trying to persuade finance to give me more money to spend on marketing. It's sort of like gamifying. So I was like, oh, is there a way? I mean, I'm not sure how, how ethical this is but you know, of like gamifying choices and kind of going, well, we could do this or we could do that and if we do, let's, you know, it was like kind of like deal or no deal, like what's behind this box? And I've not quite, I've not quite worked it through. I think it is a, as I said, I think I find it intriguing. It is a bit of a harder one to make that jump to how would we do this? How would we involve our audience? I was wondering whether, you know, all of those cool direct to customer brands that have popped up over the past couple of years, I feel like they're very good at involving their audience about going, you know, what would you prefer? Like, like make a choice about this packaging or. And I feel like they're very sort of user led or very, very audience led. They're really good at like listening to their audience. They'd let their audience make choices or kind of make decisions or at least appear to. But yeah, it's worth, it's worth having A look at the idea because I.