Daniel Schaffer Connects LLC

I am going to tell on myself.

I make my living manufacturing wonder. And a few years ago, as VP of a nonprofit I loved, the board went quiet and my very first reaction was, "people just don't care."

The magician had stopped believing the room.

The Debunker's reflex is almost always armor, not malice. Being fooled starts to feel like being diminished, so the reflex is to stay in control.

I caught it a couple of days later. Reached out to each board member individually. Asked them what they wanted for the organization instead of telling them what they weren't doing. The curiosity re-engaged the room.

A few months later they voted me in as Executive Director.

I did not earn that by caring more than everyone. I earned it the first time I stopped assuming I did.

Full essay: https://zurl.co/sViHB

What Your Reaction To Magic Reveals About How You Lead How you react to a magic trick mirrors how you lead under uncertainty. The four audience reactions map onto the Wonder Cycle and reveal whether your team shares bold ideas or hides them.

The Experimenter on your team is the person who asks, "What if I don't look at the card?"

They're not trying to catch me. They're trying to map the edges of what's possible.

Innovation scouts. Unpaid R&D for your whole team.

The warning, a pure Experimenter can test forever and never commit.

Leadership move, say yes to the what-ifs. Give the mapping-the-possible people room to run.

https://zurl.co/3nC09

What Your Reaction To Magic Reveals About How You Lead How you react to a magic trick mirrors how you lead under uncertainty. The four audience reactions map onto the Wonder Cycle and reveal whether your team shares bold ideas or hides them.

The Solver is the person on your team who says "maybe it's a special metal."

They're not threatened. They're having fun. A puzzle is a game.

Your problem-solving culture runs on them.

The warning, Solvers in a hurry will close a rich open question before it's finished doing its work.

Leadership move, resist the urge to close your team's questions just because you're senior enough to close them.

https://danielcschaffer.substack.com/p/reaction-to-magic-reveals-how-you-lead

The Wonderer is the most underpriced person on your team.

They see something they can't explain, and they immediately grab a coworker by the sleeve, "you have to see this."

They process the impossible socially. They multiply.

If you have one on your team, your only job is to resource them. Give them the fuel and get out of their way.

The warning, they can love the not-knowing so much they never push the group to act on it.

Which Wonderer on your team have you not properly resourced this month?

Full framework: https://danielcschaffer.substack.com/p/reaction-to-magic-reveals-how-you-lead

Just published, What Your Reaction To Magic Reveals About How You Lead.

Your involuntary first reaction to something you can't explain, a bent quarter, a card trick, a bad number in Monday's meeting, reveals your real relationship with not-knowing.

There are four types. Wonderer, Solver, Experimenter, Debunker.

Each one maps to a different way of leading under pressure. And each one has a specific move that changes what your team is willing to bring you.

Including the time I was the Debunker on a board I loved, and what it cost me before I caught it.

Read on Substack: https://danielcschaffer.substack.com/p/reaction-to-magic-reveals-how-you-lead

All week I've been writing about why certainty fools us. So here's the part that actually helps.

You don't fix it by being more skeptical. You fix it by getting better at being wrong, like the person at a magic show who just lets go and enjoys being fooled, then gets curious about how it worked.

One move: when a claim shows up wrapped in total confidence, that's the one you test first. Not the one you wave through.

Your certainty isn't your strength. Your willingness to test it is. Have a good weekend, friends.

https://danielcschaffer.substack.com/p/your-certainty-is-the-blind-spot

Those two lines in the picture? Same length. I know, they don't look it, and knowing the truth doesn't fix what your eyes are sure they see.

That's the whole problem with certainty. We think being smart protects us from being fooled. It doesn't. A rocket scientist still gets taken by a card scam, because she knows rocket science, not card scams.

The fix is learning how the trick actually works. I call it deception literacy.

https://danielcschaffer.substack.com/p/your-certainty-is-the-blind-spot

Confession from the stage: as a mentalist, when I miss, I don't flinch. I hold the same certainty and quietly widen the claim until it lands. You walk away certain I knew.

Here's what gets me though. That's exactly how a lot of meetings work. The most confident person wins the room, even when they're not the most correct.

The willingness to be wrong is rarer, and more valuable, than it looks.

https://danielcschaffer.substack.com/p/your-certainty-is-the-blind-spot

Here's the thing I've been chewing on. As a mentalist, I get paid to look certain, not to be right. And the unsettling part is how often that's also how big decisions get made in a boardroom.

We trust the most confident voice in the room, even when it's not the most correct one. I just published a piece on why that certainty becomes a leader's most expensive blind spot, and what to do about it.

Would love to hear your take, when did being sure cost you something?

https://danielcschaffer.substack.com/p/your-certainty-is-the-blind-spot