The Adaptive Identity Game: The Card Deck

What becomes possible when people see themselves as more than their job title?

The Adaptive Identity Game™ is a playful facilitation tool that helps people recognise more of what they bring and imagine what could come next.

Three decks bring strengths, personal qualities and metaphors into unexpected combinations. Players use the cards to create new identities, finding fresh language for their contribution and possibilities beyond familiar roles.

“I’m not sure what’s next.”
“If this role disappears, who am I?”

For coaches, facilitators and people supporting learning and change, the game offers a starting point for conversations that can feel difficult to begin. Use it in individual coaching or with groups, whether someone feels stuck, a team is exploring how they work together, or change is making the next step unclear.

How It Works

Three fun colors, three different categories, creating multiple ways to play.

Use the cards to create a new Adaptive Identity. You can use all three cards, or just one. With reflection questions and play tips, conversations become dynamic storytelling and discovery sessions.   

The 3 decks are:

• Strengths & Skills: What you can do.
• Traits & Qualities: How you show up.
• Metaphors & Archetypes: A different way to imagine your contribution.

Each of the three decks contains 23 tarot-sized cards: 20 word cards and 3 “Choose Your Own Word” cards. Use the words provided or bring in one of your own. There are no definitions, so each player can explore what a word means to them and why it matters.

There’s no time limit. For your first session, allow 30–60 minutes, with room for conversation and reflection.

Play solo, with a partner or with a group. One complete game set works well for up to 20 people. For larger groups, use additional sets so everyone has access to the cards.

Unexpected combinations give people somewhere new to start, with room to explore what feels familiar, what surprises them and what they might want to develop.

The instruction cards introduce two ways to play: Random Remix and Remix Yourself. Included are suggested questions for pair work and individual reflection. These help you take the conversation further. From there, follow your imagination and what you want to help people discover.

Each deck has its own colour and symbol, helping players, including those with colour blindness, identify which category a card belongs to. Category names appear on both the front and back of every card for easy sorting.

The words in each deck were chosen with care, drawing on my years of coaching and working with people through change, informed by positive psychology, CliftonStrengths and Adaptability Intelligence, with words people can relate to across industries, roles and career stages.

Whether it's an individual looking to rediscover a strength or a teammate sharing the quality they value most in a coworker, the Adaptive Identity Game™ is an easy starting point for dynamic conversations that help people get unstuck through something playful. 

How You Play

There are multiple ways to play, with room to follow what people discover.

• Draw one card from each of the three decks.
• Reflect on the combination. What identity could you create from these words? What could that identity bring to your work or life? Explore on your own, with a partner, a coach or in a group.
• Reimagine how this identity could shape your contribution or help you approach what’s next.

There’s no winning or losing and just one rule: No Job Titles.

For example, you draw Playful + Conflict Resolution + Sculptor. 

What could a “Playful Conflict Resolution Sculptor” bring to a difficult conversation? Let that be the starting point for your exploration.

That’s only one way to begin. Use the game to open a workshop, explore a coaching question or start an individual or team development conversation. You might even create a shared team identity. Adapt it to the people you’re working with and what you want to explore together.

Here's what players are sharing about their experience:

What People Are Saying

Why Kickstarter

Where Funds Go

Your pledge helps bring the first edition of the Adaptive Identity Game™ into people’s hands, funding the printing and production of the complete 77-card game and its beautifully designed box.

Every reward helps fund this first production run. Kickstarter is all-or-nothing: your pledge is collected only if the campaign reaches its funding goal.

Each reward lists what’s included and its estimated delivery date. The timeline below shows the steps from production to shipping.

Estimated Timeline

New to Kickstarter? Start Here!

About the Creator

So who am I and why did I make this?

I’m Sylvia Taylor, a coach, facilitator and change transformation consultant. I created the Adaptive Identity Game™ after hearing “What do I do now?” one too many times from people facing change (especially with their job). I wanted to give them a playful way to explore what they bring, beyond the role they’ve held, and begin asking: “What do I want to do next?”

Over a year of playtesting at events, in workshops and in coaching conversations, I’ve seen people find words for contributions they had overlooked and start to see possibilities they hadn’t considered.

Their experiences helped shape the game. Sometimes a card brought a forgotten strength into focus, or a conversation revealed why a past experience still mattered. Those moments gave someone who felt stuck a little more confidence, and somewhere to begin. It brought hope, inspiration, and new perspectives.

Bring new possibilities into your next conversation.

Back the Adaptive Identity Game™ and help bring the first edition to life.

Choose your reward and bring this playful tool into your coaching sessions and workshops. Give people who feel stuck or overwhelmed a playful and fun way to rediscover what they bring and imagine what could come next.

Thank you for your support!