Corporate Bingo!
Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 11:22AM What a fucking week! As if my calendar couldn't get any worse. Again, I blame it on the short week we had last week. It amazes me how one fucking day off can throw the rest of the month off into a meeting orgy. I decided to have a little fun with it this time and introduced my team to a little game called Corporate Bingo! I got the idea from someone on Twitter but can't remember who (sorry "tweep").
Anyway, I figured we'd all be trapped on conference call after conference call with a handful of "in person" meetings throughout the week. While I agree with my team that all these meetings are absofuckinglutely ricockulous, we do, however, need to keep our ears open so we don't get caught with our pants down later on. (Might not be such a bad thing, but you get it, I'm sure.)
I had [Sydney] put together several iterations of bingo cards in designated, and private, folders on the sharepoint site for easy access to my team and my team only. The idea was to play Corporate Bingo during every conference call this week to accomplish two things: (1) To ensure everyone is actually paying attention, since I don't trust their multi-tasking ability, and (2) to secure lunch for me everyday this week. (Loser has to bring me lunch. If I lose, then I have to bring the entire team lunch. That's not going to happen.) With as many conference calls as we had this week, I was confident everyone, at some point, would yell "BINGO" leaving one loser after every meeting. Losing implies the game card holder wasn't paying attention. I mean, come on! Based on the sample game card below, there should NEVER be a loser:
The loser's (lunch bitch) list:
Monday - Manoj a' Tois (my office "spouse")
Tuesday - Sean (my business anlayst)
Wednesday - Manoj a Tois (again!)
Thursday - Amy (my project coordinator)
Friday - Nelson (my QA Lead)
I think I can get use to this. Especially knowing I'll be losing Sydney, the intern, at the end of the month.
Well, next week isn't looking any better for my team and I. Corporate Bingo it is!!!!
Reader Comments (5)
What a cool idea! Hate to hear you're losing Sydney, though.
I play a variation on this game called "Corporate Twister". While on a conference call in my office, I play Twister on the floor with one of my Users. There are no losers.
A good one... I know the game by the name "bullshit bingo" (with "synergy", "commitment" etc in the matrix) - it really helps in some meetings and conf calls.
Oh and... there's even an ad by a certain company on youtube.. 's been around a while, I think. ;-)
This version of "corporate BINGO" has been around for many years. I recall downloading the Palm PDA software for My Handspring device and Palm PDAs. During the late 90s, the game wasn't used to keep people focused on the agenda as much as it was sarcastically and discreetly used to keep from being bored stiff by corporate double-speak.
The squares were filled with business buzzwords which were prevalent a the time. Words and phrases such as "right size," "planful," downsize," "best practices," "benchmarking," etc. were commonplace. Players of this game were discreet, and, tried to keep their successes hidden with poker faaces. Nonetheless, smirks and out-of-place snickers usually revealed the digital gameplayers.
It is interesting that "follow-up" is such a common expression that it is offered in what is usually a "FREE SPACE."
Now, if we can only profit from this venture...
=^-^=
I like bingo.