Corporate Bingo

For Employees Anywhere

I did not invent Corporate Bingo. It's been around for awhile and is under-used and under-appreciated. This game is excellent to use with employees who are disgruntled with others in the office who may be higher up in the corporate ladder. It’s a great morale booster and can be fun. The game diffuses irritation and lightens attitudes. The end result is more productivity because some of the daily irritations are removed.

Let me explain. In my corporate life I was asked to attend many many meetings. Some of the meetings were informative, engaging, stimulating or fun. But most were boring or irritating. What made them irritating were the comments made by other attendees that used to make me want to crawl up the walls. I thought I’d die if Joe Schmo said, “it’s a Win-Win situation” one more time! That term, “win-win” was overused and really irritating to me. I became distracted by my own irritation each time those words were used.

Until I learned to play Corporate Bingo. I gathered my department together for a stealth meeting. We discussed all those things we heard around the office that really annoyed us. We came up with a list of terms or words that others used that set us (needlessly) on fire. Then we entered those words into a standard bingo card layout.

Here’s a list of our Irritating Words that drove us crazy each time we heard them spoken in meetings:

Win-Win

Professionalism

Quality

But our competition is doing it

Moving forward

For sure

Beat the competition

Put the peddle to the metal

Plant the seed

We placed these words at random into Bingo squares printed onto large index cards and gave a copy to each person in our department. Each person was to take their Bingo Card to each meeting and cross off the Irritating Word each time it was uttered. We worked in stealth mode, remember. The first time anyone achieved Bingo status, we called a meeting and celebrated with a (cheap) prize. Some of our prizes included tickets or coupons for free ice cream cones, games, dinners, toys, etc.

The real prize was the fun we had. It was joyous to sit in a meeting and hear a coveted Irritating Word. One time I literally burst out laughing. Everyone turned to see what was so funny and I had no explanation. It was worth it!

One of my colleagues was sitting in a meeting and jubilantly called out “Bingo!” when he heard the final Irritating Word that made him a Bingo winner. No one else in the meeting understood; they all thought he was agreeing with the comment someone had just made. It was a triumphant moment.

In a harmless manner, we had removed the daily irritations due to what we believed were stupid comments made by others. And we got on with work, smiling at our secret victories. Since the Irritating Words became diffused, we had to continually replace them. That became a challenge. In short, our workplace became less irritating! This was a great boost to employee morale.

Game and Activity Ideas for: