E.G. Bell
Recently my wife and I took an antiquing trip to Medina, Ohio. We were disappointed with the antique mall. The prices were high and the selection was disappointing. I will add that the selection might have satisfied others. Me, not so much.
We visited a bunch of stores in the area and some were better but it was not my favorite trip.
When traveling, we are forced to dine out. Last year we realized this is not the healthiest way to eat or lose weight, so we decided to adapt by buying salads from grocery stores, or pre-made sandwiches. Best of sub-optimal options. So in Medina, Ohio, I went into the Walmart while my wife visited Hobby Lobby. I’m a very efficient shopper so I was in the store less than 10 minutes. While I was there, there was a team meeting going on in the front of the store. A huge circle of Walmart employees with a young manager center. A meeting. In the front of the store. I had to go a less convenient route to exit the store because the meeting was being held between where I was and where I needed to go.
I am retired now so meetings are distant in my rearview, but I’ll always have the memory, and my memory of meetings is that they are the most complete waste of time in the business world. Team meetings. All-hands meetings. Turnover meetings. Status meetings. Etc. etc. etc. There are positions whose main function is to call and conduct meetings. And there are minion positions whose function, in addition to their actual jobs, is to attend meetings. If you are not getting a sense of my disdain for meetings by now, I’m really dropping the ball in my description. The only thing I disliked more than attending meetings was conducting them. I am sure meetings are a feature of most every business. Some more pervasive, some less. All about equal in time gone that cannot be retrieved. Whatever can be done?
Every business has its own buzzwords particular to that business. If your company builds houses, a business meeting might talk about drain pans, rafters, joists, purlins, king studs, headers, right hinge/left hinge, flashing, etc. If you are in the financial field, as I have been for most of my career, a business might talk about reversals, ACH, authorizations, denials, overdraft protection, surcharge, business lines, clearing, posting, cutover, etc. Every business uses terms that are particular to that business, or with meanings understood a certain way by anyone in that business who hears that term, even if it means something else in other contexts. With that in mind, some incredibly creative mind came up with BS Bingo. Note that it is not really called BS Bingo. It is actually called the kind of bingo for which BS is an acronym. (It is also known as Buzzword Bingo, though that is not how I first learned it.)
Acronyms are words made from the first letters of the words that make up the acronym. FBI is an acronym for Federal Bureau of Investigation, for example. I’m sure you know what BS is an acronym for. It is an acronym for a vast array of things of lesser value. Or meetings in general.
BS Bingo is a pretty neat game. It is similar to regular bingo. Everyone in the meeting gets a card of 25 squares, just like in regular bingo. (There are websites that generate random cards.) The middle square is a free square. Each of the other 24 squares has a buzzword. When that word is used by anyone in the meeting, check it off on your card. When you have 5 checkmarks in a row, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, you call BS. (you actually call out the complete word).
Each card in BS Bingo can have all of the same terms. It is only necessary to have them arranged differently on each card. Otherwise, everyone paying attention would win every game. That would not be any fun.
I suppose you could also accept some variations, four corners, for instance. I’m not a bingo player, so there may be other ways to play of which I’m not familiar.
I was not able to find anything in the rules about padding your own card. If there is no restriction in this regard, there should be. Otherwise players would just make comments or ask questions laden with buzzwords in winning positions on their own card.
It also occurs to me that, unlike regular bingo, there will probably be no way to have the checked items on a players card verified against what was actually said in a meeting. In fact, if this were done, it would make meetings even worse because it would take longer. The only thing worse than a meeting is a longer meeting. I also don’t know if, once someone calls BS, a new game is started with new cards, etc.
The point of all of this is that BS Bingo can make meetings interesting. Fun. Paying attention becomes easy, and in fact, necessary. It is even better. You can also use this at company events and during speeches. Use it in any company event where attendance is mandatory, takes you away from actual time-critical work, and speakers or participants are given to overuse of buzzwords and catchphrases.
I should also mention that people whose function in an organization is to arrange and conduct meetings and events may not appreciate this game as much as the players. They may discourage participation and may also take umbrage when winners announce themselves during a meeting/event. Also, I have never heard of any kind of reward at all for winning in BS Bingo. Bragging rights may be the only laurel to be had from those who faithfully attend and pay close attention in meetings, but meetings finally become a place you actually want to be.
