It's like Christmas in the EchoDitto office in D.C. today. This morning we received a special delivery — our new foosball table! But it didn’t look much like a foosball table when it arrived: it looked like a box with lots and lots of parts.
So that begs the question: how many Dittos does it take to assemble a foosball table? Answer: Five Dittos … plus five cups of coffee (refilled at least once), four screwdrivers, two Allen wrenches, one level, some wood glue, and duct tape. After all, I never heard of a project (an offline one anyway) completed by a bunch of geeks that didn’t involve duct tape.
Several hours after its arrival, and a few missteps later (we had to take it apart around step 5 upon realizing we’d gone wrong at step 2; and once it was uprighted, we had to reassemble the rods as we’d inadvertently made it a left-handed table), we played an inaugural game. For the record, JP and Tom beat Chris and me, 3-0.
Although we joke about it being a team building exercise, it actually was. I just started as a strategy architect a couple of weeks ago, and this served as a good exercise in EchoDitto culture. As a project manager, I suppose it’s no surprise that I assumed the role of a sort of foreperson of our foosball construction crew. And those missteps I mentioned, well, they were good lessons in conflict management, not to mention the wisdom of following a work plan. But the real lesson is in how much fun it is to be here.
So I personally challenge you to a game next time you’re in town. I’d better go get practicing!
