Tennis Ball Transfer

Have you ever been a customer of a business that claimed it was doing a really great job in supporting and you and in truth it was not? Recently I had dinner with some clients at a lodge in the wilds of Pennsylvania. I arrived to the dinner late, after the group had ordered. The enthusiastic and focused waitress came over to give me a menu and take my order. After glancing around, it appeared that I was ordering after most everyone in the restaurant had ordered. In fact most people at their tables had food. I waited for my food, waited and waited. It was as if the waitress took my order but the kitchen was not preparing my food. The waitress checked in several times to ask me what I wanted. I kept assuring her that I just wanted my food. At no point did she explain my lack of food; not even my trembling or frothing mouth made a difference. Lack of collaboration and coordination between the wait staff and the kitchen staff resulted in me becoming a complaining and unhappy customer.



The restaurant staff could have used a round of tennis ball transfer. Then they could see and experience the impact of lack of coordination and collaboration.



You’re probably thinking – what is he talking about? Tennis ball transfer is one of my new and old favorite team building game to use with clients. Each participant holds the end of string attached to a smallish steel ring on which a tennis ball sits. Business types at the end of the rope, now that is a cliché. The task: the group of said business people must take said tennis ball off one stanchion and leverage it down to balance it on another stanchion. Lack of collaboration and coordination results in the tennis ball crashing to the floor instead of being lifted. In this tennis ball game the facilitator, aka I the bald one, takes on the role of the customer. At the end of the game the group rates themselves as delivering poor, ok and extraordinary customer service. Then the customer, me, gives the group feedback. Most of the time the group rates themselves much higher than what I rate them. The rating gap illustrates how the group is disconnected from the truth.



So why do I, the balding bloodsucking coach, make my clients, business people, engage in this activity? Practice! We all can see the wisdom in the epithet of “practice makes perfect.” Even, Malcom Gladwell makes the case for practice in his book The Tipping Point. So are these business people practicing? Do they actually gain customers and increase revenue by playing this game? No. However, like running through tires on a football field, hitting padded stanchions and doing high knee drills this activity replicates a scenario in the game of business. More specifically, Tennis Ball Transfer teaches collaboration. In this game everyone needs to pull at the same time; a lesson that business people could use help in.



I recently worked with a business to improve the relationship and performance between the purchasing, receiving, production and accounting departments. There were myriad of issues confronting the groups. One of them was that parts would get delivered without a packing slip or purchase order. When that happened the receiving department would quarantine the part (put in a particular part of the floor). The theory was that once in quarantine it was not to be touched; however, in reality members of the production department would just go and take the parts because they were needed to complete the project. Oh and did I mention they would not tell anybody? Their action created havoc with the inventory control department and also with the purchasing department being able to track the order. I was brought in to meet with key members from each of the departments. During our meeting I had them play Tennis Ball Transfer. We used the game as a basis for discussion about the impact of different departments on each other and to create methods for improving coordination and support between departments. In this game when there was a disconnect we would dialogue about it, discuss the issues and most importantly learned from.



The most important feature of these stoopid games is that with a good facilitator they can be used as a practice field from which business people can practice get better and improve. All the while games create is a safe environment with no real customer in sight. God knows that business could use more practice sessions like this. Just ask any hapless customer.

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Going To Ecuadorland: Snippets from a Trip

I went to Ecuador not for pleasure but for a client. Gosh that sounds romantic. CMI has a client in Ecuador; sweet. Finally I had outgrown the constraints of North America. Traveling there was like going to a new world. The transition, twelve hours of travel and the hour standing in line to get out of Ecuadorian Customs, solidified that I was no longer in Kansas. Not to mention, everyone spoke Spanish.

Was that really a bullet proof vest on that security guard who took my suitcase out of the car? He also wore a pistol. What was that about? I assumed that the pistol was for protecting me in my hotel room. Oh dear; what had I gotten myself into? 

Dinner was served in a small dining room perched overlooking mountains. As I enjoyed the freshest shrimp ceviche ever and the most exquisite wine, I knew I was in a new world. 

In the morning I took a quiet walk around the hotel. There were a few people on the street. I did see two dogs. Walking around at 10,000 feet elevation is what I imagine walking around the sea bottom in a full-blown diving suit is like. It feels like you have fifty pounds attached to your legs and you cannot move. If you do move, you turn into Mr. Huffy Puffy. I could not catch my breath. 

In Ecuador I instantly related to everyone. Everyone looks you in the eye. It does not matter who they are, Waiter, campesino, the wealthy, everyone has a presence. Everyone is sincerely courteous, in a way that I do not experience here in Illinois.

I instantly related to my clients. We did not have time for pleasantries. There was work to be done. Three years of planning to be accomplished in three days. We worked in the CEO’s apartment overlooking hills covered with farms and trees. Yet we were located in the middle of Quito with a population of two million and really horrible traffic. How did all that manage to co-exist? 

The visiting cook and her company made a catered lunch right there in the owner’s apartment. She prepared empanadas, a staple of Ecuadorian cuisine. Empanadas come in various shapes, sizes and flavors as do the avocados. Ecuadorians can talk about the distinctions and differences of their avocados and empanadas with the same rigor that the Argentinians talk about beef and red wine. Who knew?

I spent Saturday with my new Ecuadorian family. Not my clients, but a different family who adopted me. I got new aunts, uncles, cousins and even parents. I was instant family. Familia is all important in Ecuador. The love of family is palatable. The high point of the evening was eating cuy, Ecuadorian guinea pig, a delicacy which a number of us had never partaken in. It’s delicious. I highly recommend it. It tastes like pork; who knew?

Sunday was corporate team building with 38 Ecuadorian participants. A German woman in her twenties that I just met assisted me. The participants had never played stoopid games before. They loved it and threw themselves into it with a passion. That engagement and enthusiasm was present in the meeting where the participants played full out. We laughed a lot together and I loved that. My Spanish was not perfect or entirely adequate, but the participants made it work. Nothing got in the way of this company laying new tracks; impressive.

The evening before my midnight departure we went to artesian market in Colonial Quito. They call it old town. The shopkeepers tested my Mexican bargaining skills and I walked out with some really great stuff for family, friends and colleagues. Am I full service or what?

The transition out of Ecuador also included waiting in a line. I was in first class and waited an hour. I love how no one is discriminated against standing in line in Ecuador. Long lines include everyone. At midnight I walked back on to the plane. The stewardess recognized me from my previous flight to Ecuador. At that point I knew I was coming back to Kansas.