Remember the three teams who were competing for an extra paid vacation day? They were figuring out how to get each team of ten over a patterned floor covering of circles and squares.

Once they had the pattern figured out, they began to lead the entire team to the Promised Land. Yet, somewhere around the seventh or eighth participant, the buzzer clearly said they were not getting it right.

What could have gone wrong?

Time was passing and it looked like no team would win. And then two smart cookies said, “Hey maybe there is a new pattern. Let’s give it a shot”.

After many loud game-buzzer sounds, a new pattern was formed and the team was escorted over the line of success.

What happened?

THE GAME HAD CHANGED.

Two-thirds through, the floor pattern changed and success would only come when the new code was learned.

Here is what the reactions were:

• Some thought it was a great learning. Hey, it’s like business, it’s like life. The game changes and it is either adapt or die.
• Others were mad, mad at each other, mad at the person who created the damn game with the less than perfect ending.
• One woman, furious, stood up and screamed at the facilitators saying they had a nerve throwing such a low curve. She stood up, waited a few seconds and then stormed out of the room. The door she banged shut reverberated.

Anyone want to guess how long it was for her to get promoted, if ever?

Originally posted on www.examiner.com