Playing B.S. Bingo to Save Your Sanity

[MORTARDUDE]

http://federalnewsradio.com/index.php?nid=7

Playing B.S. Bingo to Save Your Sanity by Mike Causey


From time to time nearly every federal worker, and especially members of management and top political team, has suffered from the MEGO Syndrome. MEGO stands for "My Eyes Glaze Over." If you haven't had it, you haven't lived.
MEGO happens when an individual or group of individuals is forced to sit in a room and listen as someone, either an employee who outranks them or an outside expert, drones on, and on, and on about the subject de jour or the pet project of the hour to top management, you know, the goal you are committed to support and achieve (or else!).
Sometimes these sessions are worthy. Think real hard. Some of them must have been valuable.
Sometimes they aren't. It's MEGO all over again. One suspects that the speaker cannot get his/her spouse or kids or dog to listen at home, so he/she takes it out on a captive crowd at the office. Worse yet, are the true believers: the people who have a terribly dull (to you) obsession they are working out, using your ears and your brain.
Enter Dave Cavanaugh, reader-listener, who is a veteran of many MEGO sessions.
He confesses he may have conducted some too. Cavanaugh passes along the following cure for MEGO. The author is unknown. IT is known as BINGO B.S.. The definition of BS is not spelled out. One assumes it means "basically silly" or "bad stuff" or something like that. With the goals in mind here are the rules to B.S. BINGO:

1. Before (or during) your next meeting, seminar, or conference call, prepare yourself by drawing a square on a card. One about 5" x 5" is a good size. Divide the card into columns -- five across and five down. That will give you 25 one-inch "blocks."

2. Write the following 25 words/phrases in the blocks:
Synergy
Strategic fit
Core competencies
Best practice
Bottom line
Revisit
Take that off-line
Out of the loop
Benchmark
Value-added
Proactive
Win-win
Think outside the box
Fast track
Result-driven
Ballpark
Empower(ment)
Knowledge base
Moving forward
Touch base
Mindset
Client focus(ed)
Paradigm
Game plan
Leverage

3. Check off the appropriate block when you hear that word or phrase.

4. When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, stand up and shout "B.S.!!!"

That will get everyone's attention and it let those who are still awake know that you have been paying attention, because you have changed the paradigm (sorry! ), introduced your own game plan (sorry, again!). It will show value-added, that you can think outside the box, connect the dots, etc. Sorry, sorry, sorry!

[sfc_darrel]

Excellent