There's something inexplicably satisfying about a ball that sticks on
things. Tossed gently onto any smooth surface (whiteboards, computer monitors,
glass ceilings), and it stays put. Draw a target on the whiteboard, and
you have a game.
Draw a decision
matrix like this one and you have an Emergency Arbitrary Discussion Concluder.
Sound silly? Consider those high-level, $5,000/hour executive discussions
about the relative merits of plastic vs. metal paper clips. A fun and
quick way to bring these conversations to satisfactory and permanent closure
can save significant dollars and many a misspent temper.
For the sake of potential ambivalence, you can give everyone a Suction
Ball (be careful not to refer to this as a "Sucker Ball" - though
it adequately describes the device, the inadvertant implications of the
term "sucker" can cast a certain negative aura which might impede
enthusiastic and wholehearted participation) and have the decision determined
by taking the average of those balls that are still stuck by the end of
the meeting. To add drama and intrigue, people can take turns throwing
their Suction Balls. This gives participants the opportunity to try to
knock each other's Suction Balls off the target, in a kind of vacuous
vertical shuffleboard exercise. To bring things to a quick and appropriately
meaningless conclusion, everyone can throw simultaneously. Since Suction
Balls can suck on to each other, extra recognition can be given to anyone
who is able to perform such a remarkably senseless feat of accidental
coordination.
Finally, rolling a Suction Ball across a the surface of a conference
table produces a satisfyingly annoying popping sound, which, in turn,
can be used to signal a felt need to continue to the next item on the
agenda. If everyone has a Suction Ball, this same signalling mechanism
can be used as an applause-substitute, as if to say "aren't we on
a roll now."
