Battle of the Paddle
NorthWind held its first ever Ping Pong Tournament on Nov. 22nd at our Sabetha, KS office. The tournament was the collaborative brain-child of Account Manager, Aldo Martinez and Sales Engineer, Mitch Heiman. Learning of each other’s love of the game, Aldo and Mitch purchased a ping pong table and brought it to NorthWind to play a few rounds. Other employees caught ping pong fever and soon, people would pair off to play a game during their breaks. More people wanted to join in the action and before long, they had a tournament on their hands. The tournament was designed with 4 pools, comprised of 7 members each. Pool play consisted of round-robin format, with each member playing one another twice. These matches took place over several weeks before the tournament date. The top two scoring players from each pool progressed to bracket play. All players were invited to the tournament to watch the top players battle it out. Other employees gathered to cheer on their favorite player. Mitch Heiman took the crown, Eric Meyer (MES Developer), took 2nd place, and Ryan Strahm (Design), took third. After tournament play ended, lunch was served.
When winner Mitch was asked what his secret was to Ping Pong victory, Mitch stated that he simply enjoys the game. He has been playing since he was little and attributes repetition and lots of practice for improving his performance and to his tournament win. The crowd, as well as the participants found the game play exciting and enjoyed the opportunity to interact with people from other departments. Newcomers to the company felt the tournament helped to form new bonds within the company. The tournament provided NorthWind employees with another opportunity to experience one of NorthWind’s Core Values – Relationships. We focus on building relationships with customers and each other by demonstrating fairness, trustworthiness, reliability, and humility.
When employees feel connected to each other, they are more likely to collaborate and work together more creatively. And although the Ping Pong Tournament was a competition, the end result was that bonds were formed, a sense of community and camaraderie was felt, and relationships were strengthened. And that, is the NorthWind Way!
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