Getting shot in paintball is good for you

Last night, most of iMarc went to play paintball. There are some valuable lessons to be learned in that game — the first of which is, wear padding, because those paintballs travel 300 feet per second. Ouch. But the second of which is: have a plan and trust your team.

The first couple of games were fast and short. Most of us headed out into the arena independently, heading for cover and running forward ... and getting shot almost immediately.

Then we started developing plans. "I'll go for that cone--" "--and i'll go up the right side." The rate of getting shot started to drop, but it still didn't take long for the teams to whittle each other down to nothing.

Next we started coordinating actions: "I'll go for that cone--" "--and i'll cover you while you advance. Then you can cover me while I join you."

At this point we started surviving for minutes rather than seconds, and the games became a lot more dynamic.

A few more of these, and we started really learning what worked, how to take cover, how to advance in relative safety... and have a lot of fun doing it.

The business corollaries should be clear:

1. Make a plan.
2. Work together.
3. Profit— Err, I mean, have fun!

Seriously, this is why our projects are generally so successful. We carefully plan it, then we work together, and we trust each other to cover us and help each other.

Getting shot with a paintball pellet is a painful but extremely rapid way to learn these lessons. iMarc's new employee training process is a bit gentler. But I'm thinking maybe it could be enhanced with a paintball gun or two...

If you're up for the challenge, we're hiring a developer. And you'd get a chance to shoot at me.