Our different ways of approaching the puzzle complement each other, and the diversity in our vocabularies-the result of so many things, including that we were raised by immigrant parents from different countries, that we grew up in different places, and that we studied different disciplines and pursued different career fields-is a great help. My game partner, on the other hand, is a word-finding machine, equipped with both speed and endurance. I prefer to stare at the puzzle until I see the pangram (each day’s puzzle has at least one pangram, which uses all seven letters at least once), sometimes for an awfully long time, and then I’ll get to the rest of the list-often losing steam along the way. We also bring different ways of playing and different cultural and educational backgrounds to the game. But teaming up with another person has made the game much more enjoyable, and it’s brought us success with the game! It’s supportive and fun (we commiserate and share in mild outrage when Sam Ezersky, the game’s editor, won’t take a word that we know is an actual word, and we laugh at nonsense words we concoct in desperation).

And please, remember to thank your team.Įncourage collaboration and build diverse teams. I am sure some folks out there will take issue with my working on the SB with someone else. Managers and leaders: Take a tip from the Spelling Bee and acknowledge small successes and incremental progress toward big goals. A simple way to reward effort and determination. You find a certain percentage of the total points possible, and you advance from Beginner to Good Start, Moving Up, Good, Solid, Nice (blech!), Great, Amazing, and Genius. The SB’s ranks are milestone celebrations of progress. Inspire them with your organization’s purpose and set strategic goals that align with that purpose.Ĭelebrate progress. They need to understand what your organization aims to accomplish-and why-and be in it to win it with you. Leaders, your team needs to know more than the rules of engagement. For me, that’s at least as much because of what it says about how far I’ve come as that the end is in sight. Seeing a finish line in the distance is powerful motivation to keep going. From that point on, I was in it to win it. It was a huge morale boost to know the goal. The SB wouldn’t take it) figured out that QB was double the points of the rank of Amazing (one step below Genius). Whaaa? What’s better than Genius?īy sheer luck, one day I found all of the words and was rewarded with the Easter egg of Queen Bee! But it felt opaque and mysterious-once you reach Genius rank, how far are you from QB? Five words, 10 words, 40 words? Eventually, a friend who’s way mathier than I (I know, mathier isn’t a real word. It got better when I realized there were levels (ranks) in the game when you reach certain percentages of possible points in a given puzzle (getting stuck at the oh-so-condescending Nice rank is torturous), but then I got frustrated again when I reached the highest rank-Genius-and the game asked if I wanted to keep playing. When I had no idea how many points were possible, or how/when it ever ended, I quickly lost interest.

Sure, it’s important to know the rules of the game, but even more so to know what you’re aiming for. And lately I’ve realized this game has some lessons to impart for leaders and managers. But after a few minutes, I thought, “Does this ever end? How many words are there?” I lost interest and gave up.īut today, I’m hooked, and, thanks to some recent improvements in the game experience and, most importantly, the fun of working on it with another person, we tackle the game every day, and most days-at least 3 out of 4-we reach Queen Bee, finding every word on the list. One insomnia-plagued late night a few years ago, weary and anxious from doomscrolling, I decided to try the New York Times Spelling Bee-a simple word-finding game in which you make as many words as you can of at least four letters in length, always using the letter in the center of the 7-letter honeycomb structure.

Spelling bee nyt words