Lessons from the Table: Applying Bridge Teachings to the Workplace

A good portion of my life outside of work takes place at card tables all over the country. No, I'm not a degenerate gambler (I'm the type of person who cashes out of a poker game the second I go up), but rather, a Bridge addict. Most people think that Bridge is just a game for old people and a way to pass the time after they've retired. While the facts are stacked against me in arguing against that point (the average age of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) member is over 72 and climbing), I was fortunate enough to learn the game in 8th grade and haven't looked back since.

I reached the game's pristine rank, Life Master, a few weeks before starting college. I've finished in the top 10 in national events against some of the best players in the world. I've even competed multiple times for the opportunity to represent the US in Junior (U-26) international competition. No, I'm not trying to brag (an empty trophy case wouldn't get me that far anyway), but rather trying to emphasize how much Bridge means to me. And now that I'm out of school and have the opportunity to travel all over to play when I have the time, I've taken full advantage.

Bridge has taught me a lot of life lessons over the years, many of which have translated into the workplace. I wanted to provide some examples from my own personal experiences:

1. Critical thinking/logic: This one goes without saying, as Bridge is one of the most challenging games at its highest levels. A typical Bridge hand involves piecing together information from the bidding to put yourself in the optimal spot and then acting on the information the opponents give you through the play of the cards to further optimize your result.

How does a new software application get built? Stakeholders provide information in the form of requirements and then software engineers build on those specifications to hash out an ideal product. Maybe my analogy isn't the best, but I see a striking similarity between how I approach a Bridge hand and how the technology we innovate comes into being.

2. Practice makes perfect: There are some games where you can become really good in a short amount of time. Bridge, unless you're Bobby Fischer reincarnated as a card player, is not going to be one of them. Besides learning the rules of the game, you also need to learn card combinations, bidding systems, and a whole lot more. It took me a few years before I was semi-confident in the way I was playing.

Is the average person a natural lawyer/doctor/programmer? Nope, but you can work your way to being one through hard work and plenty of studying. The same thing applies in Bridge.

3. Open communication: In Bridge, you sit opposite a partner and you work together to put yourselves in a position to win. Therefore, it's imperative that you and your partner are on the same page as much as possible, or things are going to go south real fast. I can share many tales of bad partners over the years (and I'm sure I've been one as well at some points), but I luckily have been playing fairly consistently with someone for 2.5 years now and we are almost always approaching a hand the same way. It's paid dividends and virtually all my best finishes are with this partner (thanks, Goose!).

The best teams in a workplace are the ones where communication is honest and open. Constructive criticism should be welcomed and should allow an environment of best practices and constant refinement. Nielsen actually instills the concept of being "Open" in their core values. I couldn't agree more.

4. Don't get complacent: There are some Bridge players who when they think they have the hang of the game, mail it in and just go from there. And then are those who constantly seek to improve, always thinking about how the par result could be reached and how they can tinker with their system to avoid mistakes. The latter group of players are the ones who are more successful in the long run, because they're ready when the next batch of hungry players are breathing down their neck. I can't even tell you how many midnight/1 A.M. discussions I've had with partners where we revisited results and had talks on what we could do better.

The same goes for the workplace, especially from the point of view of a software engineer, a field where your toolset can change just like that. Once you're where you want to be, you can't allow yourself to not be considering how you could improve X or what you should be reading to better help yourself understand Y. You always need to be on the top of your game, because you never know when that eager college student or new-hire is ready to step up. Maybe that's a cutthroat way of thinking about the real world, but it definitely applies in the world of Bridge, where new talent is always fighting to be relevant amongst the "giants" of the game.

5. Shake it off: Obligatory +1 for using a Taylor Swift song lyric in a LinkedIn article. Even the best Bridge players have disasters, going off the rails and putting themselves in a deep hole. I've had plenty (for the sake of not creating a novel, I'll only revisit one). After the hand is over and you know how badly you just messed up, your initial reaction is to slouch down in your seat and wish you could disappear. However, that's exactly what your opponents want you to do, knowing they can seize the momentum and just drill you down right then and there (these metaphors made me realize that Bridge is just war in card form). It takes fortitude and a lot of focus, but you just need to move on before the damage gets worse. It took me a long time to execute this advice, but once I did, my results improved dramatically.

Back in 2015, I was competing in my second trials to represent the US Junior team in international competition. After the round-robin stage, my team was slated to play the top team in the event. This team was the Goliath to our David. They had the best players on paper with the most expertise. If oddsmakers were present, we'd be massive underdogs. Shockingly, we played these guys extremely close and lost on the very last hand. Instead of holding my head high and focusing on the next match (since it was double-elimination with the top two teams moving on), I let the depression from losing follow me into the next day and we got hammered right out of the competition. Chance. Blown. Feeling like an idiot, I vowed that I'd come back stronger than ever after that blowup, and while I still haven't reached the apex that I'm going for, I'm for sure a lot closer to it now than I was then.

Mistakes will happen. Something will go into production and an uncovered test scenario will creep in, making things go haywire. You can't let it bog you down, though. Instead, you need to learn from it, improve upon it, and move on.

6. Giving back: Teaching younger people the game of Bridge has always been a challenge for a myriad of reasons, but I've made it a personal mission of mine over the past few years to give back to the game that changed my life. I've helped run some local Bridge camps, taught my best friend from high school the game so we could be partners going into college, established and ran a Bridge club at the University of Florida for a year (shoutout to the Gainesville Bridge community for being so helpful!), and most recently started streaming myself on Twitch playing Bridge online so people could watch as I talk myself through games. I want to make sure that people who have just been exposed to Bridge experience the joy I did when I first really got hooked on the game.

I try to bring the same mentor mindset into Nielsen, especially because I had so many mentors when I started out in the Emerging Technologist Program, all of whom were critical in helping me fit in and get off the ground running. Now that I'm out of the program and a "regular" employee, I try to serve as a peer mentor for associates in the newer ETP classes. As I was in their shoes, I want to make sure they have a good experience in the program and can provide my advice whenever necessary. While I hope my mentorship has been beneficial for them, I know for a fact that it's been beneficial for me. I highly recommend for more experienced employees to try to give back and mentor younger ones.

7. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: This one's just common sense, and you're probably wondering why I brought it up at all. The reason I did, though, is because Bridge is an extremely interesting game in that you can play against anyone at any time. Not many other hobbies allow you to do that. Casual golfers won't be playing against Tiger Woods and casual basketball players won't be playing 1:1 against LeBron.

In the time that I've played Bridge, I've played with and against arguably the best player in the world, the ex-CEO of Bear Stearns, and even Bill Gates, one of my idols. I've also met many more "common" Bridge players with incredible stories from WWII and Vietnam, the technology age, and so on. What I'm trying to say is that you have no idea who the person on your left or right is, and therefore, they should be given the same amount of respect as anyone else. The same thing, of course, goes for work and life in general.

Looking back on it, Bridge not only has been a great outlet for my time away from school/work, but also has been a crucial stepping stone in becoming the person that I am today. In a short amount of time, I saw myself mature well beyond the teenager I was when I first sat down at the table and become someone I'm proud to be to this very day.

Now to work on that time machine to alter those past losses...