Dominoes are small, flat blocks of rigid material that have been used as gaming objects for centuries. They come in a variety of shapes, colors, and textures. Some are made of wood, others of plastic, and others of bone or stone.
In the context of business, dominos can be seen as a metaphor for the way that a company’s success is often a result of the chain reaction that occurs when one thing leads to another. A single action, such as hiring a new employee or launching a product, may seem simple at first glance, but in the end, the effects can be dramatic and far-reaching.
The domino effect
A common idiom in the United States refers to the phenomenon of a single event leading to many greater and more dramatic consequences. The term “domino effect” came into common use after a professor of physics published a study illustrating the fact that one domino can knock down another domino by 50% more than it would have been able to knock down on its own.
As a physicist, Stephen Morris understands that the domino effect is caused by a simple change in energy. When a domino is held upright, it stores potential energy based on its position in space. This potential energy is then converted into kinetic energy, which becomes the momentum that causes the domino to fall.
When it comes to business, the domino effect can help us learn how to focus our efforts and stay on track. Rather than jumping in headfirst and tackling every project, try to choose the most important tasks for the day and give them your full attention until they are completed.
Doing so will make it much easier to achieve your goals. And it will also help you avoid the “flash in the pan” syndrome that so often kills projects before they are finished.
Getting Started
To start playing dominos, you need to acquire a set of tiles. You can get them online or in most retail stores. They are typically rectangular blocks with pips on each side that match one another. If you’re not sure what kind of tile you need, consult a domino set instruction sheet.
Placing tiles on the board is a crucial part of the game. The tiles must be placed so that the two matching sides of each tile touch fully and are not separated by more than one pip.
You can play dominos as a group in a number of games, including fives-and-threes and a scoring version called 5s-and-3s. In a scoring version, the player attaches a tile from his hand to an end of the existing tiles so that the total of the end tiles is divisible by five or three.
The most interesting aspect of this game is how the shape of the domino chain develops from one tile to the next. The chain can be quite asymmetrical, depending on the players’ whims and the limits of the playing surface.
