Pavlov's Disc

Do other men have a Pavlovian response to a Frisbee? If you are holding a serious discussion on politics, family, work, entertainment, or world crises, do you suddenly break away the moment someone waves a plastic disc at you and says, "Go long"?

I thought about this yesterday at our departmental team building outing. We had a grand old time on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) discussing each of our five greatest strengths according to the Strengths Finder 2.0 book. We ate box lunches from Panera Bread, engaged in a couple of team building ice breakers, such as the human knot, and then got into a heady discussion about how we can complement our team's strengths and work with the strengths of the other departments in our company.

And then someone pulled out the Frisbee.

All pretense of professionalism was gone. All four men took to the field and tossed the disc back and forth with greater or lesser levels of skill (I was lesser). And all four women stayed behind, conversed, and watched the men. It was as if someone rang the bell and the dogs started salivating.

Luckily, not one of us tried to catch the Frisbee in our teeth. Stimulus-response be damned. Our dental insurance isn't THAT good.