Every few months, after one of our company tournaments ended, an executive would walk past me and ask with a smile: “When’s the next tournament?”
Every time I heard that question, I smiled to myself. Looking back, our company Go (Baduk) club was never really about the game itself. It became a way to connect people, make work more enjoyable, and, in its own small way, change the very atmosphere of the organization.
It all started unexpectedly. During a company hiking event, a few colleagues and I began talking about Go. One person joined the conversation, then another. Before long, someone said, “We should get together and play sometime.”
That casual remark became the seed of something much bigger.
After the trip, the finance manager and I decided to start an official company Go club. We weren’t sure how many people would be interested, but the response exceeded our expectations. Several executives turned out to be enthusiastic players, and the club quickly gained momentum. We met regularly, and as the membership grew, we decided to organize a company-wide tournament.
What surprised me was not the competition itself, but the excitement it created throughout the office.
After each round, I sent updates to the participants. People began discussing the standings during lunch breaks, predicting future matchups, and joking about who might make it to the finals. The tournament became a common topic of conversation across completely different departments.
The day after an important match, it was not unusual to see executives gathered in the cafeteria, replaying key moments and debating decisions as if they were professional commentators. For a while, it felt less like a rigid workplace and more like a small, vibrant community.
The club brought me an unexpected benefit in my daily routine as well.
As part of my job in General Affairs, I frequently had to visit executives and department heads to obtain approvals or discuss various projects. Naturally, those meetings could often feel formal and intimidating.
But things changed after we had spent months sitting across a Go board together, staring at the same black and white stones.
One day, I walked into an executive’s office for an approval. To my surprise, he stood up from his chair, smiled, and greeted me first: “Manager, good to see you.”
I still remember the startled expressions on the faces of the other staff in the room. We spent a few minutes chatting about the club, shared a cup of tea, and then finished the actual business discussion quickly and efficiently. Relationships built outside formal meetings always made the formal work so much easier.
One of my favorite memories came during a tournament match that I unexpectedly lost. Watching from the sidelines, the CEO laughed and asked me, “You let him win, didn’t you?”
“No,” I replied honestly. “I simply didn’t see his move.”
He laughed again and shook his head. “You clever fox.”
At the time, I thought he was just joking about the game. But looking back, I think he was enjoying something much bigger than the results on the board. He was watching people from different departments and completely different levels of the hierarchy connect in ways that rarely happened through work alone.
The club continued for nearly eight years.
Eventually, people changed positions, senior executives retired, and the company evolved. Around the same time, I left the company to attend an MBA program. The club gradually lost its momentum, and we eventually decided to bring it to a close. Using the remaining membership funds, we prepared small parting gifts for the members and quietly ended our run.
I felt a little sadness, but absolutely no regret. The club had already achieved something incredibly valuable. It had brought people together, created genuine friendships across departments, and made everyday work a little warmer and a little more human.
That experience taught me something I still firmly believe today. A hobby is not simply a way to pass the time. It is a way to meet people, build trust, and sometimes, even change the culture of an organization.