Friday, February 27, 2009 by Dave Blum
A couple of days ago, I wrote about last weekend’s Bay Area Treasure Hunt (BATH), run by our Dr. Clue puzzle writer, Alexandra Dixon. Well, James (also a Dr. Clue puzzle writer) filmed the whole day for our team and put it up on YouTube. As you can see, he’s cut it into two segments: our planning stage and our actual doing stage. Check out the first stage directly below:
As you saw in the film, that was me leading the pre-hunt planning session. Whether you’re running corporate team building activities, brainstorming treasure hunt ideas, or leading a departmental project team, it’s darn important to discuss process before jumping into task. In the case of Saturday’s hunt, I asked each of my teammates to first describe their goals and expectations for the hunt. It was important for all of us to express our expectations ahead of time, so that everyone could get their needs met. We then came to agreement about our decision process. The last thing you want when playing scavenger hunts is hitting the course without an agreed-upon plan of action and a system for breaking impasses.
Once we had our roles and groundrules down, we were ready for the treasure hunt clues. You can watch our progress in stage 2, below.
Advanced hunts like this are going on fairly frequently within the treasure hunt subculture. Let me know if any of you would like a schedule of upcoming events and I’ll hook you up.