Small Business Tips for Surviving the Downturn
Friday, December 12, 2008 by Dave Blum There’s so much being written these days about the economy and its hit on large companies — Lehman Brothers, Circuit City, the Big Three bail-out, etc. But what about small businesses…companies like yours and mine? How are we supposed to get by? Here’s some advice I’ve been giving myself to help my team building […]
Playing with Status
Thursday, December 11, 2008 by Dave Blum Jen and I had some people over the other night for dinner and games. We like this kind of party because it tends to take the pressure off of the introverts to make dazzling conversation with strangers. Whether it’s for parties, networking events, or corporate team building activities — games […]
Team Efficiency Workshop
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 by Dave Blum One of the things I like most about my job is creating new team building activities –especially when it involves collaboration. For Dr. Clue’s Team Efficiency Workshop, I worked very closely with my two facilitators extraordinaire, Franco Beneduce and Christine McHugh. Christine and I were tasked with sifting […]
Top Five Clue-Writing Tips
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 by Dave Blum Here are my Top Five Clue-writing Tips for creating excellent treasure hunt clues: 1. Use wordplay: I love playing with words when brainstorming scavenger hunt ideas. Anagrams are great — you can send someone to a statue of Ben Franklin, for example, by writing, “Head to the mixed-up ‘Neb […]
It Takes Three To Build Trust
Monday, December 8, 2008 by Dave Blum From time to time, just for fun, I make a mental list of the most brilliant people I know. Inevitably, one of the top names on the list is Harald Katzmair, Ph.D, founder of Vienna/NY-based FAS Research. Harald is one of the world’s foremost thought leaders in Social […]
Solving the puzzles of networking
Friday, December 5, 2008 by Dave Blum As I’m fond of saying, “We live in a puzzle culture”. Heck, hop on a plane sometime if you don’t believe me. You’re bound to see at least half a dozen people noodling away at a crossword puzzle or sudoku, with a kid or two in the back […]
A Puzzle-riffic Wedding
Thursday, December 4, 2008 by Dave Blum In a recent post, I listed a variety of my favorite scavenger hunt ideas and suggested a few innovative ways to use puzzles in our daily lives. One of the treasure hunt ideas I neglected to mention, however, was: Announce Events. I mean, why send out a simple Evite when you […]
Victims, Heroes and Villains
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 by Dave Blum One of my favorite books in recent years is Gary Harper’s “The Joy of Conflict Resolution“. Harper, a trainer, writer and facilitator based in Vancouver, is a member of the instructional team of the Centre for Conflict Resolution at the Justice Institute of B.C. His book bears the subtitle: […]
The Monk and the Tiger
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 by Dave Blum The other day, I was re-reading one of my favorite inspirational books, Sylvia Boorstein’s short and pithy “It’s Easier Than You Think“, and came across this parable: “A monk was being chased by a tiger toward the edge of a cliff. He leaps off the cliff, grasping a […]
Getting in the Flow
Monday, December 1, 2008 by Dave Blum A few years back, I attended a NASAGA conference session led by Bernie DeKoven. He spoke to us about the elusive quality of “flow”, a term much-popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. According to DeKoven, the “flow” state is that feeling of being “in the zone”, when we feel like we’re at one with […]