Boardgames for Business

Long before Facebook, Instagram and Angry Birds, in an age long past (or so it seems), families spent hours together huddled around the kitchen table, enjoying spirited games of Monopoly, Sorry, the Game of Life, and Risk.    A welcome break from television — the chief electronic entertainment of the era — board games provided adults […]

Change: It’s Such A Pain!

Why do people change?  It’s a simple question, with a plethora of possible answers, such as: People change because it’s good for them… They change because they’re forced to… They change because it’s just time…  They change for the sake of variety… Change is a part of life, right?  It’s inevitable.  We change when we […]

How Not To Be Alone

(Editor’s note:   I found this in the Times a few days ago and was very impressed–and moved.   Please see my comments afterwards. DB) By JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER (reprinted from the NY Times, June 8, 2013) A COUPLE of weeks ago, I saw a stranger crying in public. I was in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, waiting […]

Banff, Alberta, Canada teambuilding scavenger hunt

A great place to hold a corporate team building scavenger hunt in Banff Event Description: With its tremendous physical beauty, Banff is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Canada, with soaring mountain tops, well-maintained hiking trails, crystalline lakes, and an over-all, laid-back Canadian vibe. It’s a superb place for a corporate teambuilding event. […]

New York – Bronx Zoo teambuilding scavenger hunt

A fun site to hold a team building scavenger huntin the Bronx Zoo Event Description: An truly “wild” site for a corporate team building event, the Bronx Zoo is one of the world’s largest metropolitan zoos,  showcasing some 4,000 animals representing about 650 species. Location History: Built upon grounds once owned by Fordham University and later […]

Lessons from Collaborative Games

What exactly is a “game”?  A quick search on Wikipedia delivers this definition: game /g?m/ Noun “A form of play or sport, esp. a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck.” Although I agree that games must necessarily have rules (and structure), what strikes me as Interesting about the […]

Scavenger Hunts vs. Treasure Hunts: Is there a difference?

One of the most common questions I hear from prospective clients is, “So what can you tell me about your scavenger hunts?”    For a native San Franciscan like me, this is akin to a tourist saying “I just love Frisco…especially your trolley cars.”   Sad to say folks, my lovely hometown by the bay is San […]

Increase Performance of Your Virtual Teams

Are you tired of the same old dry, serious, virtual meetings? As organizations continue to globalize and departments become more and more geographically dispersed, teams are increasingly turning to cyberspace to complete important projects and to get work done.   With opportunities to gather together  “in person” becoming fewer and farther between,  some significant team challenges […]

Oakland — Downtown teambuilding scavenger hunt

A dynamic place to hold a team building activity in Oakland     Event Description: The third largest city in the Bay Area (after San Jose and San Francisco), Oakland is the principal city in the East Bay and home to the famous Oakland A’s and Oakland Raiders sports franchises.  A perfect East Bay teambuilding […]

Should Games be More (or Less) Competitive

There’s a popular social movement in schools these days, compelling teachers and coaches to minimize competition on the playground while increasing collaboration.  It’s gone so far that one school I heard about even removed the scoreboard from their high school football field, insisting that keeping score put too much pressure on the students and inflated […]