Five Lessons Learned From the Economic Downturn
Friday, May 22, 2009 by Dave Blum Especially if you’re a small business, I’m guessing the answer is “yes”. It’s been a tough year all around; just about everyone I know is tightening their belt and paring back their expenses. It’s understandable — intelligent even — but that doesn’t make it easier for small business like […]
Budgeting–The Treasure Hunt Way
Thursday, May 21, 2009 by Dave Blum I did things a little differently on yesterday’s treasure hunt in SF’s North Beach/Chinatown. As I knew that the group was struggling with their budgeting and fund allocation at work, I decided (on this business team building exercise) to add a financial element to the activity. Rather than having […]
Put Your I-Pod Down and Step Away From That Tech
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 by Dave Blum In an Associated Press article yesterday titled, “Search for Human Bonds, Google CEO Urges Grads“, Eric Schmidt (Google’s chairman and CEO) delivered a speech at the University of Pennsylvania’s commencement ceremony, with the following admonition: “Turn off your computer. You’re actually going to have to turn off your phone […]
The Ties That Bind
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 by Dave Blum It’s October of 1987 and I’m waiting anxiously in the poste restante line of the Singapore post office — two months into my worldwide backpacking trip and starving for word from home. Back then — well before email, texting and twittering — the best way to receive correspondence while on the road was to tell friends […]
Taking the stress out of training
Friday, May 15, 2009 by Dave Blum Hey folks, I wanted to tell you about a great service out there for organizations that have their employees delivering the training. It’s called “Training-Modules.com, run by my friend, Susan Otto. Susan creates generic, customized training modules and seminars that provide employee trainers with a variety of interactive simulations, […]
An Exercise in Serendipity: The Puzzling Networking Game
Friday, May 15, 2009 by Dave Blum For a team building facilitator like me, one of the biggest pleasures of running a program (whether it’s corporate team building Atlanta or Dallas, or one of our social scavenger hunts here in San Francisco) is the “serendipity aspect“. Quite simply, you just never know what’s going to happen during an office team […]
Emergency: Scavenger Hunt Needed!
Thursday, May 14, 2009 by Dave Blum I received the following amusing email yesterday: “My idiot brother-in-law ‘forgot’ to plan his brother’s bachelor party! We will shortly have 6 guys coming from around the country to Boston with no itinerary. We are looking for a fun way to spend an afternoon! Catch: THIS SATURDAY, MAY […]
Problem Solving
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 by Dave Blum Last fall, Jen and I were driving along the Northern California coast on our way back from Monterey and discovered a sign advertising Arata’s Farm and their amazing “Hay Bale Maze”. As a team building consultant who loves scavenger hunts and corporate team challenges, how could I resist a little […]
Problem-Solving with Grandpa Blum
Monday, May 11, 2009 by Dave Blum My grandpa was a quiet man. Born and raised in Romania, he arrived in New York City in the early 1900’s and made a nice career for himself as a Manhattan dentist. But he didn’t talk much — except for when he was playing gin rummy. With his […]
Seeing the Situation Clearly
Friday, May 8, 2009 by Dave Blum Where were you back in the fall of 1987? Me, I was 24 years old, nearing the end of my 2-year ESL teaching gig in Japan, and afraid that I was going a little bit crazy. Standing up in front of class everyday, I’d get this recurrent dizziness. […]