Showdown in Nepal…
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 by Dave Blum Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you couldn’t move forward and you couldn’t go back? Well try standing on a rickety suspension bridge, 200 feet above an ice-cold river, with a herd of Nepalese oxen bearing down on you! The year is 1987 and I’m 10 days into my 3-week […]
Team Building Ideas: 3 Lessons From Those Darn Sudokus
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 by Dave Blum Do you have a love-hate relationship with any of your hobbies? Well I’ve got it with those darn Sudoku puzzles Basically, I love it when I solve ’em and I hate it when I don’t…which has been quite a bit of late, especially since I bought the New […]
Team Decision Making: Four Models for Navigating the Video Shop
Monday, March 16, 2009 by Dave Blum My wife, Jen, and I have a little dance we do at the video shop. I don’t mean that we break out the foxtrot or the cha cha (although Blockbuster is big enough for such a performance). What I mean is that we have our own video shop “relationship dance”, […]
Decoding the Puzzles of Humans
Friday, March 13, 2009 by Dave Blum In yesterday’s blog, I wrote about “decoding” situations. Now what does that mean? According to Dictionary.com, “to decode” is: 1. to translate (data or a message) from a code into the original language or form. 2. to extract meaning from (spoken or written symbols). When confronted with a […]
Team-building in Cross-Cultural Settings
Thursday, March 12, 2009 by Dave Blum Jack walks into his weekly team meeting with a spring in his step. Over the last few days, he’s been developing a plan that he’s sure will save the group thousands of dollars in time and budget. He can’t wait to share it all with his teammates, receive their […]
Surviving “Ed”
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 by Dave Blum It’s hard enough trying to cope with the economic situation when we don’t even know what to call it. A “recession”? — doesn’t sound strong enough A “depression”? — sounds, well, depressing An “Economic Downturn”? — that’s probably the most accurate, although it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. […]
Team Building: Four Steps for Managing Negative Self Talk
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 by Dave Blum In a recent article from ASTD’s Training & Development Magazine titled “Coaching Teams for Emotional Intelligence in Your Diverse Workplace”, the authors discuss the team impact of negative “self stories”. Tell me you haven’t heard at least one of the following statements from your teammates or coworkers (especially […]
Leadership Skills: The Personality Makeover
Monday, March 9, 2009 by Dave Blum There’s a great article in the latest issue of Inc. Magazine about the “personality makeover” of the CEO of Ruckus Wireless, a Sunnyvale, CA Wi-Fi start up. By all accounts, Selina Lo is a hard-charging, successful executive leader; at last count, her company had 147 employees and recorded […]
Building Teams & Allignment: with Open Space
Friday, March 6, 2009 by Dave Blum Have you ever been to a conference where there are intentionally no plans, no programs, no designated speakers, and the agenda is made up from scratch that morning? Well, that’s exactly the crazy/fascinating meeting I attended here in San Francisco this past Tuesday, The event was called “LaidOffCamp“, […]
Watch Your Step, part 2
Thursday, March 5, 2009 by Dave Blum So there I am on a Balinese beach, sitting in the sand, my feet full of sea urchin spines. (How’s that for a lead sentence!) Sprinting off towards the nearest hotel, my girlfriend, Yumiko, can be seen from a distance, negotiating animatedly with the local t-shirt vendors. Half an hour […]