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Friday, April 3, 2009 by Dave Blum Back in July of 1985 (years before scavenger hunt ideas would begin dancing in my head), I was a 22-year-old college graduate, about a month into a two-year stint as an English teacher in Shimonoseki, Japan.  Mr. Ueno, my boss and mentor, was giving me final instructions before sending me out […]

Friday, April 3, 2009 by Dave Blum So far this week I’ve discussed 3 different requirement for building trust: 1) Avoiding gossip 2) Giving consistent effort 3) Demonstrating empathy Today I want to talk about requirement #4:  Follow-through A team leader, Marilyn, tasks her marketing director, Stuart, with the challenge of delivering a branding report within […]

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Dave Blum Some years ago, I was leading one of my corporate team building activities in perhaps my favorite location for scavenger hunts:  New Orleans.  One of the participants, Patty, was struggling with the scavenger hunt list — not because the treasure hunt clues were too hard, but more because of a […]

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by Dave Blum The longer I work in the field of corporate team building activities, the more I realize that trust building is THE key factor for ensuring team success.  By declaring this I don’t, in any way, mean to diminish the importance of such vital team elements as personnel assessment, […]

Monday, March 30, 2009 by Dave Blum A bit of explanation is in order, I think, for my week away from this blog.  On March 22, at ~6pm, my father, Walter, died at a hospital in Santa Rosa, CA, from complications related to lymphoma.  He was 81. It was a fairly sudden illness, one that took us […]

Friday, March 20, 2009 by Dave Blum Battlestar Galactica–my favorite TV series ever–ends tonight after a marvelous 5-year run.  I’m both excited and saddened:  excited to see how it all ends up; saddened that there won’t be anymore giddy adventures with the ragtag fleet of humans and their fight against the Cylons. For those of […]

Thursday, March 19, 2009 by Dave Blum So there we are on the Himalayan bridge:  Matt, Julie, Laurie, Steve and I, plus one unperturbed Sherpa and 15 very-determined Nepalese oxen. Laurie, who’s at midpoint, sits down and wraps herself around her pack.  The rest of us turn and huddle against the guide wires, endeavoring to make […]

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 […]

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 […]

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”, […]