Team Building and Trust: Part 2

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,…

Team Building and Trust: Part 1

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…

My Week Off–With Dad

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…

Team building Idea from Battlestar Galactica

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…

Showdown in Nepal, part 2

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…