Personality Styles: the Enneagram — part 1

Friday, February 20, 2009 by Dave Blum Most everyone these days, at some point or another in their professional lives, has taken part in corporate team building activities centered around personality styles — whether it’s Myers-Briggs, Disc Profle, or any of a dozen other systems out on the market.  It can be pretty…

Artists Hold Building-Naming Scavenger Hunt

Thursday, February 19, 2009 by Dave Blum I was interested to see today an article in the Tucson Citizen, titled “Scavenger Hunt to Help on Ideas for Vacant Buildings.” http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/110285.php According to the piece, “Three artists are putting on a Downtown Scavenger Hunt to generate ideas from participants on what…

Should Team Building Be a Surprise?

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 by Dave Blum One of the first things I always ask new clients when booking one of our corporate team building activities is: “Do the participants know that they’re going to be doing a treasure hunt?” Inevitably, the answer is, “No, we’ve been keeping it a…

The Three C’s of Teambuilding Selection

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 by Dave Blum A client called me yesterday to inform me that she was putting the selection of this year’s team building activities up for a company-wide vote.  Her entire staff had been offered a choice: a day of solving Dr. Clue’s treasure hunt clues OR a…

What’s your “real” name?

Friday, February 13, 2009 by Dave Blum I received this fun icebreaker the other day from Christine McHugh, facilitator extraordinaire.   I think it would be great for corporate team building activities, parties, dinner table conversation, whatever.  All you have to do is create a series of new names for yourself, using the…

Cross-team collaboration

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 by Dave Blum It was just after the midbrief, this past Saturday, that the treasure hunt in North Beach/Chinatown took a very interesting turn. The client was a group of 23 sales people in the recycling business, gathering in San Francisco for three days of strategy and…

Five Steps for Team Conflict Resolution

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 by Dave Blum Before moving on to my other favorite topics (team building ideas, scavenger hunt lists, treasure hunt clues, etc.) I’d like to take a quick second to explore further the mediation process from yesterday’s blogpost.  As you’ll recall, we had two guys on a volleyball court, both sure…

Interrupting the Storyline

Monday, February 9, 2009 by Dave Blum When I’m not leading scavenger hunts and other team building activities, I’m generally in Golden Gate Park, playing volleyball.  So there I was in the park,  yesterday, playing ball, thinking I was far away from the “swelter” of my busy work life when, despite the cold, rainy San…

Paper Airplanes for Teambuilding

Thursday, February 5, 2009 by Dave Blum One of my favorite corporate team building activities is a quick icebreaker involving paper airplanes.  It’s fun and high energy, as well as a great way to generate team building ideas and discussion.  Here’s how it works: Take some masking tape and create a large “X”…

Team Efficiency

Thursday, February 5, 2009 by Dave Blum I’m delighted to say that Monday’s Dr. Clue “Team Efficiency” program in Sacramento was a knockout!  The team, a group of 12 business analysts from Wells Fargo, was at a critical juncture in its development.  Their old business model consisted primarily of taking…