Teambuilding and Emotions: Express Yourself
Friday, April 17, 2009 by Dave Blum Why is it that Corporate America is so afraid of feelings? Whenever I ask a potential client what they’re looking for in their team building exercises, they tend to answer the same way: “Well, what we DON’T want is one of those touchy-feely, New Age encounter groups where […]
Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 by Dave Blum I try to keep these blogs on topic (treasure hunt ideas, scavenger hunt lists, team building exercises, etc.), but ocassionally something different comes along that I just have to share. That being said, you simply MUST check out this YouTube video. It’s from an English TV show called “Britain’s Got […]
One Last Bit About Game Theory, Team building and Collaboration
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 by Dave Blum Before I move on to a different subject (such as team building ideas, treasure hunt clues, scavenger hunt lists, etc.), I just wanted to wrap up my discussion of game theory with a brief description of the famous “Prisoner’s Dilemma”. The Prisoner’s Dilemma can be described as a […]
More Team Building, Game Theory and Collaboration
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 by Dave Blum Happily, I finished reading “Rock, Paper, Scissors” this weekend and can finally wrap up my book report for you. Interestingly, I learned in the afterward that the brilliant author — Len Fisher — is not, in fact, a game theory expert/mathematician by trade. Turns out he’s a scientist— a […]
Game Theory and Collaboration
Friday, April 10, 2009 by Dave Blum In yesterday’s blog, I discussed the “Free Rider Syndrome” and promised to provide some instruction (from game theory) for encouraging collaboration and cooperation.” Well, sorry to say–I’m not quite ready to submit my report. To paraphrase the X-Files, “The answers are out there” — but, alas, they seem […]
Team building, Game Theory & Volleyball: Who Sets Up the Nets?
Thursday, April 9, 2009 by Dave Blum During the week, my job is to be generating team building ideas, drawing up scavenger hunt lists and concocting treasure hunt clues. On the weekend, however, I try to leave the scavenger hunts and team building activities behind. Saturdays are my day to sleep in, hang out with my wife, and […]
The Stories We Spin
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 by Dave Blum As my Austrian friend, Harald — the *genius* (see my blog entry for December 8th) — is back in town this week, he and his girlfriend, Jutta, my wife, Jen, and I gathered on Monday for dinner at a sushi place near Union Square. (Harald LOVES his Japanese seaweed salad–must […]
Lessons from Treasure Hunt Scouting
Tuesday, April 7, 2009 by Dave Blum Yesterday was a rare scouting day for me — one of the pleasures of being a professional creator of scavenger hunts and corporate team building activities. My “task” (if you can call it that) was to walk every street and alleyway in San Francisco’s Union Square area, in search of interesting/unique/funny locations for […]
Team Building and Trust: Part 5
Monday, April 6, 2009 by Dave Blum Due to my father’s passing a couple of weeks ago, I found myself unavailable to lead one of my scheduled scavenger hunts at the Natural History Museum in New York City. Calling around desperately at the last minute, I eventually get Franco, one of my senior facilitators here in San […]
Team Building and Trust: Part 4
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 […]