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June 2007
Dr. Clue Teambuilding Newsletter, Volume V, Issue 2
The Dr. Clue Newsletter is sent only to subscribers. We do not share names with anyone else. To receive your free subscription or to unsubscribe, email to drclue@drclue.com Dr. Clue: Solving the Puzzles of Teamwork Click here to download this newsletter as a PFD document.
Welcome again to the Dr. Clue Teambuilding Newsletter! Here we are at the cusp of summer; where does the time go?!! Before going any further, I'd like ask each and everyone to fill out our short summer questionnaire. Receiving feedback from our readers is the best way for Dr. Clue to understand what you (and your organizations) are looking for in teambuilding. The questionnaire should take you about 5 minutes to complete and, best of all, everyone who fills out the survey will be entered in a drawing for a brand new Ipod Nano (2 GB/500 songs!). Note: There are 2 versions of the survey: one for past clients and another for people who are new to Dr. Clue. 1) If you've HAD a Dr. Clue teambuilding program for your organization at least once before, click here or paste the following address into your browser: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=148643907436. 2) If you HAVEN'T, click here or paste the following address into your browser: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=446253909856. In this month's issue, you'll be flying high with our latest icebreaker; discovering the consequences of ignoring conflict in our feature article; and rising to new heights with our latest puzzle challenge. Enjoy!
Dave Blum
Set Up: Process:
Debrief: How did you decide on your design(s)? What roles did people play? Who made the decisions? How did you feel about the success of your plane(s)? What was your attitude toward the other teams (i.e. were you wishing them success or failure)? How well did you achieve your objectives? How might this exercise relate to the real world? What did this exercise illustrate about effective project management? What do you want to take forward from this experience? The Point: This exercise allows people to explore, in microcosm, many of the questions teams often face on their way to higher performance levels, including: What roles should each person play on our team? What is our process? And because it's a competition, what is our relationship with the other teams? Perhaps the most important point of the activity is for groups to ask: Can we and the other teams ALL succeed? A very important question indeed.
Dr. Clue is the premier designer of corporate teambuilding treasure hunts, worldwide. We begin with the cool museum or historical neighborhood of your choice, convenient to your office or conference locale. We then bring the area alive by scouting out its hidden treasures; its statues, plaques, murals, and monuments. To reach each secret location, you and your team will need to solve our challenging, Da Vinci Code-like set of puzzles, codes and ciphers. Along the trail, we'll coach you on the steps successful business teams take in working towards high performance levels.
If you work with people, you will experience conflict. Resolving it probably wasn't mentioned in your job description and you can always find better things to do than deal with it. Yet despite your hope that it will go away, it hangs around like an unwanted relative who has overstayed his welcome. Many of the reasons people give for avoiding conflict turn out to be myths with a price tag attached. Reason #1: It's not that big a deal it will sort itself out. While some squabbles evaporate, most conflicts don't. Quite the opposite; they either escalate and erupt or fester and go underground ("buried, but not dead"). The resulting tension and negativity are palpable in a workplace and can spawn a toxic environment. This reasoning also underestimates the cost of conflict to an organization. Unresolved conflict results in wasted time, poor decisions, turnover and retraining, absenteeism, health costs (stress leave) and even litigation. It also takes an emotional toll on those directly involved and even on those indirectly affected by it. Like it or not, conflict is a big deal in organizations. Reason #2: They're grownups they should be able to sort it out themselves. From the outside, a conflict may seem simple to resolve, yet it's hard to see the picture when you're inside the frame. Years of experience as a mediator showed me that capable and well-intentioned people feel trapped and powerless in conflict. They benefit immensely when someone can help surface the conflict and provide a safe space to explore and resolve it. There is no shame in struggling with conflict. Managers and even co-workers can play a pivotal role in shifting confrontation to resolution. Reason #3: Dealing with it will only make it worse. You can't have conflict resolution without acknowledging the conflict. When conflict is ignored or suppressed, it simply morphs into other forms (gossip, backbiting, cliques). Addressing it may surface emotions with which you are uncomfortable, but this discomfort soon passes. Often, the apprehension about raising an issue is far worse than the conversation itself. On the flip side, conflict can be the catalyst for creative solutions, positive change and even improved relationships. Sometimes it may be right to ignore a conflict when you make a strategic choice based on your assessment of the seriousness of the situation and the ramifications of ignoring it. But more often than not, avoidance stems from fear (of confrontation, of looking incompetent, of being disliked). Rather than acknowledge that fear, people find reasons to justify inaction. When conflict arises (as it most surely will), be honest with yourself. Acknowledge your discomfort and examine your reasons for inaction. Instead of seeking reasons not to deal with the conflict, consider the following reasons to involve yourself:
With conflict, the temporary discomfort of addressing it will pay dividends in the long run both financially and emotionally. As the commercial for Fram Oil Filters says, "you can pay me now or pay me later." Gary Harper, Harper and Associates. Find out more about Gary's highly regarded book, "The Joy of Conflict Resolution" and his workshops at www.joyofconflict.com.
What does a teambuilding treasure hunt look, feel and sound like?
Answer to Last Issue's Puzzle DR. CLUE HONOR ROLL The lucky winners of the drawing were: Congratulations to all of you!
Today's Puzzle Challenge: "Rising Expectations"
Solve the "mashed" clues below and place the shared words on the steps marked X. For example, if clue 1-2 was, "Kryptonite-hater, meeting aperture through which one descends to inspect sewers", you would get, respectively, "Superman" and "manhole". The shared word between them would be "man", and this is what you'd place on the first "X" line. When you've discovered all five of the required shared words, take the first letter of each one and mix them all up to find an appropriate team-related anagram. Good luck! 
As always, we'll put the names of all clue solvers in a hat and draw three for a choice of Dr. Clue-brand items (hats, shirts and mouse pads)! Email your answers to drclue@drclue.com to take part in the drawing. Our three winners will appear in next issue's Dr. Clue Honor Roll. Wondering how a typical Treasure Hunt CLUE works? Click here. to follow along with one.
USA --Northeast: Pfizer, Liz Claiborne, Eisai, Ascend Ventures, and Masterfoods at The American Museum of Natural History in NYC; Hetrick Martin in Greenwich Village; Campbell's Soup in Old Philadelphia; and Pearson Communications in Manchester Village, VT. --South: Bristol-Myers Squibb in Downtown Orlando; First Community Bank in Winston-Salem; and the Legal Marketing Association in Downtown Atlanta. --Southwest: Nabors in Galveston, Texas. --Nevada/Arizona: Cingular Wireless and Nu Horizons in Las Vegas. --Southern California: Irell and Manella in Carlsbad and Santa Monica. --Northern California: PayPal in North Beach, San Francisco; Genentech in the San Francisco Zoo; and Ditech and Yahoo at Stanford University. --US territories: Novartis in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.
AND COMING THIS SUMMER: New hunts in Raleigh, NC and Half Moon Bay, CA.
Our clients, from Oracle to Yahoo, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Apple, and Wells Fargo all agree that Dr. Clue is cutting-edge teambuilding with a twist. Dr. Clue's E-BOOK, "Solving the Puzzles of Teamwork," is ready for download...and it's free! A compilation of past newsletter articles, it offers great essays about teamwork, roles & relationships, communication, motivation, leadership, and much more. Download it right to your screen by clicking here and choosing the e-book option. Enjoy!
Please let us know how we can improve this newsletter!! We welcome puzzles, icebreakers, real-life teambuilding success stories‹anything you'd like to contribute.
And remember: If you liked this newsletter, please forward it to a friend or a colleague. Information is meant to be shared! Watch for the next edition of the Dr. Clue Teambuilding Newsletter in September, 2007.
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Dr. Clue Treasure Hunts
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