June 2008

Dr. Clue Teambuilding Newsletter, Volume VI, Issue 1
Copyright © Dr. Clue 2008 All rights reserved.
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Dr. Clue: Solving the Puzzles of Teamwork

This Issue:

1. Dr. Clue Central
2. Teambuilding Ice Breaker: "Line-Ups"
3. Feature Article: "The Golden Rule at Work - Re-Examined"
4. Puzzle: "The New Kid in Town"
5. Creativity Contest
6. Dr. Clue News

Dr. Clue Central

Welcome again to the Dr. Clue Teambuilding Newsletter! Apologies for the long time between issues...during these last few months, my wife (!) Jen and I had our honeymoon in Rome & Sicily (that's the two of us in the photo to the right, in Agrigento), I went off to India in February, and Dr. Clue has been busier than ever. As you dedicated readers can see, we've taken the time to retool the look and feel of this newsletter. Let us know what you think -- write me directly at dave@drclue.com.

This month, look for an icebreaker that will have you lining up for more, an article for leaders seeking insight into team members' behavior under stress, a puzzle from a brilliant newcomer, and three ways for members of the Dr. Clue Community, like YOU, to earn prizes by contributing your creativity. Enjoy!

Dave Blum
Editor, the Dr. Clue Teambuilding Newsletter

Teambuilding Icebreaker
Line-Ups

Set Up: None

Process:Inform participants that they must find two other people and share with them their favorite hobby. Give them a few minutes to discuss their hobbies, then bring everyone back into the larger group. Now inform people that they must all line up, by hobby, in alphabetical order. Once in order, have people share what they love about their hobby with the person in front of them and the person in back of them.

In subsequent rounds, you can repeat the process, using favorite places to travel, favorite foods, favorite movies, etc. As an extra challenge, you can do the line-ups silently, with people acting out their favorites by gesture.

Discussion Questions: What did you learn about your own interests and preferences? What was surprising about other people¹s favorites? How did you feel differently about your conversation partners once you¹d shared your interests and heard theirs?

The Point: People are like icebergs‹we can only see a small part of their personality, that which they choose to share with us, "above the water level." When we start to learn more about each other's passions, we then see our colleagues as real people, rather than as titles or positions. As we lower the water level and show more of ourselves, we also build trust.

Click here to find our backlog of terrific icebreakers.

Dr. Clue is the premier designer of corporate teambuilding treasure hunts, worldwide. We begin with the cool museum or 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.


To read about our hunt packages, click here. To see a list of our over 87 current treasure hunt locations, including New York, London, Chicago, Paris, New Orleans, Barcelona, Denver, Geneva, Las Vegas, Madrid, Vienna and San Francisco, click here.

Feature Article:
The Golden Rule at Work - Re-Examined

By David Blum

One of the most popular axioms in both eastern and western culture is the Golden Rule, loosely summarized as "Treat others as you would like to be treated." Although useful in general (who doesn't want love, respect and kindness, for example?), the Golden Rule is flawed when it comes to specific personality preferences. Quite simply, people are not all the same; they have different needs, different ways they want to be treated, and this is particularly true in times of stress. Whether at work or at home, people respond in a variety of ways when put under pressure. The team leader's task in the workplace is not only to know how she, herself, prefers to be treated in such situations, but also to understand how her staff reacts to the inevitable pressure cooker, and what each person might need in order to move beyond the crisis and get back on track.

Interestingly, Buddhist teachings have much to say about how our minds behave under pressure. The Buddha posited that people, although different in countless ways, tend to respond with five typical, habitual behaviors when faced with challenging situations. These five responses (or "hindrances") are: 1) aversion, 2) desire, 3) sloth & torpor, 4) restlessness, and 5) doubt. The five hindrances arise -- singly or in combination -- whenever we're faced with challenges in our life. I know that for myself, I tend towards "desire" when under stress in my life. After a particularly hard day at work, for example, I'm likely to run off to a theater for a movie marathon and a big box of popcorn. Everyone's different. A skillful leader must understand and overcome these stress responses in each of his team members if he hopes to pull his team through a crisis.

Consider the following workplace scenario: Your development team has been working on an important account for months, but has consistently missed its deadlines. The client is threatening to withdraw from its agreement, potentially costing your company a million dollars in revenue. The five-person team reacts to this threat as follows:

• Jim: "How could the client be so petty! We only missed the deadline this time by a few days. I have half a mind to call and give them a piece of my mind. And while I'm at it, I think I'll have a stern talk with Gerald, who's really been lollygagging the last two months. If anyone's responsible for this mess we're in, it's him!"
  
  
• Gerald: "Whew, what a rough day it's been! I'd sure feel a lot better having a cold one down at Dewey's Tavern. And maybe a big burger and fries to go with it - yeah, I really deserve a treat on a lousy day like this."
  
  
• Mariah: "I don't think I can even get up and go into the office tomorrow. Hey, I've got a sick day or two saved; I think I'll just call in with a cold or something, curl up in bed and hide away from the world."
  
  
• Alex: "This is terrible! Without that account, what's going to happen to the company? Or to my job? I've got a family and a mortgage. It could be months before I find another job like this. Years maybe! This is very, very bad."
  
  
• Tanya: "I wonder if this is all my fault. I certainly was a day late on my report. Was I wrong to join this department in the first place? Maybe I should've stayed in accounting. Maybe I should've stayed at my last job-at least there we didn't have such high-profile clients. I might just not be ready for the big time."
  
  

In each case, a particular mental hindrance led to a characteristic response from each team member. When faced with stress, for example, Jim tends to respond with aversion, often manifested as anger. Gerald leans toward a "desire response", retreating into pleasure seeking. Mariah reacts with torpor (or sloth), characterized by a de-energized sequestering. Alex responds with restlessness, often expressed as mental agitation or worry. And Tanya's habitual reaction is most certainly doubt.

If Jim hopes to restore his team's equilibrium in time to save the account, he urgently needs to reel each team member back from the extremes of their personal "hindrance responses." This will be a challenging task for Jim, as each of his reports has gone down a different, archetypal emotional path, and will require a different approach. Jim, for instance, must recognize that his own thoughts have followed the road of aversion; he cannot solve any of the team's problems until his own mind has cooled down. A lengthy work-out at the gym might be in order for him, or perhaps a session of venting with a friend outside of work. Once his own mind is bit clearer, Jim must then diagnose the symptoms of each of his teammates, identifying their specific hindrances and then conceiving possible steps for overcoming their particular behaviors. After all, time at the gym may work for aversion-oriented Jim, but it's not what will bring the junk-food loving Gerald back into the fold. With Gerald, Jim might try convincing him that the work will soon be fun again. With Mariah, he might try reminding her that fixing problems can be energizing, rather than draining, and so on. The danger with this approach is that the team might see Jim's efforts at "fixing them" as an attempt to shut down their emotions, which anyone would resent.

In the end, it may be that the best a manager can do is acknowledge to the team that the situation is stressful and that he knows they all need to go through their own process, their own stress reaction. Jim might simply say, "Take the time over the weekend to do what you need to do and feel what you need to feel. Then let's start fresh on Monday, roll up our sleeves, and get to work, together, solving our problems."

In truth, there is no magic remedy for healing people's hindrances. We are, after all, human and have had a lifetime to develop our mind habits. Sometimes our hindrances just have to run their course. But as a team leader, understanding your teammates' tendencies under pressure can allow you to know what to expect from them in times of crisis, so you're ready with an appropriate response. The new Golden Rule, then, is: "Treat others as THEY would like to be treated."

Click here to read more free articles about team building.

What does a teambuilding treasure hunt look, feel and sound like?
Watch our 2-Minute Video and find out.

Puzzle

This month's Puzzle Challenge comes from an unlikely (but delightful) source: 10-year-old Ben Siegel of San Francisco, CA. Ben's clue (SEE THE LINK BELOW) leads to the location of his father's auto mechanic shop; tell us both the address and the name of the shop to answer the puzzle.

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.

Creativity Contest

Fancy yourself a treasure hunt creator? Or an author? Or a photographer? Or perhaps all three? Then show the world! As a member of the Dr. Clue community, YOU are an important participant in the shaping of our hunts and the content of our website.

On our site this summer, for three months only, we're now featuring three fun ways for you to share your creativity, wow your peers, and earn prizes:

BEST NEW CLUE LOCATION: Email us a photo and description of a great potential clue site in your area - a little-known piece of public art, an obscure plaque, a easily-missed time capsule, whatever -- and we'll award $100 at the end of every month to the best clue location. What's more, if we use your site in an actual hunt, we'll publish your name right on the clue sheet!

BEST BILLBOARD: Dr. Clue is always on the lookout for real-world occurrences of the words "Clue" or "Treasure Hunt". Take a picture whenever you see a sign or billboard with these words and every month we'll give $100 to the most interesting/fun submission. Plus we'll post the winning photos here in the newsletter.

BEST HUNT-RELATED STORY: Undoubtedly you've been on a treasure or scavenger hunt at some point or another, and as we know, crazy things tend to happen. Whether it was a Dr. Clue treasure hunt or otherwise, we want to hear your story! Send us the strangest, funniest, most bizarre story that happened to you/your team while out on a treasure hunt. We'll award $100 for the best story AND we'll print your story both on our website and in our newsletter. (Photographs are a plus but not required.)

Send all entries to:
drclue@drclue.com

We'll start awarding the first prizes on July 1st, and then on the first of each month thereafter for the rest of the summer! Three months of your creativity, starting right now!

Look for winning submissions in this space!

Click here to see some sample treasure hunt clues.