August 2006

Dr. Clue Teambuilding Newsletter, Volume IV, Issue 3
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Dr. Clue: Solving the Puzzles of Teamwork

This Issue:

1. Dr. Clue Central
2. Teambuilding Ice Breaker: "The Story of Your Scar"
3. Feature Article: "Where's the Team in that Treasure Hunt?"
4. Puzzle
5. Dr. Clue News
6. Reader Contributions

Dr. Clue Central

Welcome again to the Dr. Clue Teambuilding Newsletter!

You may have noticed the unusual delay between issues this time. That's because we've been working pedal-to-the-metal here at Dr. Clue central, keeping up with the exciting spring/summer hunt demand. Many thanks to Dan Brown (writer of The Da Vinci Code) for increasing world-wide attention to all things treasure-hunt-related!

We've got another fun and informative newsletter for you this month, including an incisive icebreaker, an article about popular treasure hunts, and a puzzle you're sure to bond over (with the usual chance for prizes). Enjoy!

Dave Blum
Editor, the Dr. Clue Teambuilding Newsletter

Teambuilding Icebreaker
The Story of Your Scar
Contributed by Heather Hafner

Set Up:
Divide participants into pairs, with enough space to have a private conversation without others overhearing

Process:
Ask each participant to share a scar that has a special meaning to them. This can be either a scar that they can actually show their partner (if appropriate), or one that is hidden and can only be referred to.

Next, ask the participants to discuss the following questions:

• How did you get the scar and what does it mean to you? (Share your story for two minutes each).
• If the scar is visible, did your partner notice it before and create their "own story" without information? What was this story?

Debrief: Ask the participants how they felt about sharing the story of their scar: Was it comfortable or uncomfortable? What came up for you? Do you feel differently about your partner after sharing your story with them? Do you see your partner differently after hearing their story? Is there a difference between sharing a story about a scar that is hidden vs. one that's in plain sight?

The Point:
Trust is built, in large part, on allowing yourself to be vulnerable with others. Once we can see our co-workers as real people, with human frailties, we can then move them into our inner circles, our tribes. This exercise allows you to hear another person's very human story -- an accident, a tale of pain or pride - one that may have elicited some strong emotions. And it allows you to share your own emotional story as well. Once sharing this kind of vulnerability, it is quite difficult for people to see each other simply as "job titles." This can open up pathways for easier, freer communication in your future interactions.

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.


To read about our hunt packages, click here. To see a list of our 55+ current treasure hunt locations, including New York, London, Paris, Bologna, Geneva, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Orlando, click here.

Feature Article:
Where's the Team in that Treasure Hunt?
By Dave Blum

We live in puzzling times. I'm not talking about the confusing issues of our world, in which our generals and statesmen continually move pieces around the geo-political chessboard, pursuing solutions to war, global warming, and the like. These are, indeed, puzzles that need solving. I'm referring to our penchant for crosswords, for sudokus, for jumbles and for cryptograms. Whatever the scale or scope, we humans are inexorably drawn to puzzles. We seek them out; we struggle and sweat over the Sunday New York Times crossword; we labor over the chess and bridge quizzes. Some of us even create puzzles in our spare time: my father, for example, who once wrote a crossword that made it into the Times; my boyhood friend Mike, who at age 15 set out to construct in his garage the world's largest magic square (a grid in which all the numbers going up and across add up to the same number.); and myself, hooked on the most wickedly addictive puzzle genre of all: the "treasure hunt".

Look around and you'll find treasure hunts everywhere these days: in print, in movies, on television. I would venture to say that we are in the midst of a treasure hunt renaissance! Right now, millions flock to the theaters to see the film version of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown's wildly popular novel about the search for the Holy Grail. On TV this year, one finds not one but two treasure hunt series: The Amazing Race and Treasure Hunters. It seems like everyone is jumping on the treasure hunt bandwagon. And why not? Treasure hunts combine the fascination of puzzles with the excitement of travel. For puzzle enthusiasts (admit it, you're one of us), what could be more enjoyable than unraveling a mystery, cracking a code, or deciphering a riddle that propels you on a journey to exotic locales in search of hidden treasure?

Treasure hunts, like all puzzles, have their role as pure entertainment: they can certainly provide a needed escape from the larger worries of our lives. We read The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons (the better of Dan Brown's treasure hunt novels, in my opinion) to get away from the humdrum, the tedious, the mundane. But I would argue that there is much more to treasure hunts than simple distraction. At their best, treasure hunts, like the best puzzles, challenge our critical thinking. They bring out our creativity. And, because many hunts are performed by groups working together, they are an excellent medium for learning about team interaction and group problem solving. Treasure hunts take us on a personal journey; our very consciousness is transformed in the process.

So what about this current crop of pop-culture treasure hunts? Do they take our hearts and minds to a higher level? What follows, below, is my score card for today's popular so-called treasure hunts:

The Da Vinci Code/Angels and Demons: I put these two books together because they are essentially the same story: Harvard professor Robert Langdon solves clues in a variety of European capitals, pursued by mysterious religious cults bent on preserving age-old secrets. As treasure hunts go, both books (and the current movie) are pretty successful. They offer fun, challenging puzzles to solve (anything that uses the Fibonacci Sequence is okay in my book!) and interesting locations to experience. And particularly in The Da Vinci Code, Langdon puts together a nice little treasure hunt team that includes a French policewoman and a fellow scholar. I would have preferred the characters to have developed a bit more emotional insight from the journey, but one can't expect too much psychological complexity from a popular thriller. B+

The Amazing Race: NBC's hit television show is not a true treasure hunt, although it possesses certain aspects of the genre: for example, participants move together, sequentially, from one exotic location to the next, following a string of somewhat veiled, written directions. Sadly, these directions are not really written in the form of clues. There are no puzzles, no codes, no ciphers. The emphasis seems to be on the challenges the two-person teams must perform at each location: bungee jumping, sky diving, coercing a water buffalo to plow a muddy rice paddy, etc. The locations are lovely though, and teams do need to work together. But the lack of puzzles is a deal breaker for me. C-

Treasure Hunters: CBS's summer entry in the treasure hunt arena gets points for making a greater effort than The Amazing Race to actually present clues, although the show loses credibility by essentially copying the entire format from its predecessor. The puzzles are fairly simplistic: Morse Code, simple wordplay, a lock with a strange key, etc. I will say that there was an excellent puzzle in the episode leading to Mt. Rushmore, involving a mirrored cylinder transform disguised as an abstract painting. Unfortunately, it was a hint rather than a requirement, and so it was side-stepped by all but one team and that team didn't know what to do even when they were lead to an example of it. I give the producers credit for at least trying to write clues, although they have a somewhat annoying habit of repeatedly resetting the teams, taking away their time advantage and making them start out again, together, at the same time as the other teams. Apparently, conflict is dramatic on television; the more teams are thrown together in one place, the more potential for conflict - or so goes the reasoning. I like that the teams on Treasure Hunters are larger (3 people) than the pairs on The Amazing Race, allowing for more group puzzle solving. I do wish, however, that they wouldn't dumb down the clues C+

National Treasure: Released in 2004, this cinematic treasure hunt starred Nicholas Cage as Ben Gates, professional adventurer in search of hidden treasure stashed away by our forefathers. I didn't expect to like this one, but National Treasure works as an American version of The Da Vinci Code. The puzzles are quite fun: invisible ink, Ben Franklin's mystery spectacles, a puzzle on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Gates assembles a team (including his father and a pretty government agent) and seems to learn something about the meaning of life in the process. This is not a great intellectual experience, but it's good fun and it doesn't disappoint on the puzzles. B+

• Treasure Island: Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate story, the granddad of all treasure hunt tales. A
• The Gold Bug: Edgar Allan Poe's sophisticated entry in the genre. A-
• The Eight: Katherine Neville's marvelous thriller about the hunt for Charlemagne's magical chess board that holds mysterious powers for all those who possess it. A

• The Goonies: A camp movie classic with clever clues, a buried treasure ship, and a diverse team working together. B+
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: A dozen people, thrown together by chance, embark on a slapstick dash to Los Angeles to find Jimmy Durante's hidden treasure, buried under the big W along the beach. A riot, with an amazing cast of celebrities. B+
• Rat Race: A Las Vegas casino magnate, determined to find a new avenue for wagering, sets up a race for money. Slight effort from 2001, but with a few big laughs. B+
• Midnight Madness: The original treasure hunt movie, from 1980: an all-night scavenger hunt that gave us a very young Michael J. Fox. Only for the treasure-hunt obsessed. C+
• Raiders of the Lost Ark: My all-time favorite, with Harrison Ford and Karen Allen, looking for the Ark of the Covenant during WWII. As fun as they come, with a mysterious amulet guiding the way. A

The treasure hunt genre is by no means played out. As long as people continue to love puzzles, there will always be treasure hunts, played out on a large scale, in the real world. But despite the current set of offerings, American television has yet to create the definitive treasure hunt TV series. Watch out Hollywood: if you don't write it, I will!

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

Puzzle

Answer to Last Issue's Puzzle

In our last issue, we presented you with two sneaky little puzzles. For Puzzle A), you needed to take one letter from the first line, then the next from the second line, then the third from the first line again, and so on. For puzzle B), you simply needed to read down each column of trios, ie. "you" then "can" etc. The answers were :

1. "The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation." -- Mark Twain
2. "You can't stay in your corner of the forest, waiting for others to come to you; you have to go to them sometimes."

DR. CLUE HONOR ROLL

Last issue's only puzzle solvers were: Colleen Leonetti and Holly Sugrue. Congratulations to both of you!

Today's Puzzle Challenge

		Commonality?
This woman's full title:	______________
The "fellow of infinite jest" in Hamlet	______________	______________ V
Stage name of ventriloquist who was formerly a matador	______________
Country with this flag:	______________
Narrow stretch of water between West Malaysia and Sumatra	______________	______________ W
Kind of art having no reference to concrete objects or specific examples	______________
European city with this mascot:	______________
1954 Stanley Donen film with Julie Newmar	______________	______________ X
Complete the phrase: "Ars longa ..."	______________
This item:	______________
British National Code Centre where the Enigma cipher was broken during WWII	______________	______________ Y
1985 comedy starring Chevy Chase	______________
This musician:	______________
Phrase that was the nemesis of Eliza Doolittle	______________	______________ Z
Nationality of Victor Borge's parents	______________

As always, we'll list our Top Five fastest puzzle solvers in our Dr. Clue Honor Roll next issue.

And, continuing the New Year giveaway, we'll put all of this issue's clue solvers into a hat and draw five names for their choice of Dr. Clue-brand prizes (hats, shirts and mouse pads)!
Email your answers to drclue@drclue.com to take part in the drawing.

Wondering how a typical Treasure Hunt CLUE works? Click here. to follow along with one.

Dr. Clue's News