Dr. Clue Newsletter 11/14/12
Greetings to the Clue Community!
Editor, Dr. Clue Newsletter
This Week’s Featured Program:
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Dr. Clue suggests commemorating the occasion with one
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In today’s issue of the Dr. Clue newsletter, we’ve got 6(!) more tricky puzzles to solve, an icebreaker that offers a “bumper” crop of ideas, and an article that promises to shake AND stir you (martini style, of course). Enjoy!Dave Blum
Editor, Dr. Clue Icebreaker Newsletter
- Debra Brooks
- Kristy Achar
- Donica Schlabach
- John Pappas
However our First to Solve was: Sabine Gerhardt
This Week’s Puzzles:
This week you’ve got, count ‘em, SIX tricky puzzles to work out! Let’s see who can get the most and be this week’s “F2S” (first to solve).
Email me your answers at: email@example.com
This Week’s Icebreaker:
Bumper StickersOne of my favorite Saturday morning activities is listening to those hilarious mechanics on NPR’s “Car Talk”. http://www.cartalk.com/
If At First You Don’t Succeed… Blame Someone Else And Seek CounselingIf You Can Read This, I’ve Lost My Trailer
You’re Just Jealous Because The Voices Are Talking To Me
I Have The Body Of A God… Buddha
This Would Be Really Funny If It Weren’t Happening To Me
So Many Pedestrians—So Little Time
Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult
If We Quit Voting Will They All Go Away?
The Face Is Familiar But I Can’t Quite Remember My Name
Eat Right, Exercise, Die Anyway
Honk If Anything Falls Off
Cover Me. I’m Changing Lanes
He Who Hesitates Is Not Only Lost But Miles From The Next Exit
I Refuse To Have A Battle Of Wits With An Unarmed Person
I Do Whatever My Rice Krispies Tell Me To
Where Are We Going And Why Am I In This Hand Basket?
Fight Crime: Shoot Back!
If You Can Read This, Please Flip Me Back Over… [Seen upside-down on a Jeep]
Remember Folks: Stop Lights Timed For 35mph Are Also Timed For 70mph
Guys: No Shirt, No Service. Gals: No Shirt, No Charge [Reported To Be Seen On A Restaurant]
If Walking Is So Good For You, Then Why Does My Mailman Look Like Jabba The Hutt?
Body By Nautilus; Brain By Mattel
Boldly Going Nowhere
Cat: The Other White Meat
Caution—Driver Legally Blonde!
Don’t Be Sexist—Broads Hate That
Heart Attacks… God’s Revenge For Eating His Cute Little Animal Friends
How Many Roads Must A Man Travel Down Before He Admits He Is Lost?
If You Can’t Dazzle Them With Brilliance, Riddle Them With Bullets
Money Isn’t Everything, But It Sure Keeps The Kids In Touch
Saw It… Wanted It… Had A Fit… Got It!
My Hockey Mom Can Beat Up Your Soccer Mom
All Men Are Animals, Some Just Make Better Pets
Set Up: Give the above bump sticker list to each participant and ask them to circle their top ten favorites. Next, divide people into groups of three and inform them they need, as a team, to come to an agreement on the five best bumper stickers. After two minutes, tell them they need to whittle their list down to 3. And after two more minutes, inform them they now need to decide on their one very-best answer.
Ask groups to assign a spokesperson to report out on their chosen answer, explaining how they selected it and why they believe it’s the best bumper sticker on the list. After each team has reported out, have each group work together to come up with their own, original bumper sticker: one that humorously captures some truth about their department or organization.
Debrief: What was the most challenging part of this exercise? What was your team’s process for selecting a final answer? Did you employ consensus decision making, or some other procedure (ie. flipping a coin, majority rule, etc.)? What are the advantages of going through a process like this? How did you navigate the collective task of writing your new bumper sticker?
The Point: Activities like this one are useful in that they force people to interact intensively with the content, rather than merely skimming it. Through the process of weighing and assessing, keeping and discarding, the participant makes choices and applies critical thinking — all in a very short period of time. In each subsequent paring down stage, people must also negotiate a tricky, interpersonal, group decision-making process. And the final activity allows folks to exercise their creativity, relating the game back to relevant, workplace issues.
Way to go, “Car Talk” guys!
For the complete list of bumper stickers, go to:
Dr. Clue offers 120+ treasure hunt locations. Check them all out at our
guided hunt locations page.
James Bond, 007: Licensed to Improvise
By Dave BlumLast Friday, I had a chance to watch the new James Bond film, “Skyfall”, with Daniel Craig reprising his role as the world’s smoothest super-spy. Don’t worry, 007 fans — I won’t give away the story! What I do want to share with you is my observations regarding the personality contrast between Bond and his nemesis in the movie: the evil Silva (Javier Bardem).
Silva is one of those villains who plans his schemes to the nth degree. You really don’t want to play chess with a guy like this; he’s always 8 moves ahead, waiting for you to fall into his trap. Bad guys like Silva are eminently patient; whether it’s taking over the world or simply bringing down our hero, they’re willing to hatch a plot that will take years coming to fruition. In fact, that’s how they have their fun: calmly batting around their prey like flies in a spider web, confident they’re pulling all the strings.
Way out there on the other end of the spectrum is the master of “winging it”: James Bond. To be sure, Bond generally starts out with a plan, often concocted by his bosses at M16. At a certain point, however, 007 always seems to go off script — leaving his back-up far behind as he takes matters into his own hands on a mad, solo dash after the no-goodniks, racing through the streets and back-alleys of Tokyo or Istanbul. What makes Bond so fun to watch is his utter resourcefulness; he’s always scanning the environment, calculating what props near at hand might be useful to him. “Hmm, there’s a propane tank–I bet I can use that. A fire extinguisher–exactly the thing I needed.”
The tension in a Bond film often derives exactly from this essential contrast: can the Systematic Planner beat out the Seat-of-His-Pants Adapt-er? Or, to put it another way, which is more potent: Strategy vs. Tactics? And yes, I *am* talking about the same personality types you find in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: specifically, Judgment (J) [Silva] vs. Perception (P) (Bond).
In a 007 film, the final conflict inevitably comes down to the Bad Guy going up against the Good Guy — mano a mano. If Bond can somehow lure his nemesis out of the safety of his “control center”, then 007 and his adaptive style gains the advantage and becomes “the controller”. What’s interesting for me is how this dichotomy plays out in the workplace as well, especially when groups and teams are involved. How does a J work with a P, and vice versa? What are the possible tensions between them? And how can these two types work together constructively, employing their considerable skills to make their team stronger?
I’ll leave it to you to watch Skyfall and discover how this epic battle of personality types plays out. Just make sure you enjoy it all with a dry martini — shaken, not stirred, of course.
Feel free to contact us 510-528-0428
or email Dave personally at firstname.lastname@example.org