Quixote Quest

March 2009

Training
Team Building
Coaching
Consulting
Speaking

August 2009

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Quest Quote

“A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book, what would it be? I always say, 'How to Build a Boat.' ”

- Stephen Wright

Quix Pix

Every month we will share some of our currently favorite books, music, movies and TV shows.

Movies

Coraline – This stop-action animation movie, another labor of love from Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas), is full of wonder and feeling, while being creepy and sometimes truly scary. A moving score from Bruno Coulais (Winged Migration) ties a ribbon around this gift that reminds us there is still magic in the world.
(Just released on DVD)

Pocket Poem

Small enough to fit in your pocket, big enough to be of use.

Lake Isle of Innisfree
by William Butler Yeats

Listen here to musical version by Rob Fletcher (with Jerry Riverstone on saxaphone)!

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Thank you to everyone who wrote congratulations on the story NPR did on the Charity Bike Build. We’re very proud of having our work recognized and hope it will spur more companies to give back to their community. If you missed the story, click here to listen. If you’d like to hear the story that NPR did on Play the Blues, click here.

This month’s Pocket Poem is one of my favorite summer poems - Yeat’s Lake Isle of Innisfree. You can listen to a musical version I recorded with Quixote consultant, Jerry Riverstone, on alto saxophone.

And finally kudos to President Obama for holding a ‘beer summit’ to discuss some tense racial issues. There’s nothing like having a beer together to help with challenging conversations. Our clients that have enjoyed our Beer Here Now team building program agree! I hope you can relax, settle back with a cold beverage of your choice this month and savor good conversation with people you care about.

On with the quest,
Rob Fletcher

Try This At Home

If you’ve enjoyed our Return of the Titanic Boat Build team building program and want to take the fun home to your kids, here are some hints to help you on your quest.

Archimedes, Betty and Veronica
Buoyancy (a good thing for a boat!) is governed by Archimedes Principle. According to this principle, the more water you displace, the better you float. That’s why cement was actually commonly used to quickly build barges and boats during World War II (don’t try that at home though, folks!). A cubic foot of water weighs about 62 pounds. That means that a 180-pound man will float in a boat that is 1 foot by 1 foot by 3 feet. That’s small! You may want to make yours a little bigger.

Balloons and Guitars
We give teams a wide variety of materials to build their nautical marvels: PVC, ropes, tarps, inflatables, foam, and on and on. You don’t need to get so in-depth though if you’re just trying this out in the pool in your backyard. Try mixing and matching any of these materials:

To displace the water: empty plastic bottles and jugs, foam noodles, balloons, plastic Ziploc bags, cardboard
To keep it all together: Tarps, rope, twine, tape
To make a paddle: foam noodles, sticks, tennis rackets, acoustic guitars

... Click here for the complete Topic of the Month.

Return of the Titanic Boat Build

It’s sink or swim time – will your team come out high and dry, or end up all wet?

Welcome to the wild, watery fun of the Return of the Titanic Boat Build team building program! Participants divide into small project teams. Each team is charged with the challenge of building a raft from a wild assortment of materials, ranging from the helpful to ridiculous, leading to questions such as “will these water wings really help?”

Your vessel must be capable of transporting several team members and your team flag. Navigate through an obstacle course to a dock or buoy on a body of water (we’ve used lakes, pools, rivers and even the ocean), then (hopefully) all the way back to shore.

For a complete program description, please click here.

I would like to say THANK YOU to the Beiersdorf Corporation for all of the hard work and effort they did putting the bikes together for our members. The members could not stop talking about what a GREAT night they had with dinner and getting a new bicycle. When we got back to the Boys & Girls Club some of the children were riding their bikes in the parking lot and had big smiles on their faces.

On behalf of the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich, I would like to say THANK YOU again for such a GREAT evening.

Best,
Don Palmer
Program Director
Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich

Take a break from bad news headlines with this great photo of some famous people with different views talking over their differences over a frosty one.

Have you read some good news lately? Send us a link and spread the good news!

Quix Tip

What Keeps You a Float?

Some days it feels like we’re adrift on a stormy sea of worry, fear, anxiety, and pressures, whether it’s about work, lack of work, relationships, lack of relationships, the future, the past, and on and on.

What keeps you afloat? What displaces the tough parts of life and keeps you going, engaged, hopeful and able to give? Tell someone about this Something that resides in you that keeps you loving life and the world anyway, no matter what gets sent your way. Find out what keeps them afloat too, and you can encourage each other to spend more time out on your boat.

Statisticity

Q. What contributes to children’s success more, praising their intelligence or praising their effort?*

*Source: Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck

Panza's Proverb

"He preaches well that lives well."

Sancho Panza, Don Quixote’s squire, was famous for his proverbs.

Spread the Word

This is your monthly word challenge. Identify the correct definition for the following word. Once you know the definition, spread the word!

Jannock