A Better Corporate Retreat

Have companies gone a little crazy trying to think up inventive employee retreats? Do they really believe Joe and Vic will stop hating each other after climbing ropes, participating in a paintball contest or building popsicle-stick bridges? More than 30 percent of American workers say they dislike team-building exercises. Yet businesses spend appraoximately $46 billion per year on such activities, seemingly always trying to push the envelope.

For a while, a popular corporate retreat involved challenges with Legos. The employees were given a set time, perhaps 10 minutes, to build something with Legos that visualized a certain problem. How this would bring harmony to the workplace, other than employees sharing an equal amount of resentment or confusion, is up for grabs. In one case, a bored participant offered his co-worker $20 if she would swallow a Lego. She did. Sigh.

Recently, Zurich, Switzerland, company officials came up with the brilliant idea that employees engage in the ancient ritual of barefoot walking over hot coals. This particular team-building experience resulted in 10 ambulances being called. More than 20 employees were injured, with 13 hospitalized.

We think we know a better, simpler, more effective way of possible team building. We can’t guarantee Joe and Vic will love each other following a trek into the Yosemite wilderness, a fun-filled tour of San Francisco or a Napa Valley wine-tasting extravaganza led by a sommelier. But the chances of building friendships and sharing cares and concerns increase exponentially when you’re not running across hot coals or hanging onto a rope for dear life.

A corporate retreat might not build a perfect team, but won’t your company have a stronger team if its members have been able to decompress and recharge their brains? Sometimes it takes a few days in nature or away from the rat race to see what’s important and be able to focus. Give us a call. We can help.