Team building is designed to bring employees closer together, but usually results in boring seminars where staff leave less motivated than when they arrived.
Sure, boredom isn’t the ideal result but you can sometimes go too far to avoid it. Way too far. If you’re interested in inventive team building that isn’t likely to end in a lawsuit, here are a few exercises you might want to avoid.
Firewalking
In England, in 1998, insurance company Eagle Star sent thirteen salespeople walking across a bed of hot coals to build trust and instill teamwork. Unfortunately, the only thing they gained from the exercise were burns to their feet; bad enough for two people to require hospitalisation.
And, Eagle Star were not the only company fired-up to try something different…
Employees of fast-food chain Burger King were badly burned as they, too, walked barefoot over hot coals. Management had hoped the fire-walking exercise would “help workers see that they could reach beyond their limits and achieve the impossible”.
However, the experiment left twelve staff members in hospital with first and second-degree burns, some even needing wheelchairs to attend the next team retreat.
Waterboarding
In Salt Lake City, Utah, an employee was subjected to waterboarding by a motivational business coach in front of fellow employees. Although it sounds a bit like wake boarding, waterboarding is less like a water sport and… more like a form of torture.
This controversial interrogation technique involves recreating the sensation of drowning. You might think the link between waterboarding and team building is tenuous but the approach, apparently, was “to demonstrate to employees they should work as hard as the employee being waterboarded was working to breathe”.
Not surprisingly, the employee is alleged to have quit and filed suit against the coach and his former employer for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Spanking
Home security firm Alarm One allowed “camaraderie building” practices that saw sales team members competing against each other with the losers forced to eat baby food, wear diapers and – worst of all – endure public spankings with a rival company’s yard sign.
This conduct went on for an extended period, and it was only after a woman was hospitalised for being hit with a metal sign that the spankings stopped. The good news is, this employee was later awarded $1.7 million in compensation.
Hostage Situations
It seems creating fear in employees is a popular method for igniting team spirit. Most companies achieve this via traditional means; forcing colleagues to hold hands in a circle, or share what they did on the weekend.
Swedish telecom company, Ericsson, figured they’d up the fear-factor for extra good results. The victims of this innovative approach were staff at an international sales conference in Athens.
On a corporate bus headed for the conference, the salespeople were more than surprised when two men with masks and weapons hijacked their bus. The men, hired by Ericsson, were meant to test the employees’ cool in a stressful situation.
The performance ended early when a meddling passer-by notified the authorities. Management later stated they should have told the police their plans before making complete fools of themselves (not their exact words).
Still got your heart set on organising something different for the team? Here are five ideas that could actually be fun (except, maybe, no.3) …
1. Graffiti a wall
http://www.teambuildingaustralia.com.au/graffiti-skool-teambuilding-i220/
2. Make ice cream, market it and then eat it!
http://www.poissonrouge.co.uk/events-organisers/services/team-building/ice-cream.asp
3. Make, er, salad dressing
http://www.singaporeteambuilding.com/teambuilding/Salad-Making-Teambuilding.htm
4. Movie Making
http://www.teammania.com.au/Canned_Film_Festival.htm
5. Create your own fashion label
http://www.sabrehq.com/team-building-examples/fashion-fiasco.htm
Tell us…
Have you experienced many team building exercises through work? Did it strengthen the team, or strain relationships?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I had a fantastic team building day (many years ago now) we solved strategic puzzles while working as a team throughout the day. Granted it was an unpaid Saturday that this all occurred but definately enhanced team spirit!