Reference no: EM133838235

Team-building retreat are big business. Companies believe such retreats, where team members participate in activities ranging from mountain climbing, to trust- building exercises (where team members let themselves fall backwards into their colleagues' arms), to Iron Chef-inspired cooking contest (used by UBS, Hewlett- Packard, and Verizon) can foster effective teamwork. But why do organisation have teammates participate in activities that seem irrelevant to the organisation's primary activities? Howard Atkins, chief financial officer at Wells Fargo, believes that corporate retreats aid team building, which in turn improves company performance. At a luxury hotel in Sonoma, California, Atkins - along with several other corporate executives - participate in an exercise in which he and his team had to build a bridge out of boxes and unstable wooden planks. To the delights of his colleagues, Atkins was able to make it across the bridge. The team succeeded. According to Atkins,: What I have been trying to do is get them to see the power of acting more like a team. It's really a terrific success."

QUESTION:

1. Do you believe that team-building activities increase productivity? Why or why not? What other factors might be responsible for increases in profitability following a corporate retreat?

2. What are some other ways besides those described here to build effective teams and increased teamwork among company employees? How might these alternatives be better or worse than corporate retreats?