I was inspired this week by British Actor and Producer Richard Wilson. I was reading his book “Can’t Be Arsed , 101 Things NOT to Do Before You Die” which my sister-in-law had given me as a Christmas present. I enjoyed the piece on White Water Rafting as a corporate team building event and have put a slightly edited version here for your appreciation. It may reassure you that our approach to team building is a better choice?
“Apart from the Sheer thrill of almost smashing your brains out on the rocks in a fast-flowing river, white-water rafting is supposed to be great for team bonding- a favorite corporate away-day/weekend activity for city bankers , admen and home grown terrorist organizations.
The top destination for such holidays is the Colorado River. For me, a group of friends paddling down a fast-flowing river in a boat throws up one word – Deliverance. You will be laughing away like a teenager on a roller coaster for a few hundred yards until it starts to get really bumpy. Then your boat will capsize; you will all be thrown out and one of your party will suffer one of those horrific bone-sticking-out-through-the-flesh fractures. It’ll probably be the one who looks most like Burt Reynolds, and while he screams in agony, a couple of you will wander off looking for help – only to be captured by some cross-eyed mountain men, who will tell you that you sure got a purdy mouth.
Fortunately one of your other friends will kill one of the mountain men with a bow and arrow. After that you’ll have to bury the body because the local inbreds will never give you a fair trial and you will live with the guilt for the rest of your lives. Last year 4 out of 5 river-based adventure holidays ended up with serious injury, male rape and revenge killing- I’m sure I read that somewhere.
Like I said, I think our approach is the better choice.
I had the opportunity to participate in the type of teambuilding exercise described by Richard Wilson...while we did risky things together for an three day period, it did little for our leadership differences. Measurable Management's focus on the people side of process improvement leads to much better teambuilding because the team is winning by being focused on the needs of the customer. You cannot do more for yourself than by helping others to get what they want.
ReplyDeleteMy teambuilding experiences have been much less dramatic, with better results. I was the CFO for a closely-held business and orchestrated a "cooking night" with the accounting and purchasing departments--which had great success in we learned how to talk to each other. I respect the Measurable Management approach for that very same thing--it teaches, through experiential learning, that relationships, including talking to and listening to people is an INTEGRAL part of the HOW we get our work done, and it can't be underestimated. With that part of the HOW in place we then have a platform to SOLVE the real issues facing the organization.
ReplyDeleteScott Purcell
The R2 Group