Sound the retreat: although the dollars that companies spend on retreats have fallen with the weakened economy, some organizations still sign up for off-site meetings that involve physical challenges. But there's considerable debate about whether you can really rev up leadership skills or build a team through fire-walking, rock-climbing or whitewater rafting

Workforce, Sept, 2003 by Douglas P. Shuit

Business consultant and Whitewater Voyages alum Jib Ellison says: "Whitewater rivers, by their very nature, are analogous to business situations." Like business, rivers are dynamic, he says. "In rapids, you can't stop and figure things out. You have just got to deal with things in front of you. You have to learn by your mistakes and move on. Feedback is incredibly swift, one way or the other. You are either in the boat, dry, or upside down, wet." Ellison, managing partner of The Trium Group in San Francisco, says rafting is terrific for team-building. With uncertainty, hazards and dangers lurking downstream, he says, there is a constant need for teamwork. As for the danger, Bill McGinnis, Whitewater Voyages thunder, says that there is an element of risk to any outdoor adventure, but perceptions are usually worse than reality. "The truth is that when done with professional guides, rafting is actually safer than the drive to the river."

PROVING ITS WORTH

On this mid-July day, a platoon of Wells Fargo honchos, clad in a scruffy collection of shorts, T-shirts and running shoes, gather uncertainly after lunch on the lush green lawn at the wine country resort. They cautiously eye a half dozen challenge setups that look like garage sale items--boards, string, helmets, bits of pipe, nylon straps. Atkins, the Wells Fargo CFO leading the retreat, has to reassure some of the financial officers that they won't be put in danger. "We've taken a couple of opportunities to reassure people that they are not going to be forced to fall out of trees and be caught, and things like that," he says.

For the next four hours, under a canopy of sycamore, pine, ficus, olive and maple trees, the bankers' patience, their dexterity, and their imagination and good nature are put to the test. Six facilitators from Adventure Associates run the show. They are wearing shorts and knit shirts carrying their company's logo, giving off the appearance of some sort of uber camp counselors. Ed Tilley, president of Adventure Associates, and his wife, Rebecca Tilley; are on hand. So is Don Taylor, associate dean of San Francisco State University's College of Health and Human Services, who participates in corporate training exercises as a facilitator during summer breaks. The well-established firm, based in a suburb of San Francisco, has put on events for a long list of corporate clients, including AT&T, Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard and Charles Schwab.

A risk manager joins hands with an accountant to make what looks like a human pretzel, an exercise designed to break the ice and promote physical contact. Taylor, a friendly sort with tufts of gray hair poking out from under a baseball cap, tells a group of 30 bankers to form a perfect square. After several tries, they succeed. "Sometimes in a leadership role we have to follow," "Taylor says. "Sometimes we have to take direction." And sometimes, "the way to go fast is to go slow."

As the day wears on, blindfolded bankers will set up tents, guided by the verbal commands of team members. They will roll golf balls down narrow handheld tracks of plastic tubing or split garden hose, trying to keep the ball alive until it can be dumped over a finish line. The idea is to have fun, but with a decidedly hard-nosed goal in mind. "They know each other, but they don't work together vow often," Taylor says. "So they are trying to learn to be more effective in the way they interact, especially around communication and trust."