Sometimes, corporate retreats emphasize quick wits and entertainment, not dexterity and bravery.
angling
on ropes from treetops, walking on fire, climbing walls and running whitewater
clearly aren’t the only ways to build teams or re-energize a workforce. Off-site
outings in New York or Boston might take the form of a scavenger hunt. Most big
cities have a standup comic ready to give rollicking lessons in improvisational
theater. In these pursuits, the emphasis is on quick wits and entertainment, not
physical dexterity or bravery.
Bret Watson, a magazine writer and editor and sometime
standup comic, learned he was on to something good after he organized a
scavenger hunt for friends at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The
idea was simple. Have everyone meet at the museum and give them tricky and
humorous clues. At the gallery of Asian art, for instance, they might be asked
something like: Which guy looks like he might have gone too far with the
Slim-Fast? Answer: a fasting Siddhartha.
His friends liked it. One day he did a benefit for a
nonprofit group that got the attention of someone who worked for a Wall Street
investment firm. That led to his first paid gig as a professional scavenger-hunt
organizer. Since that day in 1999, his firm, Watson Adventures, has led 12,000
people on hunts. He has put on hunts for about 75 companies, among them NBC,
Amazon.com, Colgate-Palmolive and JP Morgan
Chase.
The hunts are organized around a theme and might be held
in places such as locations featured in the HBO series Sex and the City, or at
cultural landmarks such as New York City museums, the Freedom Trail in Boston or
Hollywood Boulevard. The hunts can involve 10 people or 200, and last from 90
minutes to two hours. Costs vary with the size of the group and the timing. A
two-hour midweek hunt for 20 people costs about $1,200.
Watson says his corporate clients understand the benefits
of letting their hair down. Law firms use the events to introduce new hires to
each other. Groups are divided into teams of five or six that race each other to
follow up clues, adding an element of competition. In Washington, D.C., a White
House-themed scavenger hunt stops outside the Eisenhower Executive Office
Building. The clue: "Why does Ike’s place make you think of a bad haircut?" The
answer can be found on a sign: the architect was a man named Mullet.
Improv comedian comic Gary Kramer, who runs Wits
(Workplace Interactive Team Building Seminars) in San Diego, uses a different
approach. He likens corporate team-building to a nightclub act, and has
participants play roles in impromptu skits. "You try to get everyone
comfortable, thinking alike, laughing together, moving in the same direction,"
Kramer says. "We make sure no one is singled out and made fun of."
= Member Only
