Creative team building hits the road

TEAM WORK: Employees of an unnamed company take part in a team-building activity run by Sullivan Custom Planning. / COURTESY SULLIVAN CUSTOM PLANNING
TEAM WORK: Employees of an unnamed company take part in a team-building activity run by Sullivan Custom Planning. / COURTESY SULLIVAN CUSTOM PLANNING

Since the world’s first company picnic, corporate outings have walked a fine line between boosting employee morale and sapping it – between fostering teamwork and inviting conflict.
So as the corporate outing has expanded and evolved over the years, the choices managers face when deciding where to take their employees and what to do with them have become ever more varied and complex.
Many companies have embraced the creativity of team-building, adventure outings popularized in recent decades with such events as scavenger hunts and group sailing trips.
Others, especially since the recession, have gone back to the old-fashioned barbecue and softball game or company “in-ning” where the boss goes out for pizza and invites an ice cream truck.
And among certain startups and technology companies, an informal and competitive culture often blurs the lines between work and play, with most days involving time at the office Ping-Pong table, but few organization-wide, formal events.
Through all the variety, those who cut back during the recession appear to be increasing spending on outings again, but in a more measured and targeted way.
“We’re seeing higher-ups getting together instead of whole companies,” said Jennifer Vinnitti, owner and founder of JLV Consulting in East Providence, which manages corporate events, who added that nonprofits appear to have a greater appetite for team-building events right now than for-profits.
At McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Pawtucket Red Sox President Mike Tamburro said the park has seen growth in corporate-suite sales over last few years. Bookings in the right-field party tents, which host company-wide, in-game barbecues, have been flat, however.
In Cumberland, technical-textile manufacturer Hope Global is combining a range of traditional company-wide events, such as a mid-October barbecue with disc jockey in Smithfield, with a New York City retreat for executives a week earlier. The two-day retreat includes attendance at the World Business Forum and will be followed by training and strategy meetings the rest of the week.
Hope Global Vice President of Human Resources Dorothy Mattiello said during the recession the company cut back and didn’t do any executive retreats, but has brought them back since sales have risen.
Between the retreat and the barbecue, Hope Global will have an event celebrating its diversity with workers invited to bring in food representing their heritage.
Providence online-banking firm Andera is having senior executives meet in Newport for a strategy session at a yet-undecided hotel this fall, said Vice President of Marketing Laurie McLachlan.
The session will be mostly meetings to iron out the company’s strategy for the year ahead, McLachlan said, but may also include a team-building activity, although that hasn’t been decided yet.
As for company-wide events, McLachlan said Andera is relatively informal – they have a Ping-Pong table – and has had only a picnic at Colt State Park in Bristol this year.
While many Rhode Island companies are keeping their outings relatively simple, one Rhode Island firm that organizes a wide range of corporate events says the demand for the more creative, team-building adventures is growing.
“Companies are looking for team building paired with dinners to keep that sense of team and camaraderie going after whatever team activity they are doing,” said Elizabeth Swart, event sales manager for Sullivan Custom Planning Inc. in Providence. “They want team building that incorporates the history of where they are and they want it in the outdoors.”
Sullivan Custom Planning does events in Providence, Boston, Newport and Mystic, Conn., that range from a wide array of scavenger hunts (“Indiana Jones and the Golden Idol”) to tinker-toy construction, game shows and a trip on Narragansett Bay in a chartered sailboat. Sullivan works with each company to customize the activity and make it relevant to the skills that management is hoping to instill in the employees.
Asked what potential pitfalls companies need to avoid when organizing a team-building event, Swart said understanding the group dynamic and where there are existing conflicts ahead of time is important. Working around language and cultural barriers can also be a challenge, she said.
Despite post-recession cutbacks, Swart said companies who are interested in team-building exercises want to do them far from the office and are eager to travel.
“The big change is that companies are traveling now,” Swart said. “The activities have been popular for a while, but companies are now budgeting for them.”
One of the Rhode Island companies that has worked with Sullivan Custom Planning is insurer Delta Dental of Rhode Island.
Delta Dental is one of the companies that has scaled back its corporate outings and focused on at-work events in response to the busy schedules of the modern worker.
“Over the years, as lifestyle changes and work-life-balance issues place increasing demands on our employees’ time, we have evolved from corporate ‘outings’ to what we call corporate ‘in-ings,’ ” said Delta Dental Director of Corporate Communications Mary Sommer in an email.
Other internal Delta Dental events include a summer lunch barbecue at the corporate office (with Del’s Lemonade and ice cream trucks) and employee Olympics during the London games.
Despite cutting back on some external events, Delta Dental is working on a shopping/entertainment trip to New York City and over the summer had a 20th-anniversary event with a tent at Waterfire Providence. •

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