Team building: to entertain or challenge

Americans have a strange attachment to entertainment; in fact, they have the propensity to turn everything into entertainment.

This attachment is so preposterous that even team building is frequently based upon entertainment activities.

Here are some variations of team building events that I have witnessed, participated in, or heard about:

• treasure hunt

• ropes course

• silly games while sitting around tables and eating

• going out to a restaurant/pub

• going out to the bowling alley

• talking for five hours about each other's personality types

I found even more entertainment - type activities masquerading under the cover of "team building" events.

It was reassuring, however that among all the nonsense, there was also a suggestion for "community work". I agree -  when you work next to each other, you may learn more about each other and could be united by the common work goal.

If entertainment was the path to team building, you could imagine all future Navy SEALs being jetted to luxurious all-inclusive beach resorts on your tax money, and given a week of idleness, booze, excess food, sunbathing, good company, and a few icebreakers.

Instead, the wanna-be SEALs have something called Hell week. And here is the description:

"Hell Week is the defining event ... It is held early on – in the 3rd week of First Phase – before the Navy makes an expensive investment in SEAL operational training. Hell Week consists of 5 1/2 days of cold, wet, brutally difficult operational training on fewer than four hours of sleep. Hell Week tests physical endurance, mental toughness, pain and cold tolerance, teamwork, attitude, and your ability to perform work under high physical and mental stress, and sleep deprivation. Above all, it tests determination and desire. On average, only 25% of SEAL candidates make it through Hell Week, the toughest training in the U.S. Military. It is often the greatest achievement of their lives, and with it comes the realization that they can do 20X more than they ever thought possible. It is a defining moment that they reach back to when in combat. They know that they will never, ever quit, or let a teammate down."
 
"They will never let a teammate down", does this sound like  your mainstream corporate culture?
 
You need a real team to pull together a difficult task and address a problem or crisis. 

Therefore, it is a good idea to know how difficult situations transform your "teammates"? You need to know who becomes snappy, anxious, angry, panicky, and unreliable. You need to know who avoids responsibility and would ditch you under critical circumstances.

I have witnessed all of these unsavory behaviors since my institution has dipped into numerous crises in the past six years. The only silver lining I find in this roller-coaster experience is that I know who the true teammates are. Unfortunately, they are not too many.