A Corporate Retreat Can Be A Good Thing

When I received the memo about the corporate retreat, I was far from thrilled - I knew that I couldn't get out of it. In our company, corporate events were pretty much mandatory.

Our boss considered himself an expert when it came to human psychology. And corporate team building, retreats, and other events were his chance to demonstrate his mastery to the rest of us.

It did, however, have an upside. It was a week with no work, and most people don't mind that. I convinced myself to look at it as a paid vacation, and put the thoughts of jargon and mumbo-jumbo out of my head.

I had never been on a real corporate retreat before. I had gone to a few events that tried to describe themselves as corporate retreats - but they were usually simple business meetings designed to get us psyched up for a new project.

Some of them were fairly informative, but few of them really constituted a break from the hustle and bustle of work day after work day.

Right off the bat we realized this corporate retreat was different. For one thing, our boss wasn't the leader. Instead, we were led by an experienced outdoor guide.

It started off rather simply, without corporate icebreakers like most of the events have - another refreshing and welcome change from the norm. From the get-go, things were looking better and better.

I enjoyed this corporate retreat so much because it was big on self reliance and adventure, and small on talk. It really was a retreat for the whole company. I later decided to visit their website and I quickly figured out how they had successfully sold it to the boss.

They talked a lot about how developing self-reliance in an outdoor environment would translate to better business leadership skills – something I knew he would eat right up.

In reality, however, I believe the major benefit was that it gave us time to relax. At first, it was pretty difficult being away from all the conveniences of modern life. We were in the middle of the woods - you couldn't turn on the lights, get away from the insects, turn on the air conditioning, or even hear a radio.

After we got used to it, however, the corporate retreat ended up being a lot of fun. There was drumming, workshops on traditional crafts, and plenty of chances to share our experiences with each other. It was a corporate retreat that will probably stay with all of us for a long time to come.