BEYOND SUMO WRESTLING
Anyone want to don an inflatable sumo wrestling suit and face off against your coworker? How about bashing him with your go-cart or racing her up a cliff face?

The possibilities are endless when it comes to team-building exercises. And research shows that offsite events "can be fun, people can get to know each other on a more social level," said Ben Dattner, founder of Dattner Consulting and an adjunct professor at New York University, in a recent National Public Radio(NPR) interview.

"But a couple of days after people return to the workplace, (PLEASE BREAK HERE) the impacts and the benefits are not usually enduring," Dattner said.

A more meaningful option for building better cohesion among employees, some experts say, is a workplace charity campaign or volunteer program.

"Organized giving can help build a positive company culture by uniting people around a worthy cause," said Anne Wilson, President and CEO of the San Francisco-based United Way of the Bay Area. "It's a great morale booster, a chance for everyone - from administrative assistants to CFOs - to demonstrate their talents and skills in a new setting and work together on something important for their communities."

Below, Dattner offered NPR some more general suggestions for successful off-site team-building.

• If the team wants some "fun" activities, there should also be some consideration of what "real work" the team wants to accomplish. With everyone together, the team has an opportunity to reflect on team dynamics and consider possible changes to strategy, roles, processes, and individual and collective responsibilities.
• The team should set some goals for the offsite: What specific things do we want to accomplish during our time together?
• The team may consider doing a team assessment in advance of the offsite and then reviewing the results during the meeting.

Finally, a lot of care should be taken when choosing a site for a retreat. "There's a lot of symbolism in these meetings and they can convey real meaning about the organization," Dattner told NPR. "They can convey real meaning about the organization. If you have ten people coming from all over the country and one of them is pregnant, the team can go to her location, just to send a strong message about life/work balance."