When the idea of team-building exercises is brought up, it's easy to envision corporate-types reluctantly engaging in trust falls in between eye-rolls while waiting to return to their desks or offices to complete the tasks they were hired to do.
But in today's corporate climate, team-building exercises often take on a more elaborate and purposeful look, especially in Chattanooga where a bevy of outdoor activities are at hand.
Proponents of corporate team-building say that engaging with colleagues outside of the typical work environment can break down social barriers that might prevent companies from operating at maximum efficiency.
"You do what you can to interact with everybody as much as possible so you're not just management versus employee," says Tony Donaldson, the general manager of the Regis Corporation's Chattanooga distribution center. "It's one big team trying to produce results and make Regis a great place to work."
Donaldson believes Regis' efforts to bring employees from around the nation together once a year for face-to-face interaction outside the traditional work environment is a reason for the company's low management turnover rate.
Locally, Regis works with the Adventure Guild, which offers rope courses and other outdoor programs that can be geared specifically to business outings. Regis has also gone rafting on the Ocoee River, tried bobsledding in Salt Lake City and been canoeing in Minneapolis.
"Everybody got to know each other a little more than just people on the phone," Donaldson recalls, reflecting on the group's first rafting trip 10 years ago. "We were actually interacting with each other, doing all the team-building stuff."
Donaldson warned that a clear directive in advance of a team-building exercise is key to ensure that a team-building activity is an effective use of company resources.
"If you don't lay the groundwork, it's just going to be doing tasks and then going home," he says.
Another option, one that BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has found effective in building camaraderie within its culture, is to have its employees complete volunteer projects together.
BlueCross works with Habitat for Humanity, in addition to a bevy of other community organizations.
"People behave differently when they're volunteering," says Dawn Abel, director of community relations and foundations for BlueCross. "When you're doing something good for someone else, it brings out the best in you. When people are at their best, it's easier for them to communicate and to bond.
"Because it's random how we put people together in teams, it forces people who don't normally work together to work together and find commonalities and talk to each other, so that when you do come back to work it's easier to manage day-to-day interactions."
National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" aired a story last year examining team-building horror stories, including an office paintball outing in which bruises, and tempers, flared.
But places like the Adventure Guild, Chattanooga Team Building and Escape Experience Chattanooga provide non-violent outlets through which companies can complete adrenaline-inducing tasks that disrupt the hierarchies and routines of the daily grind.
Luke Bailey, a marketing copywriter for the Chattanooga Team Building, which is part of a nationwide company, says business is booming.
"This has been exploding for us in the last couple of years," Bailey says. "Companies are doing more and more team-building and we are seeing more demand for things like this."
He added that companies often come seeking a "reward" for their employees who have met goals.
In the process, they just might be laying the foundation to help their workers meet future goals.
"A lot of our customers get back to us and say it's increased their teamwork and communication between departments," Bailey says. "A lot of the time our customers will mix up their teams from across the company, and it really helps to break down those barriers between the various departments."