Putting a price on outdoor training for teams: A concept admired, feared and ridiculed

Outdoor experiential training became established as one of the big HR ideas during the 1990s. The theory is that leadership skills can be honed and team spirit developed by taking employees into the great outdoors, usually at weekends. The “survival” of workers might depend, for example, on using only tree roots, pond water and mutual support. This concept, featuring both physical and mental exercises, is loved by many managers, viewed skeptically or with alarm by many employee “victims” – and widely lampooned by television writers and dramatists.