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by Richard BrassAll 02 May 2006 Diploma in Financial Management Relevant to All papers

Whether for team-building, confidence-boosting, leadership training or just as a way of getting a group to have fun together without drunkenness or infidelity, the motivation caper has become big business, as Richard Brass discovers.

As a motivational tool, it probably can't be beaten. The next time you notice the enthusiasm of your team starting to flag, try sending out a memo suggesting that underperforming staff will be sent on a motivational firewalk run by Si Group, then sit back and watch productivity levels soar.

It may seem a little harsh, but it's a tough world out there, and if the only way to rouse your troops is with a whiff of the glowing embers that landed Si Group in court this January for burning the feet of a senior accountant at Deloitte, then so be it.

The firewalk is one of the growing arsenal of quirky corporate activities that are designed to leave participants 'euphoric' as Si Group's chief executive put it, although in this case it left the participant in hospital and the motivational company with a bill of nearly £8,000 in fines and costs.

Plenty of mild-mannered professionals have been through the experience. In the name of motivation, you take off your shoes and socks and walk across a patch of glowing embers, emerging at the other end fired up to tackle your next task with a whole new level of enthusiasm. The trick hinges on the fact that the skin on the soles of the feet is 25 times thicker than on other parts of the body unless, as in the case of the woman from Deloitte, you've recently had a pedicure.

The firewalk has become a familiar experience throughout the corporate world as employers have increasingly turned to motivational companies to develop the potential of their staff. Whether for team-building, confidence-boosting, leadership training or just as a way of getting a group to have fun together without drunkenness and infidelity, the motivation caper has become big business.

There's a lot to choose from. You can help steer your colleagues down rapids on a high-adrenaline white-water rafting trip. You can act out your fantasies by blasting them with a paintball gun. You can go crashing through the mud on a quad bike, stand on one leg at the top of a 30-foot telegraph pole, blend into the landscape on an SAS training course or deploy your collective skills to try and get a gang of recalcitrant ducks through a gate.

If these are the kind of activities that whet your whistle, they can be great fun and a welcome break from the routine of an office-bound working life. But once the mud has been washed away, the ducks are safely locked up and the burns have healed, do they actually bring any benefits, besides giving your inner action hero a nice day out?

Without a doubt, according to Robbie Burns, director of Amazing Events, which runs motivational courses from its headquarters in Somerset, UK. Whatever else may be involved, he believes the bulk of these activities teach the clear and simple lesson that you are capable of more than you think you are.

'A lot of these sort of things take people right out of their comfort zone,' he says. 'One of the main elements is overcoming mental barriers, finding out that you can do things that you think you can't.

'When people first come out to do these tasks and they look at the high rope or the climbing or something like that you can see them thinking "I'll never do that". But they're encouraged by the team and they have a go, and once they've achieved it there's a tremendous change in them. It's noticeable both physically and in their attitudes. There's sheer joy, enthusiasm and euphoria.'

While the immediate excitement fades after the event, the lesson about what you're capable of remains, he says, and that's the heart of the exercise. 'When you go back to work and you come across problems or decisions daily, weekly or monthly in your business role that take you outside your comfort zone, you can step back and say "Well, there was a time when I thought I couldn't climb that rope or leap that gap, and I did." It gives you a new mindset.'

Linda Holbeche, director of the Work Foundation's campaign for leadership and the author of several books on motivation and performance, is sceptical. Doing something you didn't think you could is indeed memorable, but whether that will actually help you deal with real-life situations is far from certain. And, she says, the damage to people who fail to complete the activity can be profound.

'Part of the psychic build-up to these things is developing a collective haze of "We can do this!", which puts a huge amount of pressure on people who really don't fancy it or didn't know it was going to be something they'd have to do,' she says. 'That sort of enormous pressure is not particularly helpful in dealing with day-to-day pressures. It can be so intense that when some people finally do the thing it's less a sense of achievement than of pure relief. And for those who fail the test, the psychological fall-out can be really damaging.

'Some people go along with it more out of cowardice than as a test of courage, because they don't want to look like a wimp. For them it would take more courage not to do it, so perversely it can actually do harm to some people's self-confidence.'

Holbeche says the lessons from the exercise could also be a long way from what is intended, precisely because of the unreal purpose of the tasks and the perceived risks of carrying them out. Crossing a river in a tin can is a risky business, and the purpose is, in reality, pointless. 'In a workplace you don't want to see people bludgeoned or brainwashed into doing things that could be harmful to themselves just to achieve a particular goal that, in itself, is nonsense,' she says. 'The lesson being learnt could just be to conform, that if you put people under enough pressure they will do things that are counter to their nature just to get some theoretical sense of achievement.'

Dan Collins of Fresh Events, an activities company based in Hertfordshire, says it's unrealistic for employers to expect these kinds of events to produce sudden, dramatic bottom-line results. The benefits, he believes, are mainly in so-called "soft skills", particularly relationships. 'People do one of these activities together, and then the following week they might pick up the phone and ask one another a question which previously they wouldn't have asked,' he says. 'That might not sound like a big deal, but actually it can be. By breaking down barriers and getting people to trust each other, you're helping to create a much better workplace. In the long term, that will flow through into areas like staff retention and productivity.'

For Holbeche, one of the main drawbacks is that the learning element of these activities often ends at the same time as the course. 'There's a good likelihood that if you put people into a situation that is sufficiently appalling they will help each other in a way that produces teamwork, but of a particular kind and for a particular time. Sustainable results need to be built on something more robust than a macho mentality. There are more ways to make an omelette than smashing eggs with a mallet.

'It would probably be more sensible to get people aligned to a real purpose that matters and encourage them to bring the best of their free will and go the extra mile because they actually believe in it, not just because they don't want to look a wimp for not doing it.

'I would advocate thinking about how to help people understand themselves better, beyond their presented self-image, in a wider range of ways than simply "I can do this seemingly impossible feat". It's about finding ways of helping people see for themselves how they operate and then make some choices about it that are realistic for them.

'We try to help them develop courage around their real-life context, because for some people making a real choice is the most courageous thing they can do. It's much easier to just go along with the crowd and walk over hot coals.'

Unless you work at Deloitte, of course, where walking over hot coals has now been taken off the motivational menu. But by all accounts the appeal of pedicures as a way of recharging the professional batteries remains undimmed. So perhaps the only trick that could beat the threat of Si Group as a way to unlock those hidden reservoirs of motivation is a team visit to the beauticians.

Richard Brass is a freelance columnist and feature writer. This article was first published in the April 2006 issue of accounting & business

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