I was at my company’s legal department yearly off-site retreat last week. These weeks are great fun with activities, CLEs, and lots and lots of time for bonding. I had been looking forward to this year’s off-site since it was announced. For reasons (mostly) outside of my control, I was sidelined for most of the week. It was probably for the best. Even under perfect circumstances, there is nothing good that can result from me trying to throw tomahawks near my colleagues.
Even though I wasn’t a full participant, I was able to enjoy some of the benefits of the off-site. The retreat is more than a vacation for us (it is fun, but not a vacation). The organization benefits from getting us all together for a week and, in fact, that is why many organizations have annual retreats or similar functions where colleagues are forced into bonding.
If an organization is interested in employee retention, it has to encourage the employees to emotionally and mentally invest in the success and growth of the organization. Money can only do so much. If a person is paid well, but has no emotional attachment to his colleagues or the work he does, that employee is not going to have compelling reasons to stay with the organization or make an extra effort to get something past the goal line.
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Beyond the basic element of employee retention, forced togetherness ultimately improves group dynamics. In the real world, most of us go to work and then go home to our “real lives.” We don’t have to engage with each other as human beings. In fact, if you are making my work-life more difficult, I’d rather not deal with you as a human being. With the forced bonding time, I learn that my colleagues are not dehumanized creatures sent to this planet to either be useful or make my life miserable, but actual people with loves, desires, and charms. With a little more forced bonding time, I may even come to like my colleagues.
Here’s an interesting thing about people who like each other: they tend to be nicer to each other. People who like each other are less interested in sabotaging each other at work. People who don’t want to sabotage each other don’t engage in office gossip about each other. A cohesive team that is emotionally invested with each other doesn’t need to gossip or back-stab because the feeling of inclusion exists within the team. It takes time to build a real relationship of affinity and respect. A retreat forces colleagues to form those bonds that become the first defense against a dysfunctional office atmosphere.
If employees are confident in their trust of each other, they can then focus on the work they are paid to do. If an employee knows her actions are subject to the gauntlet of informal office judgment, then playing defense internally leads to information hoarding. Mistakes are camouflaged, hidden, or ignored because admitting to them will only lead to a louder cacophony of judgment from the mob. When nobody discusses mistakes, or even things that don’t go as planned, nobody benefits from the learning that comes out of those events. Learning from hardship is one of the most valuable forms of education one can receive, but there has to be trust and confidence before someone will share the gift of learning from her difficult experience.
After a week of enjoying each other’s company, we can now go back to the office and treat each other like humans, possibly even friends. We can build on these bonds of trust and respect that were formed in the past week and become a stronger team. And when the team is stronger, we are stronger.
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Celeste Harrison Forst has practiced in small and mid-sized firms and is now in-house at a large manufacturing and technology company where she receives daily hugs from her colleagues. You can reach Celeste directly at [email protected].