Team building trips – Are they good for your company?

Picture the scene you have just arrived at the location for your company’s team building trip. By a unanimous decision everyone decided that this year it would be paint-balling. Now all you have to do is split into 2 teams choose the leaders and spend all day shooting each other. Now this is all good fun but how much benefit do you get from this for your company.   Arguments for say it gets staff to gel together more as a team by working together. This involves making decisions together and problem solving together and that can only be a good thing. Arguments against say it encourages one up-manship and non productive competition. I would go with the former rather than the latter as anything that brings the team together has got to be good for business!