The essence of any successful business is profit. To create profit you need sales. To create sales you need a dynamic sales force. To create a dynamic sales force you need motivation. To create motivation you need team building or corporate events.

But not all team building or corporate events are motivational. In the early days when teambuilding have just been 'invented', it tended to be applied solely to management. Since at that time, management was male dominated, it was believed that challenging people through discomfort and problem solving was the way to gel a team. Sure, the theory sounds plausible - put a group of blokes together and make sure they have to cross a couple of rivers and climb something before they get to relax in the pub afterwards. The only way they were likely to reach their goal was therefore to work as a team and thus when they got back to the office they would therefore be a better team at work. At least that was the theory. Oh, and just for good measure, make sure it is winter when they do the event just so that they can appreciate their nice warm comfortable office environment!

But the reality was actually very different. The teambuilding exercise was remembered for the wrong reasons. No one genuinely looked forward to the next time.

These days, the astute company manager steers clear of these discomfort style of corporate events, so that staff are not alienated. Not everyone likes the great outdoors, the especially when it is uncomfortably cold and wet. Teambuilding and corporate events are no longer just for management. And besides, management is no longer completely dominated by testosterone filled alpha males; there is a healthy dose of oestrogen there too!

So teambuilding had to evolve. It needed to become more inclusive and include indoor events that required thinking rather than just the ability to suffer discomfort and it was generally set in a much more comfortable and pleasant environment. Corporate events based on a particular theme were devised, giving more of a point to the day. Some of these corporate events are perfect for team building, look for those which offer challenge and require people to work together to achieve the goal. Corporate events are also fun - it is well documented within educational circles that people learn much more readily in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. A relaxed atmosphere also enables individuals to get on better, much more so than in the tense cold and wet atmosphere of an outdoor challenge activity.

When you are looking for a suitable event that can be used for team bonding, make sure that you choose wisely; ideally it should be inclusive, stimulating, fun and comfortable. There are plenty of these type of events around for example giant Scalextric, flying model helicopters in hangers and so on. These are fine but a little limited in scope as there is only one activity and can leave people standing around doing nothing. What you really should look for are multi activity events where teams rotate through the activities on a relatively short timescale of 20 to 30 minutes. That way everybody remains interested and it gives a very good flow to the day. It promotes discussion as well; during the breaks, for example I have often heard people talking to others about how they solved a particular activity, sometimes coming up with very different methods.

With care, you can make your teambuilding memorable for the right reasons by choosing a corporate event. But whatever you do it will need to be progressive and needs to happen at regular intervals otherwise it will lose its effectiveness.