My organisation was at Outward Bound School on Pulau Ubin last week and it was a blast climbing up obstacles and cheering fellow team mates and colleagues on to overcome the challenges.

I've been to a couple of retreats in various organisations and must say that it was one of the more enjoyable ones I've attended. Typical corporate retreats are long on wordy mission and vision statements followed by drawing of impossibly convoluted strategy maps linking individual unit strategies to the overarching mission of the organisation. However, this round, our organisation focussed on team building in day one and followed by more of brain storming of ideas to generate more sparks that we can ignite for the fire to drive us towards our long-term goals.

Even as I ponder on the fun and enthusiasm generated from the corporate retreat. The challenge would be to align my own small little internal audit team's mission and objectives upwards and to make meaningful connections.

How were your own corporate retreats? Do you think these are useful team building and goal setting activities?