DEVELOPING `SURVIVOR' SKILLS IN THE WORK PLACE.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

For some office drones, roughing it means getting through a staff meeting with a lukewarm cup of Starbucks coffee.

Lotsa luck to them, then, if their human resources director is a ``Survivor'' devotee who feels the staff would be renewed, invigorated and immensely cooperative after a few days in the wild together.

Will workers have to eat a rat, or just be able to smell one? And what if the boss - or worse, that beer-bellied guy from purchasing - takes all his clothes off?

Not to worry, say the corporate trainers who organize those organic outings. Real team-building outdoor adventures, even the most demanding ones, have little in common with the CBS television show. Of course, that doesn't stop some participants from coming in with expectations based on the experiences last year of Richard Hatch and company on a remote Malaysian island.

``People come out thinking maybe they're going to walk on hot coals or run around hunting for masks or something,'' said David Leroi, a partner in Ojai-based Arete Adventures. ``In all honesty, it's less about the physical activity and more about the process the team goes through in trying to meet the challenges.''

The physical activities vary widely from one adventure company to another and depend on what the client's objectives are. With Arete, that can run from mustering the self-confidence to climb a 30-foot pole and stand on its platform (with a safety harness) to shooting the rapids on a four-day rafting trip through the Grand Canyon.

There are even rougher trips out there for individuals whose idea of fun is getting back to nature with scant provisions or equipment - and living to brag about it.

Miami-based Nature Paradise Eco Tours has been packaging what it calls its Survivor tours to Honduras for more than a year, according to Cecilia Gondor.

``You camp out, fish for your own fish, catch iguanas and cook them,'' Gondor said. ``It's a very rustic type of adventure vacation. It's to see how competent you are at surviving on your own with just a little instruction. We let them do everything they can do, but we don't let them starve to death.''

Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) of Boulder, Colo., the oldest and largest of such training schools, takes what it calls Impact field courses through the southern Utah desert in the summer - without canteens. Spokesman Ford Church says the participants are mainly strangers to each other, although occasional friends or couples come together. And BOSS will arrange the same trek for any executive management team willing to leave their Armani suits, Palm organizers and cell phones back at the hotel.

Church said the guides lead a hike of 15 to 18 miles a day from water source to water source, with only the clothes on their backs. Later in the four-day outing, the hikers are given a wool blanket and a poncho that can serve as a tent, backpack or sleeping bag.

Church said BOSS trips and other rugged outdoor adventures aren't for everyone. Most prospective customers who aren't right for it are put off by the blunt description of a trip in a brochure. ``The red flags are parents who are trying to sign up their troubled kids to try to straighten them out, and the kind of Rambo types who want to blow up stuff in the desert. We're not that.''

Zack Hain of Encino, a rock climber and guide who works for several outdoor adventure companies, said one of the big differences between the ``Survivor'' atmosphere and outdoor corporate training programs is the latter are set up to be learning experiences with applications in the workplace and everyday life.

He said the most meaningful part of an outdoor training program is the reflection after it's over. ``It's sort of the facilitator's job to encourage those 'Aha!' moments, that time of clarity when you realize that's what it's all about.''

Matthew Burke recently took the staff of his Encino accounting firm on their third annual retreat conducted by Arete Adventures. They don't go the starve-and-struggle route, instead looking for activities that push the employees' mental boundaries. The first was a 2 1/2-day retreat at Calamigos Ranch.

``The first night we had a breaking-the-ice session and it went so poorly I thought I had really gone out on a limb and it was ready to break off,'' Burke recalled.

Burke said his executives were skeptical before the first retreat. Now, he said, nearly all his employees take part, and he's seen a big difference in how they work together to complete projects or solve problems in the office.

There is a downside for the employer. Burke said some of his very competent workers have voted themselves off the island, so to speak, after a retreat because they have learned more about themselves and their company philosophy and determined they are not well matched after all.

But the expense, about $15,000-$20,000 per year, has been worth it, he said.

``It's like one of my employees said: What we're looking to build here is a culture of life players, that we're not just learning how to be a better accounting firm. We're learning how to play life.''

Travel Editor Eric Noland contributed to this story.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Scaling telephone poles gives new meaning to climbing the corporate ladder.

(2) Arete Adventures of Ojai takes executive teams on whitewater rafting excursions in the Grand Canyon to test their spirit of cooperation as part of a new trend to build camaraderie and morale.