What We’re Watching -
Severance [2007]
Title:
Severance [2007]
Actors:
Danny Dyer, Laura Harris, Tim McInnerny, Toby Stephens, Claudie Blakley
Studio:
20th Century Fox
Classification:
Price: £7.98
Reviewer: Claudine McClean
 Taking a break from reading over the Easter weekend, a film about a Management Team Building break seemed a good choice. Organisations invest heavily in team building away days, short breaks and outward bound adventures. It’s important that teams get on well together, trust each other, and know each others strengths and weaknesses.
Severance sees a group of employees from a fictional arms manufacturer heading for a team building break at a luxury lodge in an East European forest, a reward for excellent sales performance. Things don’t go to plan during wilderness exercises and a paint balling session where people don’t all seem to be playing by the rules.
People often wonder how they would react in a real emergency, and how their colleagues would react. Severance shows some characters you may recognise from your workplace environment - being brave, panicking, cracking jokes and making tea as a series of unfortunate events befalls them.
Not all team bonding events end quite as badly as the one in Severance, but many fail to deliver real team benefits, particularly benefits for the long term success of the organisation.
Teams work best in an atmosphere of trust and interdependence, and more often than not in largely indoor environments. Getting together to discuss key issues, clear up conflicts in priorities and setting goals in a challenging and open environment may prove a more effective way to get to know your colleagues and improve performance than enjoying a mystery pie in the woods with them.
Claudine McClean
t: +44 (0) 1789 734333
f: +44 (0) 1789 734401
e: claudinem@predaptive.com
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