Down by the river; Nantahala Outdoor Center is one place business sends individuals to train them to work as teams.

• Author: Murray, Arthur O.
• Position: PICTURE THIS

I firmly believed that I didn't need anyone but me / I sincerely thought I was so complete / Look how wrong you can be.

Rod Stewart, who wrote those lyrics, recorded them on the title track of Every Picture Tells a Story 35 years ago. That was before many of John Grinnell's clients were born and a year before Nantahala Outdoor Center opened in Bryson City. But that's the idea he's trying to get across in the team-building sessions he runs there.

Rod the Mod, of course, was talking about a young man--presumably himself--who discovered he needed a woman to be complete. Grinnell's charges are young executives--male and female, in groups of about 24--from across the Carolinas. The president and owner of Grinnell Leadership in Chapel Hill took a group from Raleigh-based First Citizens BancShares to Nantahala last year and plans to take another this fall. In addition to bankers, he has sent builders, engineers, military contractors and others down the river. "It's a great experience for them because the higher you go on the corporate ladder, the more you have to rely on others."

Employers hire him to turn individuals into teams, often by personality testing and activities sprinkled throughout a year. "You get these powerful and headstrong young executives, and they're not used to relying on others." One way to change that is by making them work together three days at Nantahala--on the ropes and with or without a paddle.

He relies on Cindy Franz, director of the group-adventure program, to organize the outdoors activities. When a trainer such as Grinnell isn't with a group, Franz, who started work at the center when it built its ropes course 11 years ago, will supervise the team building herself. Usually about 200 to 250 people a year participate, including school, church and family groups as well as those from businesses. There is no set program. Sometimes the eight-mile rafting course comes first; other times, participants hit the ropes first. Some groups will use one but not the other. All this is interspersed with exercises designed to build trust and cooperation. The cost depends on the number of people and activities.

The ropes and rafting courses are what she calls "challenge by choice"--participants do only what they're comfortable with. "With the river, you're looking at a raft of four to six people working together to get the raft going where they want it to go. They take turns as guides. If people are scared, we can get a person in the...