Castaway 2000, the BBC’s televised teambuilding experiment, will end in
disaster because the participants do not share a common goal, a leading
management expert has warned.
Phil Davies, lecturer in strategic management at Cranfield School of
Management, said the 36 strangers marooned on a Scottish island for a year will
stop short of murdering each other – because they are being watched. Without
the television cameras it could turn into Lord of the Flies.
Davies said all teams need a common objective. Although the castaways
nominally share the objective of survival, the BBC is looking after them from a
distance. In the first week, 18 people were airlifted to a hotel because basic
facilities were not ready.
Piers Myers, organisational consultant and lecturer at Birkbeck College,
said, "When an external authority steps in to pre-empt risk or to mop up
after a crisis, the infectious message of distrust is all too easily
learned."
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David Birchall, director of development at Henley said the group needs to
face a crisis without a get-out option.
"When people are faced with real adversity they will overcome their
differences for the good of the group," he said.
