Any manager that thinks that alcoholic induced discussion and sensible decisions go hand in hand need their brains testing.
I remember many moons ago having a discussion with another manager who would habitually retire to the pub late Friday afternoons, with an open invitation to his management team.
I attended one of these 'team building' meetings.
Early the following week I discussed with him that his 'team building' meetings excluded some of the team for various reasons, faith, aversion to alcohol, even possibly reformed alcoholics, etc.
Furthermore, the practice was perpetuating the opinion that some appointments may be influenced during such sessions due to behaviour, 'joining in the culture', etc. There was also a danger of practices and policies being determined and finalised without the participation of some team members, who would be faced with a fait accompli.
There were far better ways for regular unstructured 'team meetings' to facilitate team building.
The sessions didn't stop. I had no jurisdiction to stop them, and they went on into out-of-normal-working hours anyway. The culture deteriorated into something approaching chaos and required many years under new management to retrieve.
Any leader that think that alcohol induced social interaction facilitates team building allows a deteriorating culture to develop, excludes and alienates some team members, which allows certain 'group think' in the team to fester.
