'Good news chaps, we're all going paintballing!' I don't think so, says Peter Buhlmann, not when there are so many more imaginative ways to lead your team towards motivational Nirvana.

1. Strip cold-calling

Not the idle fantasy of a fourteen year-old comic aficionado, but a technique used by Pareto Law, voted the best small company to work for in the 2005 Sunday Times national survey.

'We only take on inexperienced young graduates,' says sales manager Matthew Hague, 'so we have to think how we're going to provide a business that they're going to want to work for. We've tended to sail a little close to the wind sometimes and do something different.

'We once ran a very famous strip cold-calling competition that made people take off an article when they got an objection they couldn't deal with. We had a big washing line to hang the clothes on and it increased the fun and competitive element.

'When you think outside the box and do daft or silly things, it draws everyone together - it's like a team night out - or a team day doing something else. Tomorrow we've got a 'bling' theme where people dress in as stupid a costume as they can imagine, like Ali G for example, and people are already thinking about tomorrow, you know, what they're going to wear.'

Footnote: For the strip cold-calling day you could wear as many clothes as you liked. Joint managing director Jonathan Fitchew admitted that he wouldn't have given the OK for the idea, if he had been in the office.

2. Call in the Armstrongs

They've been described as 'Alan Partridge meets The Office', and now the idiosyncratic husband and wife team who run U-Fit, Coventry's third largest double-glazing company, are available through The Gordon Poole Entertainment Agency as motivational speakers.

Is this, by any chance, a comedy act? I ask James Poole, speaker agent at the company. 'I would not say they are funny,' he says, playing a resolutely straight bat, 'you're booking the Armstrongs (stars of a BBC2 fly-on-the-wall documentary) because of the celebrity factor. They're very current and popular at the moment but they'll still pull back to those key topics, which are: teamwork, obviously the Armstrongs working as a team; and leadership, with John leading the team.' The mind begins to boggle rather dangerously at this point, so we change topics and chat instead about how to choose the right speaker.

'A lot of people have had a look at our website and they go 'How much is Buzz Aldrin?' and they haven't realised that before they pay his fees they have to pay first-class travel from California ? so the number one criteria when choosing a speaker is how much money you have to spend.'

For those of you who can't make up your minds between moonwalker and double-glazing entrepreneurs, Poole has a suggestion: 'The most popular speaker at the moment is a chap called Alan Chambers MBE, a former marine and polar explorer. His claim to fame is that he is the man that Sir Clive Woodward brought in to the England Rugby team to motivate them to get them focused before they won the World Cup. And on the back of that, the England cricket team brought him in last year to do the same before they won The Ashes.' That'll explain the MBE then.

Footnote: Buzz Aldrin - second man on the moon after Neil Armstrong (no relation to the above) - costs 'many tens of thousands'. A first-class return with BA from California is a measly £8,900. Bargain.

www.gordonpoole.com

3. Use some TNT

Meet Adrian Webster: ex-policeman, milkman, radio presenter, IT sales manager and now full time motivational speaker, a term that causes him some concern. 'It always conjures up a picture of a shiny, slick, over-pompous American type who is excited about everything, every moment of their life. I'm not like that at all.'

Webster in fact represents the more whimsical wing of the rah-rah brigade. He's invented a bunch of characters and incorporated them and others into talks and books to help sales people. These characters include BLOATERS - Boasting, Lazy, Obnoxious and Tediously Egotistical, Reptilian Saddos, who embody the worst elements of the sales person's psyche - and Neg Ferrets, weasley types who spend their time bringing everyone else down.

In the same vein are TNTs - Tiny Noticeable Things. 'They may be tiny but they're highly explosive,' he says. 'They make an instant impact and they create the biggest pictures; and the wonderful thing about it from a motivational point of view is that they cost next to nothing - a lot of the time they're absolutely free.

'For example, welcome notes: when someone joins your company they're nervous and wondering if they're doing the right thing and fitting in. Pop a hand-written note into the post to their home address that says something along the lines of "I haven't had a chance to catch up with you yet, but I'm hearing some great things about you and I'm looking forward to working with you." When they get that note on their doorstep they'll think 'Crikey, what a great company! I feel like I belong.'

Footnote: Webster is also keen on 'Duvet Days', sabbaticals, having a teddy that people get to throw across the office as a reward, a red card system so staff can show fellow team members if they're out of order, and the power of senior people giving their time to staff.

www.adrianwebster.com

4. Swim with sharks

Brilliant idea. Everyone crams into an underwater cage and takes it in turns to punch sharky on the nose when he swoops in for some chum.

Think again, says James Coakes, managing director of Progressive Resources . 'The problem with fear-based challenges - even if you're totally safe - is that, rather than team building, they tend to be team dividing - and what they divide the team into is those who are afraid and those who aren't.'

'You can book something that isn't worrying for you but someone else may have a deeply entrenched phobia. Then what you'll have is someone who can't perform well for the month before the event because they've got this growing threat and, on the day, they're having a terrible time.'

Any better ideas? 'If you go out shooting and quad bike driving it will tend to appeal more to the chaps, whereas something like a treasure hunt or a task-based event appeals to a wider selection of people. We had an event at Paradise Wildlife Park where 100 people built a tiger enclosure over two days, "Challenge Anneka" - style, and that was very popular and rewarding to see the tigers released into their enclosure.

'If people are working on a project in the office that won't show a result for six months it's very positive for them to do something in a day where they can actually see an outcome in a short period of time.'

Footnote: Sharks can reach speeds of 60mph, and can generate about six-and-a-half tons of biting force per square inch.

www.teambuilding.co.uk

5. Dye your team's hair the same colour

At the 1998 World Cup in France, the Romanian team all dyed their hair blonde in an attempt to boost morale for the second round against Croatia, who then unfortunately proceeded to beat them 1-0. But this approach is not just for the lords of the turf: academics at the University of Maryland dyed their hair red for a photo opportunity honouring the success of their team's football victories.

Alternatively, get a team tattoo. Australian batsman Justin Langer reported that three of his team mates got themselves a Southern Cross tattoo in Taunton when in the UK for the 2001 Ashes tour. He declined to name names but revealed that the tattoos were on the ankles of two of them and the back of the third.

Footnote: William Hill was offering odds of 33/1 that the England team would sport identical haircuts and odds of 20/1 that they would all dye their hair the same colour in the recent World Cup

6. Give them your job

It's what they all want so why not let them have it?

'If you're going away, choose somebody different every week to stand in for you,' says Chris Jeffs, a senior lecturer on sales management at Northumbria University, 'and give them real responsibility to make decisions. It will be a great boost to their self-esteem because people will be coming to ask their opinion, and ask their approval for discounts and so on. They will feel that they're on the growth curve of their career and perhaps they might be the next sales manager. It works on a number of different levels - it allows the sales manager to see how well they've done and for the individual to get a bit of practice. And it doesn't cost anything.'

Jeffs has 16 years' experience in sales. He's in a unique position to blend academic theory with real-life practice. 'It's often said that money is not a long term motivator and it's true - it may not even be a short term motivator for some people - it all depends why you want that money. For some the ultimate aim is to get promotion; for others it might be to get their name in lights and win an award. It's all about self-esteem at the end of the day; the desire to be successful, the desire to prove your ability - that's really what drives people.'

Footnote: Recent studies have identified three types of sales people: Comfort Seekers, who are generally older with higher incomes and who respond well to verbal encouragement; Spotlight Seekers, who are driven by financial incentives and status; and Developers, generally younger people with families to support who are very keen on training and developing their career. (Blythe J, 2004, Sales and Key Account Management, Pearson Education.)

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