The team that worked on casual shoes found an innovative way to deliver both comfort and style. After tracing their own feet and observing how the foot expands when a person stands, they asked, "What if we could build a shoe that changed shape with your foot?" The new Timberland casual line features a sole and seams that expand and contract as the foot moves, as well as an insole that provides varying levels of support for different parts of the sole.

The team that was charged with inventing a new shoe category for outdoor athletics found a balance between sturdiness and agility by envisioning how the bottom of a shoe could be designed more like the top of a shoe. Instead of stitching the upper to a platform, they thought, why not wrap the bottom of the foot the same way the upper wraps the top of the foot? The result is the new "lightweight armor" shoe, which has a flexible forefoot and a rigid heel.

"I've been in this industry for 20 years, and I can't remember a week that was more productive in terms of product development or building relationships," Clark says. "It was the best off-site that we've ever had."

Cheryl Dahle (cdahle@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer based in Silicon Valley.

Sidebar: The Four Deadly Sins of Off-Sites

If there isn't a special spot in hell reserved for people who plan awful off-sites, there should be. We've identified the four deadly sins of off-site planning to help you avoid damnation.

Sin #1: Booking first, thinking later. This may be the cardinal sin: settling on a venue before the event is designed. "It's so frustrating," says Jim Oswald, a senior strategist and facilitator with Gensler Consulting, which works closely with organizations to align their business, organizational, and real-estate strategies. "We design an ideal event with a client and then can't do what we want because they booked the hotel three days after last year's event."

Sin #2: Placing too much trust in trust-building exercises. "You can see it in people's faces the minute they get the schedule: 'Oh God, not the ropes thing again,' " says Brenda Williams, a founding partner of the Lab, a branding agency in Chicago. Adds Donna Thompson, chief operating officer of Fusion Productions, which organizes events for major companies and associations: "Whether someone can climb a tree has nothing to do with whether they know how to market a product. Besides, people would rather be home with their families than playing games with their boss."

Sin #3: Investing too much power in PowerPoint. "If I could, I would enforce a worldwide ban on that software," Thompson says. "Every time we work with executives, we try to get them to do without slides. It's like getting a toddler to give up his blanket."

Sin #4: Giving too much time to Mr. Big. The best way to lose energy at an off-site is to turn over the podium to executives who aren't invested in the event. John Coné, formerly of Dell, calls it the "parade of kings" -- and it drives him nuts: "The event devolves into a PowerPoint marathon presented by senior managers."