Fun? Heaving forward, all twenty stone of him, David Bath roars, ``It bloody well be fun.''

That's his job, see. He came to India in September 1995 as training manager South Asia, for just a year. He is still here, raising Cain as far as he is able to, for more than just BA staff. Bath's training techniques are now so popular he's a profit centre in his own right, generating revenues and laughs from Taj sales executives, an Ogilvy & Mather team, Oberoi Flight Kitchen supervisors, and even Jet Airways' staffers.

Then of course, there are exports. For a considerable consideration, Bath runs workshops for British Airways crew abroad, from Damascus to Manila. All's fair in love andtraining, he reasons, subsiding local training with transnational profits. The secret of success? ``Essentially, you need to bring in experiential learning and have fun at the same time,'' says Bath, 47, who was shipped in when British Airways realised the perils of basing a south Asia office in India.

A thorny issue suddenly emerged: How do you get managers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal to communicate, work and vibe with each other, when there were such strong cultural differences? Enter Bath, 47, an experienced BA teamster, who uses a giddy cocktail of team-building theory and party games, to teach dysfunctional teams good TASTE - truth, accountability, support, trust and energy.

Usually a full day's session is based on the theoretical model of forming (people get familiar with each other), storming (everyone tries to be a leader), norming (the group discovers values such as trust) and performing (the group takes responsibility for itself) teams. Then, the serious business of funand games begins:

Tic-tac-toe: Managers are split in two groups to play naughts-and-crosses. There's a catch: Each team can have only one player to whom all the moves are communicated. Through animal sounds. So, should you mark each square with a number of woofs (Row-I is woof, woof-woof and woof-woof-woof)?

Or, if you enjoy suffering, should each square represent one animal sound? (Nine squares, nine sounds. Go figure which square is an oink, a bleat, a moo.) As managers begin to realise the importance of communication within a team, a second lesson begins to filter. If both teams communicate well, most games end in a draw and no one loses.

Return of thuggee: Ali K, a beloved brainchild of Bath's, is a vicious, brutal murderer who has to be tracked and killed before he strangles you. Once again, the trainees are divided into two teams each with a stack of 30 clues. The only problem is Bath distributes the clues in such a way that unless Team A and Team B negotiate with each other, swapinformation and share clues, neither will manage to win.

Guess what? Both teams cling to their clues, don't part with information, try to cheat - anything rather than share and win together. Remember the last time marketing met production met finance?

The scavenger hunt: Once managers have learnt the importance of working together, Bath sends them on a three-hour scavenger hunt. They now go begging for a menu from the poshest restaurant in town, chase a group photograph at the Qutab, hunt for turbans in Chandni Chowk, count the window panes of an office tower - all savage chores.

But it's not just a wild-goose chase. The group learns, the hard way, to delegate and plan (let's split into teams), prioritise (forget Chandni Chowk), and of course, watch out for each other (Bath runs the hunt between 12 noon and 3 pm, so it's up to a smart manager to suggest lunch or everyone goes hungry).

It's show time: By the end of the day, everyone is knackered but Bath is raring to go - to the movies. The group ismade to record the story of `Return of Thuggee' on a video film complete with props, a strict budget, and not enough time.

Already frazzled, the group now learns to be creative under pressure, share scarce resources, meet deadlines, prioritise and most important of all: Give credit.

Each member introduces himself on the film for the role he or she played - director, cameraman, actor, villain - and gets applauded (or hooted) accordingly.

Not all of Bath's workshops are tiring. Some are plain scary. Last month, Bath took two-dozen south Asia managers to Milan and made them fall backwards from the top of a ladder, into the arms of waiting team-members; cross from one tree to another on a log 30 feet high, without a safety net; and balance on two diverging poles by leaning on a partner. ``We wanted to move managers out of their comfort zone and into their risk zone. And then,'' says Bath, ferociously: ``Into their terror zone.''

More likely, the motivation zone. Last week, at a region meeting, RommelValles, British Airways manager, north India and Nepal, was amazed to see that a critical, cross-department decision was taken in just two hours.

People actually listened patiently, there was tremendous support for each other - and Valles found himself committing to a South Asia revenue target instead of just for north India.

Says Valles, who jumped off a 30-foot-high beam, at Milan, trusting his partner to belay him to safety: ``The courses have taught us to play to win, rather than play not to loose.'' Bath nods, pleased. For him, the fun and games are all in a day's work.