Short answer: no.

On a good day, a Trust Fall is a way to get everyone out of the office and force your employees to talk to each other about something other than quarterly business reviews. But a “successful” Trust Fall exercise (in which a colleague is not dropped) is more likely to be a lagging indicator of a team’s existing trust — or it’s just a sign of good physical reflexes and a desire to not injure someone.

But it is not guaranteed to build trust, and it may even hurt.

At its worst, a Trust Fall exercise is inappropriate and exclusionary. It is likely to engender awkwardness, discomfort, or even outright panic from a colleague with a fear of heights, an introverted personality type, or a (completely normal) dislike of being manhandled by anyone without a medical degree. It also excludes colleagues with physical disabilities or conditions (such as Multiple Sclerosis) that disrupt their motor skills. And if the Trust Faller has a pre-existing distrust of a colleague, being at the mercy of their hands may actually cause further psychological harm.

Google’s Project Aristotle concluded that what truly made a team great was “psychological safety.” This is not formed by completing ropes course together at an offsite — rather, it’s about developing a deep empathy for your colleagues and sharing things about yourself that allow them to empathize with you. According to research done by Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmonson, it’s when people feel safe speaking up, addressing conflicts, and being themselves.

This points to the research of beloved TED talker Brené Brown, whose work shows that the willingness toward vulnerability is a key factor in establishing trust in any relationship. The Gottman Institute, who studies marriage and divorce, is also a great source of information on building trust — and much of Dr. Gottman’s research can easily be translated to relationships outside of the home.

So, if you’re looking to build trust, don’t force your colleagues to the nearest ropes course — consider instead planning quality time together in which they practice asking open questions, listening to one another, and developing a mutual respect and empathy. Sure it’s easier to just book an offsite, but the rewards of real psychological safety will long outlast the awkward memory of a Trust Fall.

(For further reading, check out Kenneth Stalsett’s doctoral thesis, “At the Frontline: Enabling Teams to Adapt to Uncertainty and Ambiguity.”)