Competitive vs Collaborative Team Building
Team building activities come in all shapes and sizes – some important things to think about:
- Indoors or Outdoors? (What time of year is it?)
- Sporty or Creative? (What are your group’s interests?)
- Half Day or Full Day? (What fits into your itinerary?)
- Competitive or Collaborative? (What’s better?)
Competitive Team Building
In a competitive team building event, a group will be split into smaller teams to compete against each other. Depending on their chosen activities, teams may be faced head to head on an inflatable volleyball court or scored against each other on the taste of their chocolates!
Competitive activities are great fun and perfect for certain types of teams (especially those who work in a competitive environment on a day to day basis), however they aren’t for everyone!
Collaborative Team Building
Collaboration is essential for organisations to maximise the effectiveness of their communication and teamwork. Collaborative team events are an effective way for teams to focus on the benefits that come from working together towards one common goal!
Amongst our portfolio of team building activities, we have a number of options that promote the idea of working as a one team to achieve a task, such as our Together We Can event. By stripping away the competitive element, a team can function in a way that sees them support and help each other throughout the duration of a task.
So back to the question, what’s better - competitive or collaborative team building?
If you’re looking at simply having some fun with your colleagues, then either type of event will appeal to those participating, however if you are looking to meet specific objectives for your event then you will need to think about which type will allow you to do this! Friendly competition in a relaxed setting, encourages people to work together and spend time together, which helps build cooperation!
“Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
To find out what team building activities will suit your group, give our events team a call on 01590 676599.