Does “Winning” Help or Hurt Team Building Activities?

The recent Charlie Sheen saga included a tweet about “Winning,” which served as fodder for late night TV show host, but got me thinking about an interesting topic.

There are myriad “team building” activities out there, ostensibly designed to facilitate group interaction and bonding, foster collaboration and leave a lasting positive impact. Many of these activities involve breaking a larger group down into smaller teams, who then compete against each other in a friendly rivalry lasting only for the duration of the event- scavenger hunts, boat races, trivia events etc. The reason for this of course is to introduce a more immediate objective to the team building goals listed above, and that is the element of “winning.”

For a small team of people within the larger group to “win” a team building activity, the lasting positive impact is even greater than that of the group as a whole. However, what about the vast majority of co-workers who didn’t win- are they losers? How does making the bulk of the event attendees “losers” make for a positive team building experience? Additionally, won’t the majority of “losers” come to resent the “winners” back at the office?

I would argue an emphatic “no” to this. While it’s true that in competitive-based, zero-sum team building events such as trivia, the driving force of the event is indeed the chance to “win” (it doesn’t matter if you’re giving away iPads or a week in Tahiti as prizes, folks just want beat everyone else). However, this competition is always good-natured and fun. Even among the most competitive of professions– investment banking, law, etc. – I’ve found that while the inter-team ribbing & trash talking is intense, it’s accompanied by lots of smiles and laughter. After the event is over, the “winning” team is allowed to gloat (usually quite loudly), but the rest of the group provides encouragement and congratulations.

The reason that nobody feels like a “loser” after a competitive corporate employee event is that while only one team in fact “wins,” everyone has just enjoyed the same shared experience- and that experience was fun, energetic, enthusiastic and impactful.

There is of course one exception to this, and that is when one of the “losing” teams feels that they were robbed of their rightful “win.” This can happen when the activity is trivia, as there is always a chance that questions may have multiple correct answers – or even worse, the official “correct” answer given is actually wrong! (these and other topics will be addressed in future posts on quality control, and ensuring trivia questions are “bulletproof.”) If and when this does happen (and if you run enough team building activities, it inevitably will) it’s best to rectify as quickly, fairly and publicly as possible. People don’t mind not winning- unless they are convinced they did, and aren’t recognized for it.

What are your opinions on the positive/negative role of “winning” in corporate team building events?