Competitive Team Building Event Prizes

When planning a competitive team building activity for a competitive group, the organizer’s natural inclination is to try and secure a high-stakes prize: something flashy, expensive and designed to fan the flames of cutthroat, winner-takes-all energy among the group.

While I applaud the desire to create an enthusiastic competitive environment, the key thing to remember with team building activities – especially those involving zero-sum games with clear winners and losers – is that the groups aren’t playing for prizes.

Oh, most certainly not. They’re playing because they want to WIN.

When asked about what kinds of prizes attendees should be vying for at competitive team building activities in New York City, my advice is always the same: “it can be anything.” Have you got the budget to give out Ipads to each member of the winning team? Go for it! Want to take them all out for a fancy dinner, or perhaps give them a big fat envelope stuffed with cash? Sure (here’s a nice big list of competitive team building activity prize ideas, by the way). But know this: you do NOT have to break the bank.

In my experience, I think the best team building prizes are those which go along what I call the “cheesy route.” Plastic trophies and medals come to mind, as do mugs, snow globes and any other “chum” emblazoned with the company’s logo. When people realizethe prize is something silly, rather than of real value, they immediately laugh, and then relax. You will discover also that a HUGE deal will be made of the “cheesy” prizes, that wouldn’t be made of, say, a more “valuable” one (winning teams always proudly wear their “I’m a Winner!” medal immediately after events – however, you won’t see them plugging in their shiny new Ipod earbuds, you know what I mean?)

Perhaps most important, however, is to ensure that your prizes are tangible – a physical reminder of the great time that was had at the event. That way, whenever somebody sees that “Best Team Ever” trophy triumphantly displayed on a colleague’s desk, they’ll remember the time they felt like a winner – or get fired up for the next event, when hopefully THEY will have a cheap plastic trophy to show off.