Competition vs Collaboration

Everyone knows that competition is a great thing. Spurs us on to greater heights, push ourselves beyond our limits, etc etc etc.

Collaboration's good too, everyone's heard of the famous win-win situation where "1+1" is more than just 2.

Yet, why do I find myself having problems with these 2 concepts. Are they as simple as they seem on the surface? When should we compete, and when should we collaborate? Are the two mutually exclusive?

A few days back, went for my company's "team-building experience" at Focus Adventure in Sentosa. The theme was, of course, team building, but the main point they were trying to drive home was "collaboration". Here's how:

The huge group of 100+ of us were split into 10+ teams, to play something like a "treasure hunt cum amazing race" sorta game. We were told there were 3 aims for all teams, to get the greatest amount of points possible, to have fun, and to be safe. Needless to say, off we were rushing off like busy little bees, collecting our answers, playing the mini games and overall having a great time.

However, when debriefing came about, it was no surprise that the "winners" of the game were teams who had "shared" information with each other - or 'cheated' in the traditional sense. Yet, no where in the rules stated that no such "sharing" was disallowed. In truth, the debrief covered that in a company, we are all split into smaller departments, project teams etc. Cooperation and collaboration BETWEEN the teams and departments, and not just within the teams itself, would be the key to bring the company to success.

Back at home, I thought about this for quite a while. At first thought, it seemed so unclear when we should collaborate. It's amazing how easily we fall into a competitive mode, ready to prove ourselves and outdo others. Then i remembered to few years back while I was still in SMU - and my friends and I joined this board game competition together. "Cashflow 101 Board Game" as I recall. That competition brought up exactly the same points in my mind - that within a small team it was much better to collaborate in order for the whole team to be the overall winner. Yet many of us were caught up in the competition, and thus made huge losses. Then, I remembered that it came as a surprise to me that the 1st to 3rd prize all went to people from the same table.

Its been quite a while since I had such a moment of introspection. This I see is what's lacking in me sometimes, the skill to discern when to be competitive, and when to be collaborative. All our lives we've been training HOW to compete, and HOW to collaborate. But when to do so, it isn't always so clear.