Walgreen’s Build Bikes for Boys and Girls in Chicago, Illinois
Walgreen’s brought together over 80 of their consumer loyalty people in a Chicago, Illinois suburb, for a Build-A-Bike Team Building Event. The fun, learning experience culminated with 12 new bicycles being built and given to the Union League Boys and Girls Clubs. The event was entertaining and informative, but when the children were introduced at the end of the event there was nothing but smiles on the children’s faces as they received new bikes and pride on the participant’s faces as they awarded the bikes to the children. The event provided learning value, entertainment value, and philanthropic value; a great combination and a great experience for any afternoon- and a very special one for these Walgreen’s VIPs.
When the group was divided into smaller groups and given tasks to compete there was a certain air of competitiveness that began to grow. It was reiterated several times that nothing in the afternoon was a competition, but the goal of every activity was for every group to complete it to the best of their ability. Having concentrated on that fact, nothing was a competition, you would think that the competitive dealings would have stopped, or slowed- but they didn’t. Whenever a large group is broken down into smaller one’s competition will happen. Even if it is stressed that it shouldn’t, it is the nature of teams to be competitive.
Likewise when a company operates different locations, different departments, different divisions, etc… competition will result. Not all competition is destructive. It can be very positive it brings out the best in every team and the overall efforts of the larger group don’t suffer. Too often the competitive nature becomes destructive because for one group so succeed it means another must not. In other words- if we are the winners there must be losers. But if one segment of a company wins or has successes at the cost of another, then the whole team has really suffered. We oftentimes find ourselves in unwitting competition because of budget restrictions, human resource allocations, time differentials, and whatever else can cause differing segments to compete with each other. Too often information is withheld; solutions aren’t shared; ideas aren’t communicated because if we do we have lost that competitive edge. One group within the organization may win, but the team as a whole has suffered.
Congratulations to Walgreen’s for sponsoring the Build-A-Bike ® Team Building Event and making a positive difference in the life of 12 children, their families in Chicago while having fun and learning some important team building lessons.
For details about a team building event in Chicago, Illinois, click here!