11/12-11/18 Post 2: Collaboration vs. Competition

The book defines collaborative conflict as the ideal strategy for groups to overcome a conflict. An example of my own is when my friends and I were throwing a surprise birthday for our best friend. There were many conflicts involved, time, place, keeping it a surprise, etc. The entire time we kept our focus on the birthday girl and the party. It was such a fun time because we were all having fun and on the same track in terms of keeping our mindset on the party. As for competitive conflict, it's a bit more challenging but more common in my opinion. Competition (survival of the fittest for example) is a part of human nature. So whatever we do, we try to out perform or outdo others. A personal example from group experiences, is a class activity I had one semester. We got into groups of about 5-8 and the professor assigned us tasks that had to be completed within a certain time limit. The group that I was in were all very competitive and we ended up coming in last for every task because we did not look at the bigger picture. Out of the two, even though I personally love competition, I would have to go with collaboration. At least out of these two instances. My friends and I had so much fun together planning everything and throwing the party that we wanted to do it for everyone's birthdays. My friends definitely loved it as well, we still talk about that party and the memories made today.