If you’ve ever watched Big Brother, you’ll know how easy it is for people who don’t know each other in enclosed environments to wind each other up! Admittedly, this structured reality show is designed for this purpose and increasingly contestants play to this to get their 15 minutes of fame.
As part a programme I was involved in, we used immersion methods where people can observe their neighbourhoods. Imagine if you travelled across neighbourhoods with a group of people, like Millenial Trains and Startup Bus do.
You could have individual roles & responsibilities with associated skills — film makers, cartoonists, researchers, social reporters / communicators & field operations. But you’d be travelling in a much more enclosed…claustrophobic-friendly environment — whether that’s a caravan or a campervan, living quite literally on top of each other.
You could use the internationally-recognised Myers Briggs test to self-assess our individual personality traits and perhaps more importantly, to share these with your fellow travellers, so that they can get a better idea in advance of what makes each of them tick…and what winds them up!
Even if some personalities have a need for particular needs to met, its important that these could be met for everyone, including:
- Celebrate people’s achievements on the caravan so that people feel their work is valued
- Encourage people to review each other’s work, whether it’s a plan of what we’re going to do for the day or a blog post
- Provide a space for people to voice their concerns to avoid being overloaded with work
- Provide space for people to unwind and relax and have some “me time”
- Encourage open and honest debate between people on the team, but be sensitive about how you criticise someone’s work
- Encourage people to think creatively about how to approach a task
- Provide a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of each person on the team as well as the collective responsibilities that we all have
- Be aware of what motivates other people on the caravan, but also what frustrates and winds them up
Look at each others’ personality types and interaction styles and discuss what principles work with everyone’s personality types! It’s easier said than done…
What can this teach us about how we work in organisations?
Collaboration is one of the most overused yet misunderstood words in organisational life. We all talk about ‘breaking silos,’ ‘working cross-functionally,’ and ‘co-creating solutions.’ But too often, what looks like collaboration on the surface is really a game of power, politics, and performance.
Reality TV might seem like a strange lens for examining organisational behaviour, but Big Brother — a show built on forced proximity, artificial stakes, and strategic alliances — offers surprising parallels. It shows us what happens when people are thrown together without the right structures, incentives, or trust.
What goes wrong: Three Big Brother lessons for organisations
1. The illusion of togetherness
In Big Brother, contestants live in the same space, share resources, and participate in group challenges. But anyone who’s watched the show knows that proximity doesn’t mean unity.
→ In organisations, we see this in ‘collaborative’ initiatives where different teams are pulled into working groups or steering committees, but without a shared purpose, mutual accountability, or psychological safety. The result? Friction, inertia, and surface-level cooperation that masks deeper divisions.
2. The culture of performance
Contestants in Big Brother curate their behaviour for the cameras, knowing they’re constantly being judged. They form alliances not out of genuine connection, but because strategic survival depends on it. This breeds calculated collaboration — short-term, transactional, and fragile.
→ The same happens in workplaces where individuals are more focused on ‘managing up’ than building real working relationships. When collaboration is driven by performance metrics, rather than intrinsic motivation and trust, it leads to box-ticking exercises instead of meaningful change.
3. The trap of zero-sum thinking
In Big Brother, only one person can win. This scarcity mindset fuels paranoia, secrecy, and self-preservation.
→ Organisations fall into this trap when they structure teams around competing priorities rather than shared outcomes. When departments fight over budgets, recognition, or resources, collaboration becomes a façade. People hoard knowledge instead of sharing it, and progress stalls.
4. How to build collaboration that actually works
If we want better collaboration, we need to design for trust, transparency, and shared success.
🔹 Shift from forced to natural alliances. Instead of top-down mandates, create structures where collaboration is the obvious, easiest choice — not an additional burden.
🔹 Remove the cameras. Create environments where people can take risks, experiment, and challenge ideas without fear of failure or reputational damage.
🔹 Redefine winning. Move from individual KPIs to shared goals that reward collective achievement over personal gain.
5. Collaboration is a system, not a slogan
Real collaboration isn’t about putting people in the same room (or Slack channel) and hoping for the best. It requires re-architecting incentives, reshaping culture, and embedding structures that reinforce long-term trust and cooperation.
Big Brother might be entertaining to watch — but let’s make sure we’re not unconsciously designing our workplaces to function the same way.
