Be Challenged is one of Australia’s most established team building companies — and for certain objectives, they’re absolutely worth considering. But if what you’re really after is a team that communicates better, collaborates more effectively, and carries those skills into the next quarter and beyond, the comparison with PowerProv is worth understanding before you book.
Key Takeaways
- Be Challenged specialises in experiential events — scavenger hunts, challenge activities, build-something programs — that are well-run and energising.
- Their activities are designed around the experience itself; lasting skill transfer is not what they’re built to deliver.
- PowerProv workshops are built from the ground up as skills training — communication, collaboration, confidence, adaptability — delivered in a way that is just as fun and engaging as any team event.
- PowerProv is the only provider in this category with a longitudinal study — the Personal Power Index™ — that proves skills are retained and applied after the workshop ends.
- The right choice depends on what you actually need your team to walk away with.
What Be Challenged Does Well
Be Challenged has been running team programs since 2008 and has worked with thousands of Australian organisations. Their catalogue is broad — GPS-based scavenger hunts, creative build challenges, Survivor-style competitions, AI songwriting sessions, and conference energisers. They come to you, they handle logistics well, and by all accounts their facilitators are enthusiastic and professional.
For what they are — high-energy experiential events — they deliver. Teams have a good time. People interact with colleagues they don’t normally work alongside. There’s laughter, some light competition, and a buzz that carries into the rest of the day. If the brief is “we need something fun for the offsite,” Be Challenged can fill that brief.
They also serve an enormous range of clients — from groups of 5 to 50,000, from schools and universities to corporate teams and executive groups. That breadth is a genuine strength for large-scale events where variety and logistics are the priority.
What the Activities May Not Do
Here’s the honest question every HR manager and L&D leader should ask before booking any team activity: what does the team walk away with on Monday morning?
With a scavenger hunt, a chain reaction build, or a Survivor challenge, the answer is mostly: a good memory and a bit of residual goodwill. The activities are designed to be engaging in the moment — and they are. But the skills “developed” during the activity (communication, collaboration, leadership) are incidental outcomes of the fun, not the structured result of deliberate skills training. There’s no technique to practise, no framework to apply, no behaviour to embed. Research on team building ROI consistently shows that when activities end without deliberate skill transfer, the energy fades within days of returning to the office.
Be Challenged do include debriefs in some programs, and they use language like “lasting results” and “skills development” across their marketing. But they don’t publish longitudinal data on what participants can actually do differently six months after a program. That’s not a criticism unique to Be Challenged — almost no activity-based team building provider can. It’s the structural limitation of the activity-first model.
What PowerProv Does Differently
PowerProv workshops are built differently from the ground up. The starting point isn’t an activity — it’s a skill. Specifically: how to communicate more clearly under pressure, how to listen actively instead of waiting to talk, how to build on a colleague’s idea rather than redirect it, how to adapt quickly when a situation changes. These are the skills that make teams actually function better — and they’re taught, practised, and embedded during the session using a curriculum grounded in behavioural science and cognitive psychology.
The experience is genuinely fun. That’s not a marketing line — it’s a structural outcome of the method. PowerProv exercises are active, collaborative, and fast-moving. Teams laugh. They surprise themselves. They leave energised. But unlike an activity-based event, they also leave with a concrete toolkit they can use at work the next day — and the day after that.
As one participant put it: “The debrief drinks afterwards were so wonderfully positive and the learnings will serve us well for a long time to come.” — Jonathan G., Director of Development.
And from Michelle M., HR Manager: “So informative, engaging, memorable, clear, concise and FUN! All aspects exceeded our expectations.”
The Proof Question
This is where the comparison becomes most concrete. PowerProv’s Personal Power Index™ is a longitudinal scientific study tracking real participant outcomes over time. It’s not a post-event satisfaction survey. It measures whether skills are retained, applied, and making a difference weeks and months after the workshop ends.
The current findings: 98% of participants report measurable improvement in collaboration, active listening, confidence, and communication skills. 82% report improvement in decision-making and leadership. These are not feel-good numbers collected on the day — they reflect sustained behaviour change.
No activity-based team building provider in Australia has published equivalent data. Be Challenged haven’t. Most never will, because their model isn’t designed to produce that kind of outcome — and measuring against a standard you’re not built for would be unfair to them. But for an HR or L&D professional who needs to justify a training spend to a CFO or CEO, the difference matters enormously.
The Brands That Have Made the Choice
PowerProv has delivered workshops for Google, PwC, Westpac, Bain & Co, Salesforce, Woolworths, Cisco, Accenture, Canva, Toyota, and the NSW and Victorian Governments, among many others. These are organisations with serious L&D functions and rigorous procurement standards. They chose PowerProv because they needed something they could defend — not just enjoy.
For business leaders and C-suite executives who are accountable for team performance, that track record matters. A great afternoon is easy to organise. A measurable improvement in how your team communicates and collaborates is harder to find — and worth more.
So Which One Is Right for Your Team?
This is a genuine question, and it deserves a genuine answer.
If the goal is a well-organised, energising team social — an afternoon that gets people out of the office, mixing in groups they don’t normally work with, and talking about something other than the quarterly report — Be Challenged does that well. Book them.
If the goal is a team that actually communicates better, collaborates more effectively, handles conflict with less friction, and performs at a higher level because of what they learned in the room — that’s PowerProv. The experience is just as fun. The outcome is measurably different.
PowerProv works for teams of 10 or more, runs in-person across Australia and the APAC region, and is available online for hybrid and distributed teams. There’s a money-back guarantee, a 4.9-star rating across 13+ years, and a free demo workshop for teams that want to experience the method before committing.
The reviews speak for themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Be Challenged a good team building company?
Yes — for experiential team events, Be Challenged is one of Australia’s most established providers. They run well-organised, high-energy activities and have a strong facilitation team. If the objective is a memorable team social or conference energiser, they deliver. Where they differ from a skills training provider like PowerProv is in lasting skill transfer — the activities are the product, not the outcome of a deliberate skills curriculum.
What’s the difference between team building and team training?
Team building typically refers to activities designed to boost morale, improve relationships, and energise a group — the focus is the shared experience. Team training is designed to develop specific, transferable skills that change how people work together after the session ends. Both have value, but they solve different problems. If your team has a communication or collaboration gap that affects performance, team training is the more direct intervention.
Does PowerProv run the same kind of activities as Be Challenged?
No — and that’s the point. PowerProv workshops aren’t activity-based events. They use structured exercises drawn from behavioural science and applied improvisation to build specific skills: active listening, adaptability, clear communication, and collaboration under pressure. The sessions are genuinely fun and energising, but the design goal is skill development, not experience design.
How do I know if my team needs training or a team event?
Ask this question: what do I want my team to do differently six months from now? If the answer is “nothing specific — I just want them to enjoy themselves and bond a bit,” a well-run team event is fine. If the answer involves better communication, fewer misunderstandings, stronger collaboration across teams, or improved confidence in meetings and presentations — that’s a training need, and PowerProv is the right call.
Can PowerProv run a session that’s also fun, not just training?
Consistently, over 14 years+ and thousands of participants, the answer is yes. The fun isn’t engineered in on top of the learning — it’s a natural result of the method. Teams are active, engaged, and working together in real time. The laughter is genuine. The difference is that when the session ends, participants leave with something more than a good memory.
Still comparing options? The fastest way to understand the difference is to experience it. Book a free PowerProv demo for your team and see what skills-first team training actually feels like.
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