Intellectual ability is believed to be improved through teamwork. I am completely against this statement, because despite being helpful to develop productivity and creativity, group activities are likely to cause a lack of the ability to learn from mistakes.
On the one hand, in a group there are different individuals with different opinions, meaning there are many solutions for a problem. In this case people can learn from proficient colleagues to develop better ideas on a given circumstance. This, in turn, pushes one to be more creative, while competition between groupmates to finish a given project leads to productivity. For example, when a person is hired to a team, he or she is the one with less ideal suggestions and is slower in performing tasks than other employees with more experience. But eventually , that person becomes a crucial part of the team, with same skills as others.
However, this is not the case to become an intelligent individual . It is the ability to learn from mistakes that boosts humans’ cognitive state. This type of learning gives us clear details about what our problems are, what to do next, or what to avoid next time. Even an infant, in the very initial stages of learning to walk, develops the ability of keeping balance by falling and trying differently next time. Another example can be the person who first invented light bulb. Trying more than thousands of times, he came to a final successful modal, and each time avoided the mistake he previously made.
To conclude, group activities can make participants more productive and creative. However, being a true intelligent individual requires the ability of learning from mistakes.