Both competition and cooperation are as necessary in business as they are in other aspects of people's lives. Unfortunately, highly educated professionals do not always make wise decisions about when to do what; even when they know in theory that competition is counterproductive, they still "choose" to compete. Organizations would be better served if their members made reflective rather than knee-jerk decisions, and the Red-Blue Exercise promotes this reflection on decision-making methods. It is a powerful learning experience and forces participants to reflect on their decision-making processes, including the roles played by fair play, trust, and ethical behaviour as factors for making well-informed choices between competition and cooperation. This article describes the Red-Blue Exercise and examines factors influencing well-informed choices: (1) reflection; (2) fair play; (3) trust; and (4) ethics. The Red-Blue Exercise raises awareness of one's programming by demonstrating reflex actions. Debriefing on the factors of reflection, fair play, trust, and ethics can lead to a deeper understanding of what the decision-making processes should encompass and better enable one to compete and cooperate in appropriate situations. (Contains 7 tables.)