Culinary Team Building Provides Recipe for Success

Building a strong team that can work together is paramount to the success of any company. Much like the ingredients in a recipe, each employee performs a unique role within the organization, yet is dependent on other employees to achieve both short-tem goals and long-term objectives.

In order to find the recipe for team building success, many companies are serving up culinary team building programs. Since food is a common denominator for all people, these programs are a great way to build effective relationships between employees while having a lot of fun. In a culinary team building session, each team draws upon the ideas and skills of its members to create unique and inventive culinary creations.

Culinary Team Building – Get It While It’s Hot

Culinary team building is currently one of the hottest trends in the field of employee performance improvement. Both conference planning and cooking schools offer a wide selection of culinary programs for organizations. Many of these programs focus on the development of cooking skills and serve up team building tips on the side. The most effective programs are those which encourage teamwork and build camaraderie while using the culinary activity as a tool for exploring group dynamics.

What results will a culinary team building program provide? By uniting people through interactive, fun activities, a culinary team building program can help employees:

- Bond with colleagues and build stronger working relationships
- Learn to better communicate with one another
- Practice creative thinking and problem solving in a team environment
- Boost team spirits and create a unified sense of accomplishment

A successful program will energize your team and teach its participants to rely on each others’ strengths to produce results.

Fun, Effective … And Delicious!

So how does culinary team building work? Again, it depends on the type of program you choose.

Some culinary team building programs are structured similarly to cooking classes. As a group, participants are tasked with cooking a gourmet meal. A chef will provide instruction on food preparation and will guide the team as needed. Throughout the session, the group must work to find common ground while stretching their culinary skills. The group is typically asked to document its strategy for preparing the meal. At the end of the cooking session, participants share the food they’ve just made while evaluating how well the group worked together. By teaching participants new skills in a rewarding and friendly atmosphere, programs of this style are excellent for building camaraderie and enhancing team communication skills.

Other culinary team building programs turn up the heat by turning the event into a competition. Participants are divided into teams and assigned to cooking stations. Each group is given a few minutes to get acquainted and to create a unique team name. Instead of sticking to a pre-planned menu, each team is challenged to invent a new food creation during the allotted time.

A chef provides basic instruction and hands-on assistance during the competition. A professional facilitator may be brought in to help run the show and serve as a mentor. In addition to providing instruction throughout the high energy event, professional facilitators bring a wealth of team development expertise to the table and help integrate the team’s goals and objectives into the event.

At the end of the competition, the final culinary creations are evaluated by a panel of judges. Winners are announced and feedback is provided. While the judges take into account the taste and presentation of the food entries, the teams are evaluated on their ability to work together as well. Typical judging criteria include:

- How well did everyone participate in the group?
- Did the group plan in advance as a team or did they just "jump into it"?
- How creative was the team? Did they use a variety of ingredients or do something unique?
- Did the team have fun with the competition?

As a finishing touch to the program, the professional facilitator will lead the group in analyzing the team building activity. This discussion session helps to reinforce the organization’s objectives and goals.

Culinary team building programs provide the resources to help organizations foster positive group dynamics while letting participants flex their creative and problem-solving muscles. For participants, you could say it’s like having your cake and eating it too! Take your next team-building session to the kitchen. Your employees—and your stomach—will thank you.

About Q Center

This article was provided by Q Center, which is dedicated to providing premier learning and conference facilities equipped for total productivity and supported by a quality-focused team. Q Center has the facilities and technology to create virtually unlimited meeting scenarios. More than an ordinary conference center, Q Center is a conference complex. Located in the western suburbs of Chicago, Q Center is conveniently accessible to both of Chicago's major airports and to the many organizations with headquarters and major offices in Chicago. Visit http://www.qcenter.com for more information.

About R.L. Fielding

R.L. Fielding has been a freelance writer for 10 years, offering her expertise and skills to a variety of major organizations in the education, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing industries. She lives in New Jersey with her dog and two cats and enjoys rock climbing and ornamental gardening.