The kitchen is a familiar, yet powerful, environment for simulating real world challenges and the perfect venue for team building activities. The format may be competitive in the manner of an Iron Chef style cook-off or an orchestrated collaboration that strengthens the cohesiveness of the entire team.
The premise is simple. Using the kitchen as a learning environment, small groups of up to 8 coworkers work together to create a gourmet meal, then sit down together and enjoy it. Challenges to the group’s creativity, communication, cooperation and time/resource management are inherent in the team building process, whether a competitive or collaborative format is used. In addition, the experience is designed to allow everyone from the novice cook to a master chef to participate comfortably according to his or her previous culinary experience.
A successful culinary team building experience offers activities that help every team identify their strengths, as well as weaknesses, and then offers strategies for improving productivity and effectiveness. The versatile adaptability of a kitchen permits the program facilitators to creatively address a wide range of issues, including communication barriers, resource allocation and conflict resolution.
In addition to the lessons learned in group dynamics, an important element of the culinary team building experience is new camaraderie. A cook together/eat together lunch or dinner can break down existing barriers and build new bridges of friendship, in ways that few other group initiatives are able to do.
Cooking-based team building fosters the organizational positives of open communication, thoughtful resource allocation and successful risk taking. Whether competitive or collaborative, working together in the kitchen and enjoying the results breaks down barriers and builds bridges.
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