Looking For A Fun Corporate Bonding Exercise – Try A Cooking Competition
Team building activities will provide incentive for your employees to team up and work together more cohesively. Team building lessons influence behavior more when they are enjoyable and original. Seek out methods for getting the team away from the office for greater success of the exercise.
You might consider hiring a corporate team building consultant to spend a day or two with your group off-site. However, this doesn't turn out to be the life-altering team building opportunity you wanted and instead it feels like any other work day.
Consider the local bowling alley, which really isn’t as lame as it sounds. If you are lucky enough to live near one of those new swanky bowling alleys that are popping up all over the country, it can be as nice as a country club. If, on the other hand, the bowling alley in your area is a dank and musty pit, then you may have employees teaming up to revolt, which probably isn't exactly the type of teamwork you had in mind.
Think about hosting a cooking contest, with chef outfits and well made food. Professional chefs would be invited to bring their culinary expertise to share with the team while inspiring them to bond in surprising and innovative ways. The teams would create multiple courses that make the most creative use of the revealed "secret ingredient" as they face off for the contest's championship title.
Each team member brings his or her own special skills to the table, whether it's terrific organization skills or creative problem solving, and has a great time team building while learning new cooking skills and techniques. Previous experience as a chef is not required. Team members help to the extent they desire, but the objective is fostering a joint effort to create the most delicious dishes.
The ideal provider of this team building effort will arrange a "turnkey event" that includes everything necessary for a successful competition, including well-equipped facilities, professional chefs, a substantial array of food items, non-alcoholic beverages, and clean-up. You just need enough people to make up two or more teams eager to acquire some new cooking skills, build new relationships with those they work with, and dining on the results of their hard work.
Typically this type of event is a few hours in duration. After the rush of preparing the food, the team members get to sit down together to relax and enjoy the results of their work: the appetizers, entrees, and deliciously decadent desserts.
In order to have a record of the action for each team, make a plan to have a designated photographer. A photographic record of the event will inspire everyone to enjoy the memories of the other teams as well as their own, and serve as a source of fun and amusement long after the pots are scrubbed and put away until next time. Enjoy!
Being a manager of a high stress IT department, Mitch Peders likes to reward his employees by hosting corporate team building events. For a delicious and enjoyable bonding experience, as well as a great stress reliever, Mitch recommends the Iron-Chef style competitions at Executive Chef Events for corporate team building activities.
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