Right from time, food brings people together. In the workplace, when teams cook and eat together, they work better and experience higher levels of productivity. Wondering how cooking can help in team building for your company? Keep reading to discover how cooking can aid your team to create stronger bonds in a relaxing and fun environment.
- Strong leadership: Every team needs a leader and cooking can help improve the leadership skills of those in position. It gives leaders, an opportunity to lead by example in the kitchen since everyone looks up to and learns from them. Leadership roles in the kitchen will include conducting affairs as well as supervising team members. The head chef is also responsible for motivation as well as a discipline – two critical elements necessary for team building.
- Clearly defined responsibilities: One of the factors that determine the success of a company in achieving its goal is when responsibilities are defined and are apportioned to each member of a team. This prevents issues that often arise from people overstepping their boundaries as well as create accountability. Many professional kitchens use a “brigade system” which involves the splitting of the kitchen into stations so each team member can man a station and be accountable for everything that occurs there. This system can help instil a sense of accountability in members of the corporate world by getting them accustomed to having clearly defined responsibilities.
- Encourage creativity: Taking fresh, whole ingredients in their raw form and creating a full sit-down lunch or dinner is a creative process. When members of a team engaging in cooking together, it helps them maintain a healthy balance between prosaic tasks and tasks that encourage their creativity. Team members will have to think out of the box in an extraordinary way and try out new things to hit their targets.
- Problem-solving skills: The kitchen can sometimes be a nightmare, especially when it seems things go wrong, and you have no idea at that time why it happened. It could be a fire outbreak or the food getting burnt. This can put anyone under pressure, which is great for team building as it helps the members to work together to come up with a solution that will get the job done.
- Push towards a common goal: When a team works together in a kitchen, there’s a good chance that there will be conflicts of opinion, and this could be a serious setback if not quickly resolved. Cooking promotes team building by helping members realise that though they may have different ideas, they have a common target. This can come handy in the office when there are disagreements, but everyone finds a way to work together to achieve the goals.
- Aids Connection: Team building cooking is much more than cooking as it aids connection outside of work in a relaxed and fun atmosphere. It gives team members an opportunity to know each other in a personal way, and this can help strengthen the bond between them, resulting in fewer frictions in the office.
- Improves Communication: Cooking can help improve the communication skills of team members. These traits are crucial as they help ensure that tasks in the kitchen are properly carried out. In a professional kitchen, head chefs learn how to communicate and motivate their team members while also training the entire team to communicate without ambiguity and in the clearest way possible.
Wrap-up
The success of most companies depends on the ability of their employees to work together effectively. Because this seldom happens naturally, many organisations are now turning to cooking activities, a strategy that has proven to be an intriguing way to enhance team-building. If you are interested in harnessing the benefits of cooking for team building, then your best option is to contact D’Open Kitchen. Known as a top rated cooking corporate team building class in Singapore, D’Open Kitchen makes cooking food fun for everyone.
