How can you improve your team's performance through 'team cooking'?

"Team cooking", or culinary team building, emerged with the idea of transforming employees into chefs with the aim of sharing an activity where hierarchy no longer exists and where collective performance takes precedence over individual achievement.  

The 20th Century saw a major industrial evolution at a dizzying speed. It has seen techniques change, workers becoming fewer and fewer, people learning to work together in a collective intelligence.  Already in the 1930s, Elton Mayo had highlighted the importance of the psychological climate on the behavior of workers.  During that same century, it was proven that a company's performance was linked to the well-being of its staff and that a team that gets along well, is a more profitable team.

Daniel Constantini, former coach of the French handball team, said: ''Leadership by leadership has no future. Involve your staff to motivate them and you will win''

Nowadays, companies create and untie teams so fast that workers don't even have time to get to know each other or even to know what they are going to create together. In other words, there is less and less opportunity to learn about the common goal.

It is in this economic context that different motivation techniques have emerged in companies. These include, among others, incentives, coaching and teambuilding.

There are many variations and team cooking, or culinary team building, is one of them! It emerged with the idea of turning employees into amateur cooks. It has the particularity of allowing the sharing of an activity, where hierarchy no longer exists and where collective performance takes precedence over individual achievement.  

What are the advantages of team cooking?

1. An invitation to relax

Isn't it always in the kitchen that your guests feel most comfortable? The kitchen is often the heart of the family business, it feels good and there is usually a relaxed atmosphere that mixes business with pleasure. It is therefore that you and your employees will have the best chance of improving team cohesion in familiar surroundings. However, it is still important to define in advance the concrete results expected from this activity, such as better communication, increased motivation or the discovery of each person's potential.  

Team cooking is undoubtedly the teambuilding formula that will allow you to exchange the most with your colleagues on any type of subject, thus allowing you to better understand the way of working and the character of each one.  

2. Lack of hierarchy, everyone gets down to work

Unless your company is active in the catering industry, team cooking should be far enough away from the daily tasks usually performed at work, for each member of your team. This puts everyone on the same level, with the advantage of breaking down any psychological barriers between different levels of hierarchy. A new zone of trust can then be created while strengthening professional relationships within the team.  

But this is not the only advantage: by recreating new teams and assigning new roles for a day, new professional traits may emerge in some participants, such as the ability to handle stressful situations or leadership.

3. Easy to achieve, provided that it is "off-site"

Culinary teambuilding is most often done outside the work space. By choosing a neutral ground, far away from the stress of the office, your employees will feel more comfortable and will be more open to exchange.  

Also choose a place that has a seminar room to bring your team together during the introduction of your activity.  

Check that the chosen location also provides catering services, technical equipment and on-site assistance. This way, you will be able to focus fully on the objective of your activity without being burdened with organizational details.  

Don't hesitate to ask the event organizer of the chosen location for advice. They usually have the necessary experience to meet the needs of your team.

Make sure that the spaces made available to you, can be privatized exclusively for your company so that your employees are not distracted by other activities.  

4. Dinner is served!

A team building is characterized by a series of highlights where, even if each activity is unique, certain elements are recurrent: The seminar, the fun activity and, finally, the conclusion.  

In the context of a culinary activity, the conclusion will always be made at the table around the meal that will have been concocted by the whole team. What could be more rewarding?
You can also project the highlights of your day in the form of photos or videos.  

And offer the wow effect to your participants by proposing a champagne toast that will close the activity on a festive note!

BluePoint's infrastructure in its three buildings includes professional kitchens, high-quality catering facilities and fully equipped meeting rooms. In addition, their experienced teams advise and assist clients from A to Z in the organization of their events in Antwerp, Brussels and Liège.  

Do not hesitate to contact us for a tailor-made proposal: marketing@bluepoint.be - 02/706.88.00.