Quantcast
Published On: Thu, Dec 8th, 2016

Increase Workplace Efficiency Via Cooking

Whether your team has been working together for years or just came together, studies show that cooking together can actually increase workplace efficiency. However, the bond that is formed by cooking meals together, whether using an air fryer or some other means, goes well beyond improving efficiency. It helps form lasting bonds and memories between your workers.

Here are a few benefits that come from having employees cook together.

Bringing the Team Together

The special kind of bond that forms when cooking with someone is hard to match. For example, you may have fond memories of cooking with your parents, children or grandparents. Studies now show that these memories and bonds can also be formed when cooking with others. To get the max benefit out of this experience, every member of your team must be involved from beginning to end. From picking a recipe to shopping for the ingredients, this is all part of the cooking process. It gives your employees a chance to connect on a level outside of the workplace and form friendships that can increase workplace cohesion. Cozymeal, a cooking classes marketplace, holds team building cooking classes in several major markets from San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles. Your team can come together and bond while cooking for few hours.

innovation sign

photo/ Michael Jarmoluk via pixabay.com

Appreciating Each Other

In the workplace, everyone has an important role. However, employees tend to lose appreciation for the work that their teammates do. Over time, this leads to resentment and the feeling that one job is more important than the other. Cooking experiments can change this way of thinking. When planning out a recipe, make sure that every team member is evolved in some way. From preparing the ingredients to actually cooking the meal, everyone should have an important job. Unless everyone does their job, the meal can’t be completed.

Applying Life Lessons to Projects

Learning to cook doesn’t just teach about food preparation, it also offers a lot of life lessons in general. These lessons can be applied to the workplace and help employees get to know each other. While  cooking, conversation tends to naturally happen. During this time, you should encourage employees to talk about themselves so that the others can get to know them. This helps your employees see their co-workers as more than just people they know from work. They can better relate to them by learning more about their lives outside of the workplace.

Creating Memories

While all of these are great benefits of preparing meals together, one of the greatest things is the new memories that your employees will make together. According to psychologists, these are the foundation on which relationships are built. In fact, it’s not uncommon for employees to form their own traditions after working together to create a meal. They can plan to get together once a month or so to prepare more meals. They can talk about work in a fun atmosphere. They can also talk about non-work-related topics without cutting into their work time.

Learning to Accept Feedback

Cooking a meal together also teaches people how to accept feedback from others. This doesn’t just mean following orders from co-workers. This means accepting feedback that benefits a project as a whole. Just because an employee offers input doesn’t always mean that the employee is trying to tell others how to do their jobs. By learning to accept this, a team can work together better without tension.

Following Orders

In the workplace, it’s important for employees to follow orders. This includes following orders from team leaders and taking feedback from other workers into consideration. Cooking a meal together can help achieve just that. For a meal to turn out properly, the recipe has to be followed. If everyone is given a job to do, it’s important for everyone to do those jobs so that the meal turns out perfect. Cooking a meal together can help instill this type of thinking into your employees. They will clearly see how their actions affect the rest of the team. The goal is for them to use that thinking when they return to the workplace.

Thinking Outside the Box

Lastly, cooking a meal together can teach employees how to overcome problems. When cooking, things can go wrong. Items can be burned, or ingredients can be forgotten. These types of problems can’t always be predicted, just like problems in the workplace. Employees can’t be afraid of this. Instead, they need to know how to approach problems as a team. When they return to the office, they can apply what they’ve learned.

There are many great team-building exercises out there, and cooking shouldn’t be overlooked. It doesn’t take much to hold this kind of training experience. It’s also a different experience that your team members will appreciate. They will even get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Author: Lolita Di

On the DISPATCH: Headlines  Local  Opinion

Subscribe to Weekly Newsletter

* indicates required
/ ( mm / dd ) [ALL INFO CONFIDENTIAL]

About the Author

- Outside contributors to the Dispatch are always welcome to offer their unique voices, contradictory opinions or presentation of information not included on the site.

Displaying 1 Comments
Have Your Say

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these html tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

like_us_on_facebook

 

The Global Dispatch Facebook page- click here

Movie News Facebook page - click here

Television News Facebook page - click here

Weird News Facebook page - click here 

DISPATCH RADIO

dispatch_radio

THE BRANDON JONES SHOW

brandon_jones_show-logo

Archives