Most large companies in the corporate world make use of team building as a means of getting their staff to work together better and as a leadership incentive – the end result being an increase in productivity. Team building and leadership exercises started off as military training exercises and were on a par with escape and evasion exercises. Retired military officers brought the concept of leadership programs with them into the corporate world, and team building was adopted by the large organisations. It is only over the last ten to fifteen years that the idea of team building has spilled over into smaller companies, some of which offer team building as a side product of their usual curriculum, and others that specialise in the concept and offer several different types of team building exercises.
A typical team building or leadership exercise in the military
environment will see a group of, say, eight people thrown
together into a situation and given a certain amount of
equipment, none of which by itself will help to solve the
problem, but when put together with some thought offers
a solution. In a team building exercise such as this, one
or more natural leaders often emerge to put together and
accomplish a plan within a given limited time span. This
type of exercise is frequently used with new recruits to
distinguish which ones have “officer-like qualities”.
Wickedfood Cooking Schools, which has branches in Sunning Hill f
and Boksburg, is a company that offers team building exercises
as part of its prospectus. Wickedfood Cooking School is
an educational establishment that offers tuition in a wide
range of culinary skills to the general public. Their facilities
are also offered to the corporate world in the form of team
building exercises that are similar to the "Ready, Steady,
Cook" television program. This team building exercise is
both enjoyable and entertaining and has been known to produce
an assortment of hidden talents. Here’s how it works.
Participants in this team building exercise are divided into teams of between six and twelve players, and each member is given a coloured apron that represents their team, the colour is the same as the colour of their workstation. The workstations have a counter top for processing food and a five-plate gas hob with an oven. Before the start of the exercise an instructor from Wickedfood Cooking Schools leads team members through the equipment and the ingredients that are to be used. Teams are given a short time in which to familiarize themselves with the equipment, and in which to plan their tactics, and are then plunged into the deep end and given two hours in which to produce a finished meal. A kitchen help is alloted to each team and is close at hand in order to help them, and one of the instructors to observe.
Wickedfood Cooking Schools team building courses are a fun way to handle your next leadership assignment. They are just a phone call away and full details of their courses may be found on their website.
