Consider a Cooking Competition for Your next Team Building Exercise

Team building activities can lead your employees to bond and work together better, fostering a less self-centered attitude. Team building exercises are more effective if they are innovative and involve an enjoyable activity. Try to find ways for the team to meet in a location other than the office so that the exercise will be most effective.

Possibly you could hold team building exercises in a hotel meeting room and have them conducted by a company that specializes in that sort of thing. But this seems more like just another work day -- not the life-changing bonding experience that you are striving for.

A bowling alley is another option, and before you hastily dismiss this idea, remember that classy new bowling facilities are appearing everywhere these days. But if the local bowling alley is dark and dreary, your employees may balk at the idea, and that is certainly not conducive to the unifying experience that you are seeking.

Think about being a host of a cooking competition, including chef hats and the preparation of delicious food. If you have seen Iron Chef, this is very similar. Talented professional chefs will direct the competition while team members bond with each other in ways that cannot be anticipated. Each team prepares a meal consisting of several courses, employing the secret ingredient of the day to fight for the cook-off championship crown.

Every team member would rely on his/her own personal skills in such areas as innovation, organization, and attention to details, while simultaneously enjoying themselves and learning new cooking skills. Previous cooking experience is not required. Every member participates as much as they want to, but the objective is to foster cooperation in order to produce the best-tasting dish.

Ideally, the company that is running this team cooking competition will supply all foods, chefs, non-alcoholic beverages, cooking equipment, and best of all, will do all the clean-up at the end of the day. All you need to have are enough eager employees to make up two or more teams willing to have fun acquiring new cooking skills while team building with co-workers.

This kind of event normally last for approximately three hours. Following the excitement of the tasks of preparing food, the teams take a seat and have fun with their culinary masterpieces, such as appetizers, main dishes, and tasty desserts.

Designate one person to be the photographer for each team so that the action is recorded for posterity. This provides an opportunity for everyone to gather at a later date to reminisce about the experience, and the event will be remembered fondly for a long time. Enjoy!