WilkinsonPlus Team Building Programme

Last Updated (Thursday, 23 July 2009 15:28)

Quest were approached by Wilkinson Stores during June 2009 and asked to plan & deliver a version of the Quest cooking team building programme, “Recipe for Success” for the team who manage their on line shopping service, Wilkinson Plus.

On July 16th, eight enthusiastic delegates arrived at the beautiful Flagstone Farm Cottages venue near to Stow on the Wold in the Cotswolds for twenty four hours with Quest.

Itinerary Kept Secret

The programme sponsor had requested that the content of the team building should be kept secret from the delegates until they arrived, and to assist that clandestine process joining instructions requiring the delegates to bring full outdoor kit including boots and sleeping bags were sent out a week before!

Consequently, when the welcome and briefing was started, all eight delegates were convinced they were going to be taking part in a range of activities from camping to tickling trout in the nearby picturesque river Windrush! There was great relief, particularly thanks to the rain, when they were told that their task for the day was to plan, prepare and cook at least a 3 course gourmet meal for their team, and sample dishes of all they cooked for Team Quest to taste and score.

Revelations Revealed by Ice Breaker

Before the cooking started the delegates took part in a short ice breaker exercise designed to get them communication, interacting and most importantly disclosing some information about themselves to their colleagues, in an activity called “Three Truths and a Lie.”

The delegates were given paper & pens and ten minutes to write down four facts about themselves, three of which had to be true, and one of which had to be a complete lie! After much thought the delegates took turns to read out to the rest of the team their four facts, waited while their colleagues guessed the lie, and then with great hilarity disclosed the right answer. Amongst some of the disclosures was that one of the team had shared a tent with a member of the Royal family, and another had got a little intimate with a well known actress………..the question is were those facts truths or lies?

A Recipe For Success

After that revealing session, the delegates were divided into two teams and set about their main activity. Armed with a pile of recipe books and other inofrmation they set about planning what to cook, and where they would buy their ingredients and food. Both teams appointed leaders, and the planning and role allocation that followed was impressive and effective. They set themselves challenging targets for the complexity of what they planned to cook and the number of dishes they were going to attempt. The programme was designed to be competitive, and with a limited cash budget the teams had to make trade off decisions on whether to use local, but more costly local suppliers, verses one of the well know supermarket chains.

Shopping followed, and a number of very impressive negotiations took place, that resulted in some beautiful, locally produced food being purchased.

Both teams had started cooking by early afternoon, and the heat in the kitchens gradually increased as food was prepared cooked and presented, all under the watchful eye, and occasionally with a little assistance, of the Quest Chef.

High Quality Makes Judging Difficult

Right on the deadline at 18.30, both teams started to deliver an impressive array of dishes to the Quest HQ. What had been cooked was stunning both in appearance and taste, and scoring was a very difficult but most enjoyable task.

Finally Team Quest rejoined the two teams and gave feedback on their performance during the day, and the eagerly awaited final scores, which were very close. The day had been great fun, and highly beneficial with all team members getting the opportunity to work closely with colleagues on an activity totally removed from their normal work roles.

2009-wilkinsonplus-team-building-programme