Cooking, energy and engagement

What can we learn about work and employment from cooking? This week I took my Global Executive MBA group to an 'experimental kitchen' here in Milan, called Spazio Galatea. The idea is to have some fun, get to know one another and of course reflect a little on what it means to be engaged and energized by work.

The beauty of this kind of activity is that it is, of course, fun. However the rhythm of a kitchen brings certain other issues to life. In particular, the ideas of meaningfulness of a task, and the urgency of the context.

The team building aspects of the kitchen stem in part from your novice status - shared with the rest of the team. You and your peers are likely to be novices, at least when it comes to cooking for 30 people in a professional kitchen. For non Italian speakers, novice status is reinforced by the fact that your guides in this adventure will only be speaking Italian! The roles and tasks can be quite unclear, and this process creates an environment that is conducive to very authentic interaction - where you reveal both your strengths and perhaps weaknesses, but in a safe environment.

A second useful aspect of this activity is that it presents a task with a high level of meaningfulness. When your job is to cook a dish, which will hopefully be enjoyed by the others in your party, this brings a sense of accountability to the game. Accountability is an important driver of being engaged in the work - you have responsibility and ownership. These are intrinsically satisfying and motivating and can support a greater degree of engagement in a task.

Lastly, an interesting dimension is inherent in the life of a professional kitchen - that is urgency. Timing is perhaps the key skill in cooking, and making sure everything comes together at the right time is essential. However, with urgency comes pressure. Pressure can be very energizing - you focus your attention and bring extra effort to bear. However, it can also become overwhelming. Although we certainly didn't bring anyone close to breaking point in this exercise (this isn't boot camp!), we did experience the waxing and waning of our individual and collective energies over a 120 minute period. Fortunately, eating a great meal and sipping a nice glass of wine helped us all recharge quite quickly!

Cooking - who knew you could learn anything about management in the kitchen!