3 in 1 Self Saucing Pudding

Trying to find the right team building activity for your group can be hard.  Paintballing sounds like fun, unless you’re the one getting pummelled.  Escape rooms sound like they’d be pretty motivating, though probably for the wrong reasons.  Then there’s all the physical ones like spy chases, blindfold maze, make an egg slingshot out of garden stakes and cable ties etc.  Not bad in you’re into that sort of thing, not great if the weather isn’t good. Remember, it’s Melbourne.

So, a bit hit and miss as crowd pleasers plus I’m also not entirely convinced about the usefulness of some of these activities.  Sure, not every team activity has to be about outcomes but you want to know that it’s helping your people in some way, rather than just blowing a whole lot of the company cash for kicks?

What I love about what our business offers is that it’s a 3 in 1. You have a great time together indulging in some healthy competition, you get a delicious meal and, without even really trying, you practice the core skills of successful teams.  That’s why we call it a self saucing pudding.  The results take care of themselves.  Even if your objective is just to have a fun day out and eat some nice food, through the sheer nature of the activity, everyone works collaboratively towards a common goal with a deadline. They’ll need to communicate effectively, use initiative, delegate, show leadership, manage time, resources, each other and make decisions under pressure.  Sound like something you’d like your team to do well? Roll on up!

The best bit is that people have such a great time, they don’t realise they’re doing all of this. Also, you don’t have to be a great cook to enjoy it.  We’ve had some self declared culinary hopeless cases who’ve managed to put out impressive food with the help of their team, our facilitators and our user friendly recipes.

All of that is just the base model.  Sometimes a group comes along and wants to go further. We’ve got two of these coming up in the next few weeks, one for a big four bank and the other for a major telco. The first starts with a half day program run by a close colleague of mine, exploring concepts of leadership and communication.  This will then segue into our event where we’ll use the cooking activity to further the learning in an experiential way. The second is a self contained event where the participants have to come up with a menu for a food truck, pitch it to a client, adjust it based on feedback and then notate the recipes so they can be replicated with consistency.  The idea of this is to help these guys become more self sufficient and practice their consultative and communication skills.

So, whether you’d like a value added fun day out or a deep dive into your team’s dynamics or anywhere in between, why not give us a call and see how we can tailor something that is just right for your team.

And, just in case you were reading this because you wanted a recipe for a self saucing pudding, here it is…

Lime and coconut self saucing pudding

Ingredients

• 1& 1Ž2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
• 1Ž2 cup (45g) desiccated coconut
• 1Ž2 cup (100g) caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lime rind
• 1Ž2 cup (125ml) coconut milk
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 60g coconut oil, melted

Sauce

• 1 tablespoon cornflour or custard powder
• 1Ž2  cup (110g) caster sugar
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) lime  juice
• 1/2 cup (125ml) coconut milk
• 1/2 cup (125ml) hot water