We never thought about it when we put in our cottages for families, but the whole need of corporate groups to work together is much like holding a family together. Cooking with a corporate team has plenty of similarities to cooking with family. Even though they may seem very different, bonding, problem solving, organization, and planning skills are all commonalities between the two. That said, you won’t have to outlaw the HR guy from boiling water, or banning knives from your best sales rep!

Just as you foster a fun and cooperative environment with your kids in the kitchen, where everyone’s responsibilities contributes to the end product, you can do the same with your corporate team. You’ll leave the kitchen with your team feeling stronger and more confident.

Kembu Cottages each have a small kitchen and we can help with most utensils that your corporate team needs, but we believe your team will do the rest! They’ll be working together and having fun within minutes!

• Form and reinforce bonds, and foster togetherness by cooking together.
• Connect with team mates by creating something that others can enjoy!
• Teach vocabulary and concepts that might not usually be addressed at work, like exotic ingredients or metric measurements. A great low pressure environment for practicing language skills.
• Foster planning and organization – how to think ahead and be prepared by setting out the menu and grocery list, and deal with the consequences as a group. Practice problem solving – including converting recipes, substitutes if you’re missing ingredients, and flexibility.
• Introduce the concept of social responsibility, such as animal welfare, local produce and economy, and sustainably-sourced ingredients.
• Foster teamwork in the kitchen. Colleagues will help to cut and cook ingredients, help select groceries, set the table, measure out ingredients, tear up lettuce for salads, and be taste testers too! By involving all members of your team in an important part of the day, you help build their confidence and self-worth.
• Develop social skills! It’s much easier for colleagues to take their food and sit in front of their computer or play games on their phone. It takes a bit more work for workmates to converse with the each other, but it’s worthwhile!
• Reinforce cleanliness and appreciation. Some members of your team may need to appreciate that the meal that they sit down to doesn’t appear out of mid-air. Their food comes from somewhere, and involves them from shopping to the finished product will help demonstrate that hard work goes into the meal they enjoy.

This is a self styled cost effective team bonding experience that revolves around people’s love of food and cooking. It can be used for an occasional team building touch-up, or be part of an ongoing program. It’s also a perfect way to onboard new employees or bring together newly merged or acquired teams.

The cottages can work well for small executive groups from 3 to 8 persons or for larger groups of up to thirty we can set up something in a more rural setting.

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Kembu also works as a great base for hiking expeditions into the surrounding mountain forests. The wilderness is a great leveller and a perfect environment for teams to get to know each other as peers from an equal perspective.

Hikes up Mount Kiplombe or Mount Koibatek either as day trips or multi day pack trips can be outfitted and organized for your team. These trips can be quite challenging for some, but as they say without challenge there can be no improvement. Multi day expeditions are a fantastic way for management to observe their team and see who shines, who problem solves, who is empathetic to coworkers. To know how individuals react when pushed to their limits, to experience who are the natural leaders. All valuable stuff for a team leader to get to grips with.

Let us know how we can help.