Incentive - January 2009 - (Page 35)

COOKING By Joe David ENGAGEMENT Rewarding a corporate team using pots and pans UP C orporate groups, including employees from all levels of their companies, are heading into the kitchens of recreational cooking schools around the country. Although each school has its own style, all of them are using the cooking experience to form a tightly knit corporate family cooperatively focused on a single goal. The success of these ventures may be attributed to the universal appeal of food and the creative fun that comes from making your own mozzarella cheese or rolling out your own ravioli. Award-winning cookbook author Joanne Weir, host of the PBS show Joanne Weir’s Cooking Class, is among the latest to combine corporate teambuilding with a cooking school. Known for preparing traditional Mediter- ranean flavors with a light, California touch, Weir is currently working with communications trainer/coach Kraemer Winslow of San Rafael, Calif., to create team-building, sales-incentive or reward-driven programs of varying lengths, adapted to the specific Frank Brigtsen gives a demo for a group at the New Orleans Cooking Experience needs of companies, here and abroad. “I want to use my cooking program,” she says, “as catalysis to bring positive change to corporate relationships and inspire professional employee bonding.” If Weir’s is the newest of the breed, one of the oldest is the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE). Corporate leaders looking for a program and approach that will suit their specific needs can’t top what ICE provides. James Rarick, services director, Microsoft Corporation, reports that his management team spent a night at ICE in a relaxed setting gaining guidance while preparing a delicious meal. “By using a cooking class for team-building purposes,” he says, “we changed the pace of our program and helped get everyone into a more creative mindset for the strategic corporate planning that followed.” Located in New York City, ICE was founded in 1975 by a former speed-reading instruc| January 2009 | Incentive | 35 incentivemag.com http://www.incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - January 2009

Incentive - January 2009 Contents Editor's Note: Rewards Must Be Sustainable Headlines Cover Story: Responsibility's New Role Incentive Interview: Patrick Lencioni Family Rewards: Who They're Working For Primer: Working Design Leap of Faith: Religion in the Workplace Cook Up Engagement: Kitchen Teambuilding My Turn: Procurement Possibilities Motivation@Work: Hard Times Recognition Legal Ease: The Tax Facts on Corporate Gifts Travel News: Where to Go and What to Do The Bahamas: Islands in the Sun Field Reports: Four European Destinations Golf: Around the World in 18 Holes Potentials Here and Now Watches and Clocks: Strike the Pose Golf Merchandise: Awards with a Solid Swing Computers: Digital Delights Retailers Band Together for Gift Card Market Gift Cards: The Prepaid Reward Spectrum Advertiser Index On the Web www.Incentivemag.com

Incentive - January 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.