Pre-reading questions:
- What kind of activities do you enjoy doing with your friends?
- What comes to your mind when you hear “team building”?
Team building activities such as grinding in a seminar about effectivity at work or spending time doing potentially embarrassing activities are the usual ways to run through company away days. However, a new type of team building activity emerged in Europe. London-based Food@Work and Brussels-based Waffle Workshop offer team building cooking classes.
SIG, a hardware company, was a client of Food@Work. SIG staff say that the cooking class was fun because of the different atmosphere from work. Meanwhile, attendees at Waffle Workshop say that they discover another side of their colleagues through making waffles. An HR Expert say that cooking classes have the potential to move the team forward.
Vocabulary:
grinding- working hard
potential- possible
embarrassing- causing to feel shame
atmosphere- feeling
colleague- associate
Comprehension Questions:
- What are the usual team building activities mentioned in the article?
- What is the new team building activity that emerged from European countries?
- What kind of company is SIG?
- How do attendees at Waffle Workshop discover another side of their colleagues?
- What is the potential of cooking classes?
Express Your Opinion:
- Why do you think attendees at Waffle Workshop discover another side of their colleagues?
- What do you think is the best team building activity?
- What do you think your work colleagues can say about you?
- Do you think cooking classes can improve a team’s performance at work? Please explain your answer.
- Would you be interested in taking cooking classes with your colleagues at work? Please explain your answer.