No trust falls or human pyramids here. While team building can be an effective tool to bring employees together, the thought of it shouldn’t horrify them.
If you are looking for a team building activity your employees won’t roll their eyes at, you’ve come to the right place. While you could always have a beer for a co-worker catch up, it’s not nearly as interactive as making cocktails. It is also a great means for a little friendly office competition.
Here are some reasons to consider a cocktail workshop for your next corporate team building event:
It’s Actually Fun
You may not realise it, but a little fun in the work environment can help improve your employee’s experience. You can introduce the element of fun through a controlled workshop environment. Guided by an experienced mixologist, your team gets to transform from cocktail newbies to pros.
This learning experience changes the atmosphere of team building from completely boring to light hearted and fun. Making cocktails allows the team to relax and enjoy the experience. There is no pressure to perform very difficult or tedious tasks usually involved in traditional team building. It’s an experience the team actually gets to enjoy, which makes bonding and trust building easier.
It Builds Relationships
During cocktail workshop team building, employees are divided into teams. Teamwork encourages working together effectively, while learning to balance individual strengths and weaknesses. It also helps to improve the following aspects of a team’s relationship:
- Communication, respect and bonding
The essence of team building is to create the right environment for communication and bonding. What encourages conversation better than a social environment like a bar?
The experience can also act as a means to learn and grow together. This helps to build a greater level of respect within the team. It can also help build a stronger respect for the company as a whole, through a good experience.
2. Leadership and confidence
Leadership is not a skill that comes easily for everyone. It has to be improved and worked on consistently. Teambuilding is a great way to do this for members of the team. It helps build confidence in every member without adding pressure.
- Responsibility and trust
Cocktail making encourages the team to assign roles and importance to it’s members. It therefore ensures fulfilment of responsibility and helps reinforce this for the future. This skill helps to increase overall team performance.
By assigning responsibility, it also helps the team trust one another with tasks. They rely on other members of the team to fulfil the roles they can’t do themselves. And presto, you have a fully functional team working together as a whole (and some delicious cocktails to share office gossip over)!
It Encourages Creativity
You want your team to constantly strive for innovation and excellence. Innovation goes hand in hand with creativity. Making cocktails of all kinds can help give your team a creative boost. Firstly, the workshop encourages conversation, which is a catalyst for creativity. Secondly, some workshops encourage a cocktail creation of some kind. Thirst Bar Services offers a cocktail workshop that teaches the basics of classic cocktails. What makes it creative is that after you have learnt the basics, you get the chance to create your own signature cocktail. With every tool and ingredient at your disposal, who knows what concoction you’ll come up with.
Everyone Will Learn Some New Skills
They’re not the kind one could update a CV with but almost everyone has always wanted to know how to mix a margarita or do up a good daiquiri. Making great cocktails isn’t too difficult to learn either, and it makes for a great party trick. Plus, employees won’t need to fork-out their hard earned salaries just to experience a premium cocktail – they’ll have the bartender experience right at their fingertips. Some new skills to aquire on the day include:
- Correct use of bar lingo
From that moment on, they will be no more guessing what it means when someone says ‘neat’, ’shaken’ and ‘on the rocks’.
- Being able to use the tools of a trade
No one will look clumsy with a cocktail shaker ever again.
- Create some awesome cocktails
Most importantly, these take-home skills will impress friends and family at any occasion!
Overall, a cocktail workshop works out to be a better experience than what traditional team building might have you do. It is something your team will actually thank you for and talk about for long after. Contact Thirst for more information on how a workshop could work for you.