If you are reading this you have probably experienced the pain and frustration of being on a dysfunctional team either at home in an HQ environment or in a remote location somewhere in the field. The humanitarian team.... probably the most dysfunctional family in the world, well one of them anyway. No doubt you can clearly recall the inflated egos and insecurities, the abundant emergency elephants-in-rooms and concurrent pussyfooting around them as well as the exaggerated control-freakery that plays out in a drama worthy of a Shakespearean tragicomedy.
Well, in the spirit of capacity development, allow me to let you in on a secret. I stumbled upon a simple tool that can help to bring a smile to the face of the most hardened micro-manager and lift the spirits of downtrodden comrades... subversive cake-baking. Subversive because it is a cunning yet subtle way to change an atmosphere and move things along towards a shared goal with minimum casualties. After all you can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar...
Yes believe it or not cupcakes and coordination go hand in hand. Tray bakes and team building were made for each other. Gateau and gung ho is a match made in heaven.
Go on try it. Suss out your colleagues favourite flavours and plan your culinary attacks to coincide with the stickiest of team meetings. Not only will you have the advantage of the element of surprise, the consequential sugar rush will conclude business faster than you can say fondant fancy. Fancy that?
And team mealtimes like this...
.
..will be a thing of the past and you can look forward to this instead:
So put your pinnie, get whipping and you'll be cooking with gas in no time!
