At first, Yaqi Liu 26BBA wasn’t keen about getting up early on a Saturday to cook. But over the course of the day, Liu changed his mind. “It was a really good experience,” he says.
That experience is called “Team Building with Taste.” It’s a cooking competition in the style of Bravo network’s “Top Chef,” except with the ultimate goal of improving team dynamics. Located in the Atlanta suburb of Doraville, the Team Building with Taste venue has everything a chef might need—multiple prep spaces, deep fryers, gas stoves, commercial griddles, utensils, seasonings, and proximity to an H Mart grocery store.
While the students’ primary goal may have been to create a tasty dish the judges would love, the greater goal of Goizueta’s undergraduate BBA program was to teach team dynamics. “The thread of team dynamics and leadership is woven into the entire BBA program,” says Jeremy Billetdeaux, director of co-curricular programs for the BBA program office.
The challenge is a part of the program’s Team Dynamics and Leadership class. The course requires second semester undergraduate business students to participate in an immersive, team building activity. Over multiple weekends this fall, student teams were given a $50 budget, a set time to plan and shop, and one hour to cook and plate their meals. The teams then presented their dishes to a panel of judges. The competition spanned a total of four hours from start to finish.
A Low Pressure Setting
“Most of our students, in some way or another, will be working in teams throughout their careers and will take on different leadership responsibilities,” says Billetdeaux. “This experience is one of many reflection points that are built into the undergraduate program.” After the experience, the students were asked to evaluate themselves and their fellow team members. They then met with their program advisor for a coaching session. The aim of the session was to help students assess their capabilities as a team member and help them acknowledge, going forward, if there were things they would like to do differently.
“I’ve often observed how easily students interact when they are on athletic or other co-curricular teams,” explains Andrea Hershatter, associate professor in the practice of organization and management and senior associate dean of undergraduate education. “Yet the same students sometimes struggle to determine their most effective roles when working together in academic settings.”
Team Building with Taste combines the more collegial aspects of out-of-class experiences with the structure of a course assignment. I think it is a fabulous way for participants to exhibit and reflect on their own productive behaviors in a lower pressure setting that they can then transfer back to classes and work settings.
Andrea Hershatter, Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education
“Learning Together” through Collaboration in the Kitchen
The early start wasn’t the only thing that caused Liu to be apprehensive. It turns out he’s not much of a cook. But Team Building with Taste assigned a chef to each student team to help them plan and execute their dishes, and that helped Liu and his team “learn together about cooking,” he says. “And everybody took a leadership role because we were all in charge of making something.” His task? Making rice and curry for the team’s chicken dish.
Because Billetdeaux compiled the teams at random, Raaj Kumar 25BBA didn’t know any of his team members very well. When they all sat down to plan the meal, “we skipped over the get to know you part. It was like, ‘Okay, here’s the task, let’s work towards it,’” says Kumar. “Everyone was really upfront about their abilities and where they wanted to serve.” Given that Kumar’s cooking skills are limited to pasta and quesadillas, he let the more seasoned chefs in the group take charge. “I played more of an assistant role,” he says. Kumar cooked tofu and made a sauce for the team’s vegetarian dish, but it was the presentation where he felt he could contribute most. “My strong suit is communication,” he says. “I helped out where I needed to on the cooking but took more of a lead on the presentation.”
A Side Dish of Networking
According to Billetdeaux, creating teams of students that either don’t know each other or don’t know each other well is intentional. “The most valuable resource that the students have at Goizueta is each other, they just don’t recognize that now,” he says. “The people that are here are going to go on to do amazing things. So, expanding your network, interacting with new, different people—while not the overt goal of this experience—is one of the side goals.”
Liu is still in touch with two of his teammates from his Team Building with Taste experience, and one of Kumar’s takeaways was to be more open to new people and new experiences. “We tend to be really clicky,” he says. Since freshman year, Kumar has had the same set of friends. He considers himself social, but admits to “not branching out that often.” Now, he’s vowed to get better at hosting dinners at his apartment or getting meals with different people. “I think food is a way of merging interests and cultures,” he adds.
Building Competencies through Memorable Experiences
Hershatter explains that the undergraduate BBA curriculum is structured to provide experiences that help students build not only academic business capacities but also professional competencies. “There is a programmatic trajectory that starts at orientation and goes all the way through to a final required immersive elective. These opportunities provide students with multiple interactive experiences that focus on working synergistically together, stepping outside of their comfort zones, dealing with ambiguity, building resilience, and adding value when faced with a complex problem,” she says. “Although Team Building with Taste is just a short exercise, it is a memorable one and is followed by reflection and coaching. This set of experiences allows Goizueta BBA students to distinguish themselves by being self-aware and intentional in their behaviors.”
Goizueta Business School’s undergraduate BBA program develops students as professionals through cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and relational growth. These opportunities enhance student self-awareness, cultivate personal leadership abilities, and build community within the program. Learn more about the Goizueta BBA experience.
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