Danone asked Coeur de Xocolat to provide a chocolate-themed team-building event high in the French Alps overlooking lake Geneva in Evian.

Award winning chocolatier David Greenwood-haigh said: “we’ve been teaching the art of chocolate making for several large organisation both here and abroad “These events are a great way of building relationships and strengthening bond through creativity and fun.

“Delegates from six different countries will be given a business scenario that involves them manufacturing chocolate, then developing a package and presentation so they can understand the process of creating a business.”

“They will come away with delicious chocolates and a team that is re-energised and ready to work.”

During the chocolate challenge, staff learn about the history of chocolate and take part in a taster session before learning how to make chocolates.

Coeur de Xocolat also runs chocolate safaris to Bruges classes, chocolate treasure hunts and Belgian chocolate truffle-making workshops.

It also does Apprentice-style event THE XOCOLAT FACTORY where teams take over a “failing chocolate factory” and have to turn it around.

But why team building with Chocolate?

Over the last few years, we've seen a growing number of businesses moving away from the traditional competitive work environments to workspaces where co-operation and collaboration between teams is seen as the key to success.

As part of this change more and more companies are scheduling regular team building activities.

These activities can range from a short, problem-solving activity like the chocolate factory to a European chocolate/food safari lasting a couple of days were delegates are imersed in a particular food culture .

And whilst its true some people see team building activities as a ‘nice break’ from work with chocolate, they do have a serious point: and that is to develop the skills and knowledge of your staff. If you arrange team building activities that have a purpose and objectives behind the planning then your company will reap a whole range of benefits including.

IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY

Productivity is often of the main goal of team building activities. It’s a great opportunity to improve the three Ps (policies, processes and procedures) that can affect productivity.

By encouraging employees to learn to communicate and work together more effectively it can lead to a reduction duplication of efforts.

 INCREASE MOTIVATION

Chocolate team building activities can help increase employee motivation in a number of ways.

When a group of employees successfully complete a team building activity it creates momentum and makes them feel good about themselves, it increases employees’ confidence in their, and their team’s, ability and it also shows employees that the organisation is willing to invest in them.

INCREASED COLLABORATION

One of the most important benefits of a well-planned team building event is greater collaboration between teams. Collaboration is about knowing who has the answer to a question, trusting them and their experience and being able to get access to that person when you need it.

By creating activities that people enjoy and can experience as a group, employees can build relationships and develop networks of contacts outside their day-to-day role that will help them in the future.

ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY

To have a successful business based on creativity and innovation you need to employ a team of different personalities with diverse perspectives and expertise in order to feed the company” with fresh ideas.

Out-of-the-ordinary team building tasks give employees permission to use their imagination to come up with creative solutions, and they send the message that creativity in the workplace, and bouncing ideas off each other, is a good thing.

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

Chocolate team building activities can also be used to provide recognition to employees by highlighting the work specific employees are doing and the behaviours that have lead to the recipient receiving the recognition.

By incorporating recognition into the team building you can send a strong message to every attendee about your company values and what that means to the success of the organisation.

IMPROVED COMMUNICATION

Perhaps the key benefit of a properly planned team building activity is improved communication between employees. Enjoyable,

fun activities enable employees to get to know each other, create a better understanding of each other and break down walls of mistrust by encouraging people to focus on what they have in common rather than their differences.

Team building activities can be a powerful way to develop collaboration and trust, improve motivation, nurture strengths, and address weaknesses.

However, they need to be have a real purpose and be properly planned in order to make a genuine impact, rather than just providing ‘a nice day out of the office’.