The Blind Egg

14Feb12

On Thursday, Beth took us to the staff kitchen and blindfolded one person while the rest of us were in teams of: instructing, place setting, clean up crew, and ingredient selection. Our mission was to cook a meal using ingredients that she brought. At the end, we all had to taste it.

What Went Wrong:

• The amount of butter added to the eggs. I’ll take the blame for that one.
• Not enough eggs being added at first.
• Some people (myself included) were instructing the blindfolded chef when they weren’t supposed to be.
• I don’t think we ever really got past the “storming” stage. Since the team members were always changing, there wasn’t a consistent leader. We might’ve gotten to “norming” when Beth established  Copa as a “project manager” in a way, but he was fired for not being able to complete his task.
• Participation varied. Some would’ve have been involved had Beth not pulled them out.

What Went Right:

• Nobody got hurt while cooking blindfolded.
• Eggs were cooked completely.
• Problem solving between all of us was okay. At one point there was a bad butter/egg ratio and someone wanted to pour the butter out but then as a majority we decided adding another egg would be best.

What I Did:

• I was either giving instructions to the blindfolded or not. I don’t believe I had any other role.
• At one point, Beth told me I was giving instructions when I wasn’t apart of the group. After that I tried to make sure I was further away from the action to avoid giving my input when I shouldn’t have been.

What Could Have Been Done Differently:

• I would’ve kicked anyone not instructing out of the room. Too many hands in one small pot, I guess.

Parallels between class and real world:

• Groups can always change. Employees leave/get fired and new hires come in. You won’t always work with the same people.
• Communication isn’t always going to be the greatest. You’re going to have the people who want to be hands on (touching the blindfolded) and the people that would rather communicate through e-mail.
• You don’t always get to pick the projects you work on. You work on ones you don’t want to and you don’t get the ones you want.

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Tags: cooking, cooking blindfolded, n250, team building