Cooked Foods Are Why Humans Are Smart

The human brain is a calorie hog – it has to be to do all the work it needs to do.

Around 200,000 years ago we figured out the joy of cooking, and our creativity and intelligence took a great leap forward. It seems by using the process of cooking to break down our food before it ever enters our digestive system, we provide more energy faster and more efficiently to our brain. This frees it up to do what it was designed to do – to think and create!

The moral of this story: Never feel guilty about indulging in your culinary passions ever again!

Read the entire article here:

http://www.livescience.com/culture/080811-brain-evolution.html

Social Intelligence And The Biology Of Leadership

I have always been fascinated by the function of the brain, so when I came across this article in the Harvard Business Review, I just had to share it with all of you.

The information and research presented is especially useful to any of you who doubt the power of the “gut” in decision making, or the role of positive mood and play in superior job performance.

The bad news:
Social intelligence is a critical leadership skill, and you won’t succeed without it.

The good news:
Social intelligence can be improved (if you’re committed to improving it.)

The authors have devised a 360 degree tool for measuring social intelligence and to help in creating a plan for changing it (the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory)

Here are the seven social qualities they test for:

• Empathy
  Do you understand what motivates other people, even those from different backgrounds?
  Are you sensitive to others’ needs?
• Attunement
  Do you listen attentively and think about how others feel?
  Are you attuned to others’ moods?
• Organizational Awareness
  Do you appreciate the culture and values of the group or organization?
  Do you understand social networks and know their unspoken norms?
• Influence
  Do you persuade others by engaging them in discussion and appealing to their self-interests?
  Do you get support from key people?
• Developing Others
  Do you coach and mentor others with compassion and personally invest time and energy in mentoring?
  Do you provide feedback that people find helpful for their professional development?
• Inspiration
  Do you articulate a compelling vision, build group pride, and foster a positive emotional tone?
  Do you lead by bringing out the best in people?
• Teamwork
  Do you solicit input from everyone on the team?
  Do you support all team members and encourage cooperation?

Investing the time and money in developing so called “soft-skills” is critical to the successful performance of the hard bottom line. Ignore at your team’s peril!

A Culinary Team Building Group Game

I just used this activity for a group of principals, administrators and staff of a PA school district during an all-day CEO Chef team building workshop that also included our Corporate Culinary Challenge. This activity, called “Tower of Babel” really calls for extensive pre-planning and problem solving (a good warm-up for the Corporate Culinary Challenge!)

Groups that do the best with Tower of Babel usually spend most of their time planning, testing their materials, and building prototypes.

I thought you might want to try this with your own team – and, it still has something of a culinary air about it, as well!!

Tower of Babel

Time required: 30 minutes minimum

Resources:

• 1 round table per team
• 1 lb spaghetti or linguini (dry) per team
• 1 bag mini-marshmellows per team
• 1 chair per participant
• 1 rope or cord, 5 feet in length (I’ve never needed longer – usually 3 feet is enough)

Process:

Divide larger group up into teams of 6-8. Assign each team a table. Hand out the rules, building materials and start the clock! When time is called, you may be able to eye-ball the winner. If not, use the cord and mark off the height from base to top of tower on the cord. Keep this distance and readjust only if a subsequent tower is taller (make note that this new tower is now the tallest)

Options:

• Allow a mandatory time for planning before building is permitted
• Make exercise competitive (as if they won’t do that naturally!)
• Assign one observer per team whose job it is to watch the team for problem solving and planning behaviors

Tower of Babel Rules
(to be handed out to each team)

Outcome

To build the tallest, free-standing tower you are able to from the materials provided and within time limit.

Conditions

• You will be given a limited amount of time by the facilitator to plan and construct your tower.
• The tower cannot be supported by any device other than with the building resources provided. (This means you cannot hold up the tower by hand! )
• The height of the tower will be determined at the time of judging.
• The height will be judged as a vertical measurement taken from the base of the tower to the highest point of the structure.
• Only building resources provided to your team by the facilitator can be used in construction of the tower.
• Additional conditions may be added by the facilitator at any time.

Tower of Babel Debrief Questions
(to be handed out to each observer if used, or each team at the end of the activity. Add more questions as you need.)

Questions for Observers:

• How did the team allocate its time between planning and doing?
• How did the team work to accomplish its task- e.g., did one person assume a leadership role; was the task divided into sub-tasks; did the team work independently or as a whole?
• How effective was communication within the group?
• What role did each team member play in the group.
• Did every team member have a chance to contribute?
• Did every team member feel they had a chance to contribute?