It goes without saying that designing L&D interventions requires to balance fun and challenge, theory and practice, informal and informative, cognitive and sensory and so the list can continue. Finding a methodology that allows to access and deploy all these requirements is not easy.
Having worked with food* for a several years now (after completing the chef’s training in 2022), I see a great deal of potential in using it as a learning stage. Here are a few starting thoughts that I hope to explore in coming posts (in theory) as well as in forthcoming L&D interventions (in practice).
Food is universal. Everyone can relate to it, and everyone has an opinion on it.
Food is personal. It is embedded in and is a reflection of individual’s culture, values, and beliefs, often captured in stories and memories.
Food is behavioural. What one does in the kitchen is a habit and a pattern.
Food is emotional, ranging from happiness to anger, from fun to tragic.
Food is multi sensory. It draws on cognition and intuition, and calls for thinking and experiencing simultaneously.
Food is challenging. Mastering food requires grit and persistence, continuously dealing with failure and soliciting feedback.
Looking at the list, makes me think that I might have uncovered a Holy Grail of training. It seems that food has it all and is well adept to trigger learning. As I embark on a project of using food as a learning methodology for a leadership development course, I am curious to explore the ‘food hypothesis’ in a bit more detail and look forward to reviewing methodological implications of using food for the L&D purpose.
I do appreciate that the subject of food may not be to everybody’s liking, but from where I stand at least the lunch will be cooked whilst learning would take place :-). Now, what do you think of this ‘learning recipe’?
Until next time!
*Food here involves both, ingredients and preparation.