Never Mind The Outputs … How Were The Biscuits?

My brother-in-law tweeted earlier today from a training event he’s been attending: “Have spent the day feasting on 5* cuisine … the buffet was out of this world! I also did a spot of training…”, which reminded me of the truism about meetings and workshops that when the post-it notes and flip charts have been cleared away, the thing most people will remember about the day is the quality of the biscuits!

As professional workshop designers and facilitators, we justifiably spend a lot of time worrying about the objectives of the day … planning the minutiae of every exercise and ensuring that the right energy balance will be struck between the creative and strategic parts of the day’s agenda … after all, these are the things which will enable us to deliver the right outputs from the day and meet our client’s business objectives.

But, in all of this effort to get the intellectual and creative stimulation spot on, we sometimes overlook the importance of ‘the biscuits’ and the role the day’s breaks and nutrition moments can play in making the day a success – after all, for us, the coffee and lunch slots aren’t really breaks at all … most often they’re the opportunity to check in with the client, review the agenda, fine-tune the brief for the next exercise and then rally the troops for the next session, whereas for the team they are both an opportunity to catch up on emails and calls, but also to allow their sub-conscious minds to wander and problem-solve while the body is refreshed and recharged.

It was truly inspiring to work in Barcelona recently with a client who had not only invested significant time and effort into tracking down a genuinely inspirational venue for the week’s four back-to-back ideation events (the private home of a local fashion designer, complete with garden terrace and swimming pool), but who had also unearthed a fantastic catering team to nourish our bodies and souls for the week.

The caterers had been briefed to inspire us, so created a daily menu that was based around stimulating the emotions – one day focussed on the spirit of holidays, another around feelings of freshness – and each day started with a breakfast carefully created to kickstart the group’s energy and keep them satiated for the morning’s work. Lunch, equally, was designed to be tasty and filling, but balanced to avoid the dreaded post-lunch lull. What every element demonstrated beautifully is that it is perfectly possible to nourish and to inspire at the same time – I can’t be sure that any specific ideas were inspired directly by the food we ate, but the ingredients, the presentation and the flavours all helped to create a working environment where it was obvious that creativity was respected and highly valued.

I thought I’d share some of the highlights from the week’s menu: