Building Teamwork, One Cookie at a Time
When was the last time you baked cookies with your coworkers? For the Indirect Center of Excellence team, it was just a couple months ago. What started as a way to connect in the new virtual environment at the start of the pandemic has become a cherished tradition for the team and a prime example of our culture of belonging.
Led by Mark Laskey, Indirect Sourcing Analyst, the classes started as a one off after he mentioned his love of baking to his coworkers.
“We have a question of the day as well as random polls in our water cooler Teams channel as a fun way to learn more about our teammates and share about ourselves, such as my love of baking,” Mark said. “One day someone randomly said that I should conduct a baking class and from there it was just a matter of how do we do it.
“As a team, we decide what to make — cookies, brownies, a cake — and I find a recipe that takes under two hours to complete and send out a recipe with a list of ingredients to everyone on the team and then we pick a date. We hold these classes whenever the feeling strikes us, and usually schedule them near the end of the day so everyone can just relax and not worry about running to the next meeting. For an hour or so, it’s just about having fun, and maybe learning a thing or two. It’s super casual and we get something delicious to eat at the end!”