Saint-Gobain: Theory’s good, practice’s better
Today, I wanted to start with this quote. The mighty Internet itself is not sure about who its author really is, but let’s simply be charmed by an elegant sentence, without wishing that, besides, it could have been written by Xi Jinping or J.F. Kennedy.
A few days ago, we have posted an article that our Chinese readers seem to have liked a lot, The Power of a Team. If you’ve missed it, there it is,click here to read:
What does the reality of teamworking look like?
On Saturday, November 17th, one company wanted to answer that question, and that company is called Saint-Gobain.
Saint-Gobain is not a random company.
For the world, it is an international group selling construction products and innovative material.
For the French, it is one of their oldest companies (353 years!), in charge of the installation of the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles during Louis 14th’s reign.
For SYB, it is one of our greatest sponsors, who helped financing our Baking Center renovation. Thanks to them, our Baking Center is now the Hall of Mirrors of Shanghai!
Pushed by the desire to know what it is like to have a teambuilding activity at SYB, 19 courageous employees came to our Baking Center last Saturday afternoon, eager to learn how to make a Naked Flower Cake!
Within three hours, from 2 to 5 PM, they could:
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strengthen their team spirit
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learn bakery
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have fun
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support our charity program
All at the same time!
01 strengthen their team spirit
That’s the main point of a teambuilding, right? Our group of employees/students all came from Saint-Gobain, but from different departments: finance, administration, etc. Many of them did not know the others very well, and that was a perfect occasion for each of them to meet, through our bakery teambuilding, someone who they would cross every day at work without saying hello. Yes, Shanghai Young Bakers can create social links between your company’s employees!
02 Learn Bakery
First the theory, then the practice, that’s our Teacher Wang Jingyi’s pedagogy. So for each step of the recipe, she took time to explain to all the attentive employees what they were about to do, then show them how to do it, before letting each team get their hands dirty.
The recipe of a Naked Flower Cake will not be disclosed here, this is a secret SYB will only share with the ones joining our public classes or teambuilding activities… Anyway, the beautiful cakes they’ve all baked are the practical evidence confirming our article’s theory about teamwork: it works!
03 Have fun
Fun: hard to theorize, but easy to practice! Let me simply tell you that Saint-Gobain’s team has some good skills in this area!
04 Support our charity program
A sentence that you may have seen before if you know us for some time, is this one: “All proceeds will be used to fund SYB’s charity program”. This is not only a theory. The money raised with Saint-Gobain’s teambuilding activity, as well as all the previous teambuilding we have organized, makes a real difference.
Shanghai Young Bakers has reached its 10th year of existence and has helped more than 240 young Chinese to become independent. Each social enterprise activity that we have, each sponsor support, each donation, is a contribution helping our students to spread their wings.
To conclude, I will simply say that Shanghai Young Bakers and Saint-Gobain had a great time together!
A sentence that you may have seen before if you know us for some time, is this one: “All proceeds will be used to fund SYB’s charity program”. This is not only a theory. The money raised with Saint-Gobain’s teambuilding activity, as well as all the previous teambuilding we have organized, makes a real difference.
