I thought I might do some research for this post about best team building activities for 2013. Then the winter holiday took hold and any thoughts of research were overtaken by family time. Holidays are a time when we don’t have to feel guilty for procrastination about work. But us creative types rarely feel guilty about procrastination. Because we know that down time is often the best time to re-fill the well with ideas. And accordingly, I stumbled on an accidental type of research about the best team building activities for 2013 during my recent winter break. The Best Team Building Activities for 2013 Start At Home! Good team building re-engages a team Team building addresses relationship problems that are… Continue Reading
Billy Kirsch Speaking Presentation at PCMA Convening Leaders
I’m excited to be presenting my program, Harnessing Your Creative Power at PCMA Convening Leaders in Orlando on January 16th. The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) meeting attracts well over 3,000 conference designers, educators, networking gurus, and other motivated and successful entrepreneurs from around the globe. The meeting is touted as one of the event industry’s most comprehensive educational and networking events. So how the heck did I get this invite? Practice, practice, practice…just kidding…well sort of but not really… When I started my program, Team Building Through Song, I wasn’t thinking about keynote speaking or educational breakout sessions. I was focused on the music team building I’m so passionate about. I was focused on the magic and power of the… Continue Reading
Chicago Company Team Building Activities
The plethora of Chicago team building offerings reflects the city’s large demand for event and meeting activities. I consider Chicago to be our second home base, although I hate to talk much about home base when we’re constantly on the move with our musical team building. In fact, myself and the other great hit songwriters who work with my company are on the road now as often as we were in our younger band-on-the-bus-days. Chicago Company Team Building The culture, the geography and the musical themes of a city always impact my mood and my creative output. When we’re in Nashville, we’ll offer up country melodies as a foundation to the corporate songs we create with our clients. But when… Continue Reading
Value Your Value
It’s good to connect with people who value our value. To connect with colleagues, friends, or past clients. Sometimes, it’s important to look back and appreciate the work we’ve done, and not be future stressed. Like you, I spend much of my time in future mode; it’s all about what’s next – the next potential client, the proposal, the sale, the delivery of services. The brief celebration of a job well done and then on to the next round in the cycle. It’s exciting, but it’s exhausting. And when we’re exhausted it’s not so easy to stay positive. As we round the corner to the end of the year, a friend asked me this morning, “How do you stay positive?”… Continue Reading
5 Best Corporate Team Building Activities
A client called last week and asked me to recommend a great corporate team building activity to follow up on the music team building we did for his company last year. I love repeat customers, but I also sincerely understand the desire to do something different. The most important thing for me is long term relationships and seeing my clients succeed in their goals. The Pragmatic Dreamer Many people consider me to be a dreamer and a risk taker. I consider myself to be pragmatic and fairly conservative when it comes to risk. You have to look below my surface to reconcile the outward image with the inward approach. Outwardly: I’m a lifelong musician who opted for music studies and… Continue Reading
Team Building, Millennials and Engagement
Millennials need engagement. They need to feel involved and they need to feel ownership. Team building is a vital component to achieving all of this. I was reminded of this today while meeting with my business manager, Rob Taylor. Rob mentioned how different his young associates are than the veterans, or Gen X’rs. Millennials have an expectation of finding satisfaction in their work. They view this as a vital part of their overall reward. Providing engagement and enabling your workforce to have an active voice in your organization is part of the compensation package required to retain younger hires. Picking up a paycheck, while obviously important, is not the be-all end-all. I spoke with another friend last year who was… Continue Reading
An Innovation Mindset
I’m in overdrive this morning, buzzing about my to-do list and buzzing on caffeine; about to dive into this blog post with an eye on the clock so I can cross this off my list…Does that sound familiar to you? As my fingers fly across the computer keyboard typing meaningless words, I realize what a hypocrite I’m being and I STOP. Breathe, relax, slow down and re-focus….ahh, now I’m in the frame to create and share this message with you. The only reason most of you read my blog posts is because you count on me to be honest, reflective and sometimes to get you to chuckle. Overwhelment, Change & Innovation Well chuckle at this: I’m feeling strategically challenged. Don’t… Continue Reading
Music or Lose It
I usually begin my team building presentations with the following statement – Ninety eight percent of four year olds are creative, yet only ten percent of adults consider themselves to be creative. – I know that your creative four your old self is still within you. And I know how to help you unleash that inner four year old. But why would you want to? Creativity, One Step At A Time If you write a song with your organization during our music team building programs you’ll experience something you knew intrinsically when you were young, but may have forgotten. Creativity is a step-by-step process. Most adults listen to a hit song, or look at a famous painting and think, ‘Wow,… Continue Reading
The Value of Fun
Too often when I sit down to blog I’m constrained by the strategy of blogging itself to where the form overwhelms the fun. And that’s exactly the opposite of what happens during our music team building programs where fun is part of what drives the experience, the learning and the take-aways. So today I’m just want to talk about fun. Fun Team Building is also Productive Can you ever remember laughing while being bored? Can you ever remember wanting to stop while laughing? (well maybe if you’re laughing so hard it hurts…!) Engagement is a hot buzzword right now in the corporate world. Millennials demand it. A paycheck in and of itself is not enough. They want to be co-creators… Continue Reading
Mergers and Acquisitions
Mergers and Acquisitions are often difficult new beginnings. Team building is necessary to create a blended family among your new entity. I don’t know that I’ve ever used the word ‘necessary’ before when talking about team building, but in this case I’m putting it out there. Mergers and acquisitions are hard. Thus it’s vital to work toward creating a new and unified vision going forward. It’s important to acknowledge the difficulties of transition with the termination of some employees, changing roles for those who stay, and the need to embrace new leadership. We’ve recently worked with two separate organizations who either merged or were acquired. While preparing for these programs, it occurred to me that the situation was similar to… Continue Reading