Many people come into our programs from a place of doubt, or sometimes dread. Aarghhhh….the team building activities, can we leave yet? I get it, I’m the kind of person who likes to slink to the back of the room (when I’m not on stage) and lose myself in anonymity. I don’t mind that people are sometimes dragged into musical team building. In fact, I almost revel in the challenge at hand. And here’s why – I get to be part of a transformative experience.
So when I was contacted by a healthcare company several months ago, and they told me that the team building program they did last year was not well received, I was excited. Yea, a chance to convince another group of people that music, creativity, engagement and fun can be magical. The songwriting process enables groups to tell their stories by sharing individual and group experience, taking the vast landscape of their corporate life – distilling the mission, message and preoccupations into powerful, and often funny, songs. Did I say often funny? I meant always funny, with laughter being the catalyst to loosening inhibitions; helping us all dive headlong into the process.
Here’s a quote from a participant that sums this all up. As I told my wife, I’m a skeptic and expected to hate the experience. But, I was laughing so hard the whole time that I cried and thought I was going to wet myself…I actually ended up loving the process. It was fascinating to see who would sing their proposed lyrics, who shouted them out and who wrote them down and then passed them to the front anonymously. – From skeptic to ‘out-of-control’ engagement. This is the essence of our team building activities and I couldn’t be happier.
The Power of Fun
- Can you dedicate time to creating fun, out of the office engagement with your team?
- Have you ever noticed how new ideas come when we’re relaxed and engaged?
- Like the time you were on the road and at the bar with your boss and you finally had the courage to suggest that fix you’d been scared to mention, and the boss loved your idea.
- Have fun and write down the ideas that float through the room as the laughter grows.
- You must dedicate time to this, because those ideas will solve problems and create innovation. And that’s ROI!
Billy Kirsch