It’s fun, it’s scary and it’s thrilling when we try something new that comes out better than expected. Our team building drumming in Chicago, for Boehringer Ingelheim at the Swissotel, was all of the above. Part of this client’s goals were to challenge everyone to try something new. But this team building drumming program had other important elements that made it unique. These elements make up what we call our drum song program. When we led this corporate drumming program we brought it beyond the visceral aspect of simply banging on the drums, although that’s quite fun. We put together a program based on Boehringer Ingelheim’s goals for their Oncology Franchise conference.
Team Building Drumming In Chicago Goals
- Bring members of different departments and different geographical regions together
- Help everyone experience how their individual contributions and departmental contributions make up the greater whole that is their franchise.
- Provide inspiration and energy as a catalyst for the work to come
We put together this event to model the metaphor of individual contribution to team, and team contribution to the greater whole. Everyone had a chance to learn to play a percussion instrument. These included djembes, shakers, triangles, tambourines and more. It takes a bit of courage to pick up an instrument and learn to play it, especially with hundreds of colleagues nearby. But everyone quickly got into the spirit since they were learning together. With brief mastery of instruments, each section then learned a part. And once we had all of our instrumental parts set up, we combined each section to create our drum song. I may have forgotten to mention that the foundation of all of this is FUN. Team building drumming in Chicago was memorable, created energy and provided informality that set the tone for the rest of the conference.
Take Aways
- A powerfully unifying experience as over three hundred people from across the globe performed as one
- Satisfaction that comes with taking a risk by learning something new, and succeeding at it
- A powerful conference ice breaker to set the tone for a successful meeting