Blog - Page 17 of 20 - Just Add Rhythm

Teamwork – it’s easier said than done

In middle school I played on a cup soccer team. This meant that we traveled to games and tournaments and basically prepared ourselves for potential professional play. One of the teams I played for had a star player – the quintessential goal scorer whose job it was to just keep pumping the ball toward the goal. She was also a basketball player and could never show up for our practices. But the coach bent the rules for her since she could just arrive at a match and start racking up the goals. Our role as “the rest of the team” was to feed the ball to her continually so she could do her thing. I’m sure you can see where this is going. After awhile, our team got tired of the same old plays over and over again, and our goal scorer stopped coming to games altogether due to a basketball injury. What was our team to do?

Oh, right – become a team again. Our coach finally realized he better train some of the other players to score. And that meant creating a whole new team structure on the field.

Sports metaphors are effective because they continually provide a parallel to life situations. Whether we realize it or not, we all “play” for a variety of “teams” throughout our lives. Think about it for a moment – what teams are you on? Do you have a partner, a family, a group of friends, a Meetup group, or a project at work? No matter what group we belong to, there are some universal responsibilities that all team members must adhere to for the team to function efficiently and effectively.

Commitment

You could have all the dedication in the world, but if your fellow team members aren’t as committed to reaching the goal as you are, you’re not going to get there. Just think back to your high school group projects when the teacher paired you with the slacker, the jokester, or the popular girl who never completed her own homework. That poor project didn’t stand a chance. What’s the fix for lack of commitment? Proper motivation! Maybe a job well done won’t light a fire under them, but finding something to motivate unwilling members isn’t difficult. Find out each group member’s own goals and find a way to weave them into your project.

Um, hello…communication

This one is painfully obvious, but unfortunately many people still haven’t gotten the hang of it. Don’t wait till your weekly meeting to hash something out that’s been hanging over your head – chances are you’ll build up so much anxiety about it in your mind that when the time comes, you’ll back down so as not to rock the boat. Have an idea, or a doubt? Expressing these thoughts between formal meetings can actually make your meetings more productive, since everyone will come prepared with their own responses. BUT! Don’t fall into the trap of email miscommunication – there are certain emotions that can’t be accurately conveyed via email or text, and often people will misinterpret a comment as a personal affront or a dismissal. If you have doubts about your ability to clearly convey your concern in writing, maybe a quick conversation on a coffee break would be more effective.

Empathy

Again, this is a concept so basic that we’re taught it in preschool – it’s the golden rule (you know, do unto others…). And yet we all struggle with this one from time to time. Letting go of egocentric thought is the first step (instead of thinking about how a decision will affect you right away, take a look at the big picture and how it might affect the group and its members). I’m not saying you have to become a Zen master or anything; sometimes a deep breath before you open your mouth is all you need to get some perspective. Even a well-placed and sincere “I understand” statement can let your colleague know that you place his or her view in high regard.

A Re-building Season

Yep, just like in sports, big changes won’t happen overnight just because you start to become more aware of these responsibilities. Implementing them on a daily basis in your work and personal life will allow them to come more naturally, and may even encourage others to become more conscious of them as well. But it’ll take time, encouragement, and patience from all teammates – then you’ll come back next season even stronger for it.

Encouraging Community: How music & rhythm can develop commonality

Photo courtesy of Steve Vinick.

“Team-building” has become quite an overused term these days. If you’ve worked in a large or mid-size company, nonprofit organization, or community business, then you may have participated in your share of diversity seminars, sensitivity trainings, or group morale-boosting activities. My first experience with this was 10 years ago, during one of my first “grown-up jobs” working for My Gym Children’s Fitness Center. We did the high and low ropes course team-building that many people probably know. I was not a fan of heights at the time. My anxiety at climbing high trees to walk across tightropes was not allayed by my co-workers’ verbal encouragement. Instead, the more I was encouraged to try it, the less I wanted to. By the end of the day I had retreated into my shell.

But team-building doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t have to be intimidating, physically demanding, or catering to people with specific talents or abilities. When I mention to people that I’m an interactive rhythm facilitator, some people shy away and claim no musical ability, or cite negative childhood music experiences. Well, guess what – none of us has to be a musician to bond with our co-workers. I promise! Here are 3 ways that music and rhythm can help us overcome differences and encourage bonding in the workplace.

We’re all in this together

You just walked into the conference room and eyed the 150 various drums set up around a circle of chairs. Even if some of your co-workers are musicians, chances are they don’t know what’s about to happen with these drums any more than you do. Your boss doesn’t actually expect you to play them, does she?

That’s the cool thing about team-building with music and rhythm (many facilitators call it “in-the-moment music-making”). No one – not even me, the facilitator – can know exactly what type of music will result from this session, so we’re all on an even keel. I plan a road map of activities and discussions based on the objectives discussed with me by your boss; you, the employees, have the ability to take this session wherever you want. If you want to jam out, then jam out. If people want to dance, then dance. If you’re interested in talking about workplace experiences, then we’ll relate the music experience to what’s going on at work. My job is to help all of you create musical moments that translate into real-life situations. That means it’s not a performance: everything won’t sound perfect, just like people don’t always communicate exactly what they’re trying to say. But we go through the process together.

“Hey, I didn’t know Jim was so great at that!”

All that being said, the rhythm circle is a great way for people to showcase abilities that their co-workers didn’t know they had. This allows people to see what natural strengths others bring to the team that can also be utilized on the job. Jim held down a steady bass beat while everyone jammed? He might be a reliable person to count on during your next project. Marie and Susan got up and danced? No performance anxiety there! Maybe they’d be great people to talk up the key points for an upcoming proposal. Even someone who appears to be a “rhythm dork” (as experienced facilitator Arthur Hull so lovingly puts it) might turn out to be the one to offer insightful suggestions for improving communication during the workshop. Even just sharing a smile with your co-worker across the circle can have a positive impact and help you realize there’s some common ground.

What I love about my job is that I never know what the power of rhythm will bring to the surface for people, and it’s amazing to see them empower themselves and each other during the workshops. Many times they discover a skill or talent they had thought was long gone or didn’t know they had – and realize they can still make use of it. This can help take your upcoming project/account/proposal/task to the next level, and instill confidence for your whole team.

Become a metaphor master

Most potential clients want to know how banging on a drum for an hour and a half can possibly help them become better at a particular set of skills in the workplace. The key is all about creating metaphors for work and life during the workshop. Let’s say we do an exercise where each person has to ‘pass the beat’ around the room, so that everyone gets a turn to play it. It’s kind of like the “wave” in stadiums at sports events. We’ll go through it once and see how each person ‘passed’ it – did they rush through it or take their time? Did they wait until the person before them was finished? Did they listen to what the person before/after them played? These are observations anyone can make during the exercise, which can facilitate a discussion afterward on how the group could improve its efficiency/speed/attention while passing the beat around the room. Are those attributes that are valued in the workplace? Of course! Bringing them to the surface in a safe and non-threatening environment like the drum workshop can offer a great opportunity for employees to discuss issues with each other and make constructive suggestions. It’s all about the metaphors baby!

The great equalizer

Music truly is the great equalizer when it comes to team-building. No matter what your background, language, department, skills, or interests, music and rhythm are accessible to all. Health Rhythms® facilitators like to say, “If you have a heartbeat, you have rhythm.” In fact, many times when we introduce drumming to people, the first rhythm we play on the drum is the heartbeat. When we take away job titles, role expectations, and hierarchies, we level the playing field and invite a new understanding of ourselves and our co-workers.

Looking at it from a worldview perspective, Dr. Max Bendiner makes a hopeful point: “Music may achieve the highest of all missions: she may be a bond between nations, races, and states, who are strangers in many ways; she may unite what is disunited and bring peace to what is hostile.”

Let’s stop being ‘anti-bully’ and start being ‘pro-kindness’ – a lesson we can learn at any age

A lot of people think my chosen field is new age-y. Some think I’m a child care professional or a drum teacher. When asked what I do and I explain that I ‘provide interactive rhythm and music programs for all ages and abilities,’ the person usually responds with some form of, “well, we already have a music teacher” or “cool, I used to play percussion in marching band.”

Now, let’s talk about what rhythm and music programs have to offer besides generic music skills – namely, anti-bullying and pro-kindness skills: no matter if you’re 5 or 95. People will always need to improve their people skills at every stage of development, and rhythm is a totally accessible method for doing it.

I talk a lot about when I was a child. There are two reasons for this. The first is that I had a pretty great childhood and I’m passionate about creating opportunities for today’s children to have great experiences.

The second reason is because I was bullied, and it has affected my adult personality in ways I’m only beginning to realize. Do you think bullying doesn’t exist in your school, your company, your family, your organization? Well, even if it’s not outright bullying, I’ll tell you that at the very least, there is room for improvement in communications.

The self-confidence crisis in schools

When we mention “bullying,” the first thought is usually what happens in schools – ‘mean girls’ singling each other out, rough-looking boys beating kids up for lunch money, and the alarming statistics on teen suicide and school tragedies. Yep, this is where it starts. Kids are impressionable.

The same goes for their impressions of how to treat people. Kids look at their teachers, parents, grandparents, friends, and imaginary TV pals to subconsciously determine how to act toward each other. An unkind word from a classmate can have some pretty nasty effects if the responsible adults don’t or can’t act properly. My bullies were my friends until middle school turned them into mean girls (or silent by-standers); my loving and supportive parents weren’t able to protect me from the nasty words at school. My well-meaning principal had no protocol in particular to follow. My self-confidence, never having wavered much before, was at an all-time low.

The communication crisis in the workplace

I once worked for an organization that had a dramatic blow-up in accounting. A co-worker and a supervisor got into a heated argument and yelled at each other in the office. It resulted in the firing of the irate employee, and dramatic whispers about the incident afterward.

Where was the communication here? Was either employee making an effort to be an empathetic listener, and was anyone else doing anything to improve communication? These days, many people are experiencing a disconnect, feeling as if they are anonymous or aren’t being heard. Corporate employees and healthcare professionals especially experience the feeling that they’re expendable to their employers. As a result, stress is high, tempers become short, and turnover happens at a rate that costs these companies money each year in new hire and training costs.

A shift in mentality

I often talk about making a simple shift in individual and group mentality. By implementing these shifts on both a small and a large scale, our consciousness as a culture has the ability to improve drastically. We shift our focus to ‘pro-kindness’ and ‘pro-respect.’

The kid who was bullied in school doesn’t have to grow up to fit into the movie stereotype “recluse” or “resident nerd.” The kid who did the bullying in school also doesn’t have to fit into a stereotype of office jerk. Our shift in mentality requires a safe and respectful environment and open communication at all stages of development – from the classroom, to the university, to the workplace, even to the yoga studio or the local Target. Kindness matters everywhere.

Self- and group-empowerment

I once read a great post on LinkedIn about workplace archetypes. The author made a point that it always seems that the person in charge of approving a big project or decision is “difficult” to work with in some way. He also made the point that most of the employees know this but choose not to take action until the very last moment before a project is approved. Why not take actions to prevent last-minute stressful decisions by having the necessary conversations in the beginning? Because most of us want to avoid conflict, and we hope it will magically go away if we don’t bring it up.

Imagine if all companies encouraged employees to voice their opinions before the very last step of a project. What if you, the employee, knew that in voicing a legitimate concern, you had the support of your colleagues and the ear of your supervisor every time? Would you take the initiative more often?

In my opinion, this is a culturally systemic issue that begins in childhood. We are all to some extent shaped by our childhood experiences. When we get angry or defensive about something, there is usually some underlying memory or trigger that determines our reaction.

If we address the issue like a disease for which there is a vaccine, we can both treat the symptoms and the underlying cause. Initiate more conscious programming in schools that doesn’t just teach to the test but teaches to the experience. This is the pro-kindness vaccine, the inoculation that will help prevent an epidemic in adulthood. For the symptoms that are occurring right now, we arm ourselves with resources for compassion and respect.

It’s amazing what a drum can do

At Just Add Rhythm, we treat the symptoms and the underlying cause. We treat the symptoms that are already present in this generation as a result of lack of systemic respect, and we treat the underlying cause starting with the next generation.

We arm ourselves with drums and go into the schools, the businesses, the conferences, the hospitals, and everywhere else we’re needed. My colleagues worldwide do the same, with unwavering belief in the power of rhythm. They treat the symptoms and the cause, one rhythm ‘vaccine’ at a time.

It’s inspiring what you can do!

Our objective is to empower each of you – so that you can make the shifts you need to live a healthier and happier life. I love sharing with you what I’ve learned on my own journey, and hearing from you about yours. Get started by reaching out to us!

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