YOU can feel it in the music….

After going through the images archives, I found it hard to find a photo for this article - because the subject of FEELING is so intimately personal to each of us. So I chose a shot that perhaps encourages the reader just to go inside.

In the same way that images convey emotion, so unquestionably does music.

For the last 20 years I have had the privilege of running interactive rhythm and music programs in business schools, companies, sports teams and NGO’s around the globe.

Music drives the listener to connect to emotion – but when it is the individuals that make up a team who are actually creating the music, this takes the experience to another level. For all.

I am continually surprised and ever struck that how music is played gives such a precise diagnosis of what is going on in the team, a company, or an organisation…..

Of course we can generalise from a cultural point of view – when I have worked and facilitated programs in the German part of Switzerland, I have found the music to be very precise, but there was unquestionably a lack of energy.

And yet when I have lead programs in Latin countries, there is a ton of energy and expression, but often a lack of precision and discipline.

But beyond cultural norms, how does this relate to international teams?

When the banks were forced to tighten up their money laundering rules private banking clients could no longer show up with suitcases full of cash. This sent a wave of fear through the banking industry which you could feel in the music.

During a session for a group of private bankers at that time, they played the music almost with a sense of concern. It was as if their minds and hearts were elsewhere and they were far from being completely engaged in what they were doing.

Of course it was not ‘as if’. This is exactly what was happening. It was evident that this was a fear of the unknown, an uncertain future. It was palpable.

More recently during the restructure of what was Ot-Morpho (now Idemia) the team knew that the future was bright. There was a ton of energy but it was not focussed. The rhythms became fuller than they needed to be. The enthusiasm was overflowing.

At the end of the program I had the opportunity to talk to the boss – I suggested that his new heads of department clearly had their work cut out to channel that pure enthusiasm that their teams clearly had for this new venture. Cultivated management skills would be the only way to avoid disappointment.

And in other organisations that make personal learning a priority, when the music is played there is a sense of purpose, care, diligence, precision, awareness.

Diagnosis, emotional intelligence, passion, active listening, collaboration…..The list could go on and on of how collective music making can play such an import part of any organisations’ development.