Ideas from music encourage listening skills in teams and leaders and add a touch of playfulness to the session, says Iris Clermont
Everyone has a unique background shaped by their culture, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, education and life experiences, and it’s this diversity that brings together unique perspectives, driving innovation and creativity. Such diversity helps us navigate the complex landscape of the business world today.
For clients who are middle-managers or leaders in international companies, juggling multiple transformations – from organisational and cultural shifts to technical and agile-driven changes – can be overwhelming. It’s easy for leaders and their teams to slip into reactive mode, feeling like they’re constantly playing catch-up instead
of taking the driver’s seat. What leaders and teams want is to feel appreciated and contribute to tangible business impact.
When I work with teams and leaders, I draw on ideas from music to encourage listening skills through synchronisation practices, improve communication, clarity and future direction and add a touch of playfulness and a sense of joy, helping people draw on the richness of diversity.
Draw on music
Exercises based on music help create inspiration and empowerment for teams. Teams can open up in a light way for new perspectives, strive for new achievements and celebrate successes, much like in the world of music.
Elevating listening abilities
One essential synchronisation step towards aligning teams is elevating listening abilities. Speaking less and listening more will enable leaders to be empowering, understanding and connect with others on a deeper level. By raising leaders’ and teams’ ability to hear what others are saying, they’ll better recognise their needs, desires and goals and work together towards achieving them.
Team rhythm listening practice
This listening rhythm practice will challenge focus and concentration and unlock a deeper level of self-awareness. It is a fun practice that demonstrates that becoming and continuously improving as a synchronised team requires training.
Make it work
I recommend exploring this practice in pairs. Each partner chooses and studies one of the rhythms below and avoids looking at the others. It’s critical during this exercise to let go of ongoing business challenges and focus on listening to the rhythm.
If someone has chosen an easy rhythm, invite them to play it twice while their partner listens. They then perform the same rhythm until they feel comfortable with it. Suggest they continue playing the rhythm together until both can repeat it correctly for at least a few loops. Listening and attentiveness while performing this exercise help avoid falling into automatism and getting out of sync.
Repeating the same cycle helps develop and enhance listening skills. When people feel comfortable with an easy rhythm, invite them to switch roles. Their partner plays the advanced rhythm while they listen and repeat it. Exploring the easy and advanced rhythms is a valuable exercise to enhance listening capabilities.
This rhythm practice can be completed by encouraging your clients to share their discoveries and insights, looking at it from both the leader’s and team’s perspectives with questioning:
What did you notice about your ability to listen and focus on rhythms during this practice? What insights are worth transferring to your daily business?
Workplace applications
These insights can be applied to everyday business situations, helping the team navigate and find solutions as things change. Picture this: leaders and team members embarking on a journey to discover how long it takes to find their groove and sync up with pure joy.
Bringing the rhythm practice to the workplace is like diving into the delightful experience of listening keenly to colleagues. On the flip side, there’s the challenge of getting stuck in thoughts, which slows things down. This mirrors the dynamics of daily business life, where a lack of listening skills can seriously hinder the flow of value, causing inefficiency and frustration. It’s truly incredible to explore how these aspects impact how the team works and collaborates.
Exploring listening:
What we can learn from bands
To raise a team’s enthusiasm during daily business routines, I want to introduce you to two concrete practices adapted from band workshops. These help musicians become more synchronised via both silence and attentive listening.
Attentive listening
First, during a band performance, imagine everyone is highly self-focused, without noticing the other musicians. Moving their attention from playing their instrument to listening to each other, the musicians open the doors to a new experience. The band grooves while each member has fun and feels inspired.
Silence
The second good practice for a band is conscious silence before they start a new song. Beginning with silence, perhaps a bit longer than usual, raises the attention of all the musicians with the effect that when the song starts, there’s a synchronous rhythm from the first to the last pulse.
What can business leaders take from these band practices, merging them into daily routines for teams and the organisation? Attention to listening skills supports a great sound and atmosphere and synchronised rhythm for bands. Transferring this experience to coaching sessions or business meeting cultures, for example, can be very powerful. Leaders can start with a short moment of silence to sharpen listening skills, for example, leading to inspired teams and applauding customers.
The process of listening can involve repeating other people’s words to follow up on what they are saying. Helping clients demonstrate authentic listening skills so everyone can share what they want to add in a meeting without fear of being misunderstood, can be a significant movement towards a more effective and joyful meeting culture.
As a celebration that appreciates and values team success, you might invite a team to tap and clap together to a well-known song. They might choose from one easy and one advanced song for their achievement celebration rhythm practice. Invite them on stage andhave fun!
Get creative
Another even more creative option is to invite clients to choose the rhythm from their favourite song or compose a new rhythm song. This will help the team feel into its identity, connection and appreciation of each other, and can conclude with a big round of applause.
I wish all of us the best on this journey towards more appreciation and trust in each other’s strengths and expertise. This naturally leads to speaking less and focusing on active listening, understanding each other’s views, and finally co-creating ideas and solutions rather than the ping pong of critical topics or, even more harmful, blaming each other. After all, we are sitting in one boat and standing as one huge and diverse team of humans on one earth.
Figure 1: Easy listening rhythm practice
Figure 2: Advanced listening rhythm practice
Figure 3. Easy celebration rhythm: ‘We Will Rock You’ – Queen
Figure 4. Advanced celebration rhythm: ‘Viva La Vida’ – Coldplay
About the author
l Iris Clermont is an executive coach, author and professional mathematician. She holds certifications from Team Coaching International and Conversational Intelligence and a Professional Accreditation from the International Coaching Federation. Her mission is to motivate teams to work effectively while having fun and gaining energy from their business life. Iris has worked in 20 different countries worldwide, combining her expertise as a team and leadership coach and as a business consultant for corporate companies. In her new book, Team Rhythm, Iris applies logic and themes from the world of music to equip leaders with tools to engage and inspire their teams.