🥁 The OffBeat #73: Using Music to Motivate Your Team
A (karaoke-free) roundup of six proven suggestions
This is The OffBeat, from jazz drummer, two-decade marketing leader, and mom of two Allison Stadd: music-inspired answers for your leadership challenges, like identifying the “drum rudiments” of your professional life.
“I’ve listened to the Hamilton soundtrack dozens of times, and every time I finish I’m like, ‘LET’S START A REVOLUTION.’”
^^ That’s tech entrepreneur Max Ogles, and I can totally relate.
Music is a powerful motivational tool. Think about how often you see professional athletes dialed into their headphones before a game.
As a music-driven leader, I've learned music in the workplace can be a powerful tool for influencing team dynamics and productivity.
Here's how you can use music to inspire, energize, and connect:
Kick off meetings with a walk-on playlist
Use music to curate the vibe of a meeting as people are entering and getting situated (in-person, virtually, or both).
You can even rotate DJ duty if the group is large enough and the meeting cadence is recurring, e.g. a monthly All Hands.
Here’s the Team Meetings playlist I’ve used.
Use background music during brainstorms
If a meeting, workshop, or offsite has deep-thinking time on the agenda, prepare an instrumental playlist to prime people’s brains. Match the tempo to the task, like upbeat for creative inspiration, calming for contemplative focus.
I like this “Creative Calm” playlist by The Wild Honey Pie for introspective work.
P.S. ⤵️
Start a “music club” album exchange
I started a business book club at two separate former jobs which was a blast (and at one, inexplicably always included evening waffles?!), but these days, with minimal excess brain juice, I can’t justify the energy and time investment.
An alternative is a “music club,” in which people take turns sharing an album that’s been meaningful to them in some way. Everyone else listens to the album then the group convenes to chat about it.
Structure meetings and presentations like a music album
Most albums kick off with a high-energy track, flow through a carefully sequenced cadence of additional tracks, then close with a song that leaves a lasting impression.
Use that architecture to build cognitively satisfying meeting agendas and slide decks. Start strong, be thoughtful about the progression of the body of your material, then close with intention.
Use musical memories to jog creative thinking
In his memoir The Storyteller, Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl talks about measuring his life in musical increments rather than months or years.
Certain albums created formative memories for him and whenever he hears, or recollects, tracks from those albums it provides a revitalized perspective.
If someone on your team is stuck on a brief, or needs a fresh lens on a thorny people problem, prompt them to contemplate what songs have been consequential throughout their life and what embodying those feelings brings up.
Play “name that tune”
Before you cringe: quick, low-energy games are a worthwhile addition to team meetings because a) they inject levity into what can be a boring or at least high-cognitive-load forum and b) they’re inherently team-building.
One of my favorite virtual team games is “name that tune”; here’s a Name That Tune: 90s playlist I used recently.
How have you used music to motivate your team?
Have a great week,
Allison
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