The group drumming session for staff at my library was this past Friday, and I felt that it was a success!
This was my first “real” HealthRhythms group drumming session, which I tailored to fit the needs of the staff of my library. The guiding idea for the session was to decompress as a group, and to end the semester “on a good note”. From the start, I wanted the flavor of the session to be fun, play, celebration, and the chance to be together in a different-than-usual setting. Besides participants’ initial nervousness about drumming and team building activities, I also envisioned there would be lots of healthy laughter and a good beat (and there was!)
Interspersed throughout the experiential exercise, I tried to play the theme of how each person’s drumming symbolized their unique “voice” they brought to the group. While I didn't necessarily talk about “team work”, I think that this experience created more positive feelings among the group that can improve their work in the future.
I was especially thankful of the chance to continue to deepen my facilitation skills. Judging from the participant evaluations (brief questions about what they did and didn’t like about the exercise, as well as general comments), people enjoyed the exercise. They talked about the session as fun, celebratory, and a chance to “come together” as a group, and these were some of the purposes I set for the session. I also noticed that I was much less nervous than previous times practicing the method, and I looked forward to the day of the session. Because of this experience, I feel more confident about my ability to facilitate group drumming sessions in the future.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
HealthRhythms as a Team building Approach
I want to reflect on the upcoming staff planning day, which includes a a percussion-based experiential exercise, facilitated by--yours truly. While this is not the first time I've used the HealthRhythms protocol, it is the first "real" one, where a group is gathered together for the purpose of team building and reflection. Sure, I have some nervousness about it. But, I have felt that before; whether it is a Info Lit class for undergrads, or a presentation for academics, that nervousness usually goes away once I'm there.
I know some key pieces of data as well: who the participants are, and something about how they work together. I know that, as a unit, they have been through some tough emotional times, especially in the last year. But, they also seem flexible and able to enjoy themselves together.
I also know that, as a facilitator, I have good experience in teaching classes, am comfortable leading sessions (once I get over the initial nervousness), and have a desire to facilitate. Of course, I still wrestle with being a perfectionist; I still have that straightjacket-fits-all feeling of having everything "go right". I am still feeling a bit unsure about the entrainment (or "drum groove") part of the protocol; I don't think I have the hang of that quite yet. Perhaps this is the place where I can grow to see the space that the group needs to get to in the entrainment part, and then, once they are "locked in", I can join in myself and let it flow a bit more.
A couple other things that I know: the research conducted by Barry Bittman, Christine Stevens, and others, investigating the health benefits of a group drumming method, is important to the argument that HealthRhythms can be used as a team building method. The main way it helps build teams, in my view, is that it promotes stress relief and positive group and individual feelings; it explores the relations of the group outside of the usual boundaries of work, using a creative experiential exercise; and, it also can celebrate an accomplishment--in this case, the end of a successful semester, and the beginning of a much needed break.
And another aspect that deserves mention: the use of the group drumming protocol in higher education, and libraries in particular. The article by Keith Russell et al., ("Organizational development, best practices, and employee development.” Library administration & management 17(4): 189-195, fall 2003), in which they describe the use of group drumming exercises in the organizational development program at University of Kansas, shows that this is a method that can be used successfully in a higher education setting. The authors observe that "(1) drumming and drum-circle activities have a remarkable and positive impact on stress levels; (2) drumming can be used for meditation, which is one of the stress management techniques that many institutions teach; and (3) corporations have been using drumming activities for years for team and community building." This tells me that the use of an experiential learning method that stretches people's ideas of themselves, can have a good impact on their mood, and that can lead to improvements in productivity. The article also mentions that using teaching methods that employ and speak to more than one of the intelligences delineated by Howard Gardner are more likely to be successful with a larger number of participants.
Overall, through Friday's library session, I hope to gain more confidence, skill, and experience in facilitating group drumming exercises. And, while I don't think we will get too loud, I think that the drum groove started there will have a ripple effect, in ways that I can't even see yet.
I know some key pieces of data as well: who the participants are, and something about how they work together. I know that, as a unit, they have been through some tough emotional times, especially in the last year. But, they also seem flexible and able to enjoy themselves together.
I also know that, as a facilitator, I have good experience in teaching classes, am comfortable leading sessions (once I get over the initial nervousness), and have a desire to facilitate. Of course, I still wrestle with being a perfectionist; I still have that straightjacket-fits-all feeling of having everything "go right". I am still feeling a bit unsure about the entrainment (or "drum groove") part of the protocol; I don't think I have the hang of that quite yet. Perhaps this is the place where I can grow to see the space that the group needs to get to in the entrainment part, and then, once they are "locked in", I can join in myself and let it flow a bit more.
A couple other things that I know: the research conducted by Barry Bittman, Christine Stevens, and others, investigating the health benefits of a group drumming method, is important to the argument that HealthRhythms can be used as a team building method. The main way it helps build teams, in my view, is that it promotes stress relief and positive group and individual feelings; it explores the relations of the group outside of the usual boundaries of work, using a creative experiential exercise; and, it also can celebrate an accomplishment--in this case, the end of a successful semester, and the beginning of a much needed break.
And another aspect that deserves mention: the use of the group drumming protocol in higher education, and libraries in particular. The article by Keith Russell et al., ("Organizational development, best practices, and employee development.” Library administration & management 17(4): 189-195, fall 2003), in which they describe the use of group drumming exercises in the organizational development program at University of Kansas, shows that this is a method that can be used successfully in a higher education setting. The authors observe that "(1) drumming and drum-circle activities have a remarkable and positive impact on stress levels; (2) drumming can be used for meditation, which is one of the stress management techniques that many institutions teach; and (3) corporations have been using drumming activities for years for team and community building." This tells me that the use of an experiential learning method that stretches people's ideas of themselves, can have a good impact on their mood, and that can lead to improvements in productivity. The article also mentions that using teaching methods that employ and speak to more than one of the intelligences delineated by Howard Gardner are more likely to be successful with a larger number of participants.
Overall, through Friday's library session, I hope to gain more confidence, skill, and experience in facilitating group drumming exercises. And, while I don't think we will get too loud, I think that the drum groove started there will have a ripple effect, in ways that I can't even see yet.
Frames of MInd
What lead me to reading Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences ? (New York: Basic Books, 1983) I had heard a lot about it, and it was included along with several other works by Gardner, on the bibliography given to me by the the Organizational Development expert. The big reason, however, was because I am intrigued by the concept of multiple intelligences, and want to learn more. From one angle, I had been a believer in multiple intelligences for a while, probably since a teaching methods course early in my library career. As a popular notion, multiple intelligences seemed to make sense to me. I also wanted to discover what the theory behind it was; I thought that Gardner's book could answer some questions about how the intelligences work, where they come from, and how (if at all) they are different than ingrained personality traits or abilities. Plus, there is something exciting about reading the ground breaking work that created a sensation in the education and psychology world.
In my encounter with Gardner's theories, I also had a desire to see how this applied to team building and group work. I thought that I could get some good information about how the musical intelligence might factor into what people are doing in a drumming session. I focused also on the chapters about the body-kinesthetic intelligence, and the personal intelligences, since I thought these might also play a role in the groups. The introductory chapter where Gardner lays the groundwork for his theory of intelligence by putting it into context of the historical concepts of intelligence, was important. I began to see the intellectual and scientific theories of intelligence out of which the theory comes. As I found out through my reading, Gardner approaches his subject very much from a cognitive psychology point of view.
It seemed that Gardner was painting a picture of intelligence as not being some static thing that each person has a certain amount of, and no more or less (such as the static score given from an IQ test). Rather, he seemed to be building up evidence to show that what goes under the umbrella term "intelligence" is really a combination of differing actions and processes, talents and gifts, or even simply ways of processing information and understanding the world. He states: "Reason, intelligence, logic, knowledge are not synonymous; and much of this book constitutes an effort to tease out the various skills and capacities that have to easily been combined under the rubric of "the mental" (p. 6-7). He wants to better elucidate what is at work when someone "intelligently" interacts with the world. What do they do? He echoes Dewey's Pattern of Inquiry when he states that "an intellectual competence must entail a set of skills of problem solving--enabling he individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties that he or she encounters, and when appropriate, to create an effective product--and must also entail the potential for finding or creating problems--thereby laying the groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge.: (p 60-61).
It is instructive that a lot of the examples for the multiple intelligences comes from research into the activity of the brain (the ubiquitous "brain research" you read about in education periodicals) when a person is performing certain activities. If I understand Gardner right, there are specific locations that are energized in the brain when, say, hearing musical tones, than when someone is reading a book. The areas of the brain are a hint to the fact that a "separate intelligence" might be at work.
Of course, I was interested to see what Gardner said about musical intelligence, since I would think that people who are involved in a group drumming exercise might want to know something about their innate musical intelligence. The chapter was interesting, and I focused on his description of the evolution of music cultures: Stone Age instruments have been found, and the fact that there is presumptive evidence that music played a societal role in organizing work groups, hunting parties, and religious rites (p. 115). Gardner also states that there is "a core set of abilities crucial to all participation in the musical experience of a culture. These core abilities should be found in any normal individual brought into regular contact with any kind of music" (p. 104) My point would be to emphasize to participants that, despite a belief they may hold that they "are not musical", that there are basic ways that they make music, and that drumming and rhythm is one of them. Yes, they are musical and we can all participate in this kind of music! Rhythm is very basic, and it is something that we are all attuned to; just listen to your heartbeat, and you will see that you have an innate rhythm. Just tap your feet to some music that you like, and you know that you have rhythm.
While I did not delve into Frames of Mind too deeply, I did learn some things. The book was written in an academic, sometimes stilted style which I sometimes go for, and sometimes think it gets in the way of my understanding. However, I think his attempt to expand the notion of what it means to be "intelligent", is very creative and important to today's world. We need to see how we all have a unique set of abilities, but we also have much in common. All of this is to say that I am glad that I read selections of Gardner's book, if only to get some background and (hopefully) to bring some of these concepts into my group team building sessions. I think I now have a more informed perspective, and can recognize different kinds of intelligences that are at work in everybody.
In my encounter with Gardner's theories, I also had a desire to see how this applied to team building and group work. I thought that I could get some good information about how the musical intelligence might factor into what people are doing in a drumming session. I focused also on the chapters about the body-kinesthetic intelligence, and the personal intelligences, since I thought these might also play a role in the groups. The introductory chapter where Gardner lays the groundwork for his theory of intelligence by putting it into context of the historical concepts of intelligence, was important. I began to see the intellectual and scientific theories of intelligence out of which the theory comes. As I found out through my reading, Gardner approaches his subject very much from a cognitive psychology point of view.
It seemed that Gardner was painting a picture of intelligence as not being some static thing that each person has a certain amount of, and no more or less (such as the static score given from an IQ test). Rather, he seemed to be building up evidence to show that what goes under the umbrella term "intelligence" is really a combination of differing actions and processes, talents and gifts, or even simply ways of processing information and understanding the world. He states: "Reason, intelligence, logic, knowledge are not synonymous; and much of this book constitutes an effort to tease out the various skills and capacities that have to easily been combined under the rubric of "the mental" (p. 6-7). He wants to better elucidate what is at work when someone "intelligently" interacts with the world. What do they do? He echoes Dewey's Pattern of Inquiry when he states that "an intellectual competence must entail a set of skills of problem solving--enabling he individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties that he or she encounters, and when appropriate, to create an effective product--and must also entail the potential for finding or creating problems--thereby laying the groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge.: (p 60-61).
It is instructive that a lot of the examples for the multiple intelligences comes from research into the activity of the brain (the ubiquitous "brain research" you read about in education periodicals) when a person is performing certain activities. If I understand Gardner right, there are specific locations that are energized in the brain when, say, hearing musical tones, than when someone is reading a book. The areas of the brain are a hint to the fact that a "separate intelligence" might be at work.
Of course, I was interested to see what Gardner said about musical intelligence, since I would think that people who are involved in a group drumming exercise might want to know something about their innate musical intelligence. The chapter was interesting, and I focused on his description of the evolution of music cultures: Stone Age instruments have been found, and the fact that there is presumptive evidence that music played a societal role in organizing work groups, hunting parties, and religious rites (p. 115). Gardner also states that there is "a core set of abilities crucial to all participation in the musical experience of a culture. These core abilities should be found in any normal individual brought into regular contact with any kind of music" (p. 104) My point would be to emphasize to participants that, despite a belief they may hold that they "are not musical", that there are basic ways that they make music, and that drumming and rhythm is one of them. Yes, they are musical and we can all participate in this kind of music! Rhythm is very basic, and it is something that we are all attuned to; just listen to your heartbeat, and you will see that you have an innate rhythm. Just tap your feet to some music that you like, and you know that you have rhythm.
While I did not delve into Frames of Mind too deeply, I did learn some things. The book was written in an academic, sometimes stilted style which I sometimes go for, and sometimes think it gets in the way of my understanding. However, I think his attempt to expand the notion of what it means to be "intelligent", is very creative and important to today's world. We need to see how we all have a unique set of abilities, but we also have much in common. All of this is to say that I am glad that I read selections of Gardner's book, if only to get some background and (hopefully) to bring some of these concepts into my group team building sessions. I think I now have a more informed perspective, and can recognize different kinds of intelligences that are at work in everybody.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)