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.