Last week, we were in the middle of a three-day conference in beautiful Cornwall. We were employed by the DCH Group, which provides, manages and builds affordable homes for a wide range of people, and have done so for over 40 years. We delivered drumming workshops.
DCH Group had taken the brave decision to go out on a limb and bring four sectors of its business together for the first time, to share important information and also to give people some new and exciting experiences together.
While the wonderful keynote speaker Dr John Bird MBE took centre stage, we secretly prepared two rooms full of wonderful-looking drums.
Each day, our drum rooms received 50 confused delegates, slowly sitting down behind their instruments. We had lots of nervous smiles, and also a fair amount of skepticism. Of course, who could blame them? For most people in life, just attending a conference is strange enough, but being asked to become a high-performing drumming group in under an hour sounds like complete madness!
As a sector of industry that doesn’t often get to attend away days and team-oriented activities, it was safe to say a lot of people were out of their comfort zone. However, every session went extremely well because the participants got stuck right in. Before they knew it, they all sounded cohesive. Even more importantly, they were creating something new together. In under ten minutes, we had them laughing, relaxed and somewhat bemused! Without realising it, participants had begun to listen and react as a complete musical team. Learning without knowing your learning fast tracks personal confidence, trust in the facilitator and the realisation that anything is possible.
What made us really proud of each group was the fact that participants barely knew each other and only had 60 minutes to get through our fast-paced programme, which included:
- learning the basic drumming skills required
- understanding the discipline of improvisation
- being involved in a powerful trust/deep listening exercise together.
We left each group with the message that drums, as lovely as they are, are just the vehicle. The fact that each room was buzzing with excitement was because of the openness and spirit of the participants, and that can also be possible without drums!
Each day, we said goodbye to row after row of beaming faces and well-meaning handshakes. Our drum team, as well as the fantastic conference organisers, saw real and visible transformations in each group. This is exactly what inspires us to do the work we do.
While it is very flattering to receive positive feedback from the CEO and conference organisers, each day, as our drum group played out the delegates from the main plenary session, the smiles, looks and positive gestures we received from passing participants said it all. Having people pull you to one side to explain what an experience they have had, or just observing the sincere look in the eyes of people as they waved goodbye, was so heart warming for our drumming team.
The power of drumming is simply unbeatable (pardon the pun) for creating a totally new feeling within a team, department or organisation.
Of course, none of this would have happened if the organisers hadn’t had the vision to add drumming to their agenda. So, a huge thank you to Dawn and all the team for trusting us with their people and looking after us so well. We all had a truly wonderful time and wish the DCH Group all the best with the important work they do.
For more information about our drumming events, please Contact Us.
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Drumming Workshops | Blog Homepage | Indoor Team Building Activities | List of Our Indoor Events