There is no shortage of team building activities, and some of them are fun – some more than others. But many are incredibly boring.
I read a piece from a South African team building company’s website where they describe one of their many team building activities. It involves members of one team grabbing an object with their feet and trying to put it in a container, all the while being pelted with balls from the other team.
Maybe crawling around the grass on your buttocks sounds like fun to some people reading this, but not to me.
I read an article recently that claims to have researched aspects of this issue. They claim…
In the United Kingdom they did a survey of 2000 random office workers. About 25% said not only do they not enjoy team building days, they dread the thought!
According to the British Heart Foundation 40% of people asked said they found their team building days “boring”
I found this “research” bitter sweet. Bitter because team buildings like the one I described above gives team building a bad name which causes some companies to write it off. Sweet because I know a good drumming experience doesn’t fall into the “boring” or “dreaded” category and can in fact be one of the best experiences of your life.
Drumming has been used as team building since the dawn of time. To the best of my knowledge, archaeologists recently found the world’s oldest drum in Mesopotamia, i.e. mostly modern day Iraq, parts of Syria, Turkey and one other country I can’t remember – Iran I think.
Point being, drumming has stood the test of time. It’s not a phase. It’s not a fashion. It’s not a product that has a life-cycle.
Now don’t get me wrong- you get fun drumming experiences, like the African-themed drumming experience from Drum Cafe, as well as the communal sit-in-a-circle-around-a-big-fire-and-space-out-hippy-style drumming circle like you get at Klitzgras.
But you also get really boring drumming companies like for example… kidding, I won’t mention names.
As far as Brothers in Beat’s Rock Star Interactive Drumming…
…a lady from The National Association of School Nurses (I think formerly ProSNASA), told her colleague who had invited us to their event something that supports the findings of the research mentioned in the article I read.
She said, “I absolutely HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE team building events! But last night was fantastic! I enjoyed it tremendously!”
So if you’re one of those who HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE the many boring and dreadful team building experiences on offer today, write off team building if you wish. But don’t write off drumming.
We have a dream of getting as many people as possible to experience the incredible thrill of drumming to music. I hope that whether you’re reading this looking for a team building experience, or whether you just browsed through it as a matter of curiosity, that our paths will cross some day. And if you’re lucky… it will be some day soon 🙂