Barn Raising, Songwriting, Team Building

So I’m wondering how many of you remember how great a movie Witness is? You know, the movie with a much younger Harrison Ford, who as a cop from Philly gets caught up in some corrupt chaos which sends the crooked police chief and his “team” out to get Harrison…who finds himself hiding among the Amish and then falling in love with the one and only Kelly McGillis? I’m sure some will disagree, but I guess it’s one of my old favorites. In particular, I always get the warm fuzzies when thinking about the sense of community and team that the Amish show, both in the movie and in real life. When I talk about writing a song for the purpose of team building, this is really what I’m talking about. Check out the video below for a refresher on the barn raising scene.

Could your office team raise a barn, without modern tools and machines in say a…week? A month? Maybe this is not a fair question as the Amish we always think of doing these activities are already skilled in these trades once they get to a certain spot in their lives. Okay, so to be more fair and make this more to scale. Do you think that in 2 days, without modern machinery, you and your office team could build a 10-14 tool shed in say….my back yard? 🙂 Think of the sense of rhythm we must acquire, the empathy we must have for one another, the knowledge of who does what the best in any given team situation, and then how are we able to amplify each others strengths? Next time you wonder if your team is working well…efficiently…contentedly, ask yourself if they could “raise a barn..” together. Whatever that barn may truly be.