Song Writing and Team Building

The Song Team

This was the best team building and leadership event we've ever had. Our team is still on fire! — Delta Airlines

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 jeff.jacob2@gmail.com

The Song Team - Team Building Blog

United All Boats Rise

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United All Boats Rise

So, I’m sitting on a colorful blanket under a palm tree on Hollywood Beach. Having found a little shade in the heat of the day, I am content. Toes in the sand, I have a notebook and pencil with me.

There is sand, breeze, and salt in the air. Heavenly. About an hour into my “allotted” two-hour window, (how much money I’d put in the meter), I noticed the sand around my blanket was moving. Little red ants were going about their business.

At first, I was startled. I love all things outdoors, but some of the DNA in my family tree does not.

However, I’m not them, and they’re not me, right? Trying to be calm about it, I use hands and feet to push piles of sand around me and move the ants (without harming them..mostly) away from the blanket. Surely, they would get the point if I kept digging these moats and building these…well, ant “defense” hills?

Nope. These industrious critters kept on their merry mission. United and focused on the task at hand. They seemed to be working together towards a purpose of higher calling. One that largely involved moving around my blanket, though not on it. Mostly. Some of them did make it onto the blanket as I held still and tried to focus on my book, the ocean, the breeze… is something crawling on my leg? Nope, nothing there, wait….nope nothing. Oh, there’s one. Crap.

I was fascinated by their determination, their collaborative instincts. The way they worked together reminded me of an article I once read about a forest of trees all of whose roots were connected. They communicated with one another in an organic, almost mystical way.

This red army was on their own little scavenger hunt for who knows what…food? Building materials? A Ms. Pac Man machine with a joystick that works well? Not sure what, but they had a mission, and somehow they were energetically connected. Did they ever quarrel? They must sometimes.

I recently saw “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Queen, like all bands, had their fights. But they also did some amazing work through collaboration.

Did you know that infamous foot stomping, drum-banging part at the start of “We Will Rock You” was not Freddie’s invention? Rather, it stemmed from the genius of guitarist Brian May. At the start of a rehearsal that Freddie hadn’t yet arrived at, May got tired of waiting and pitched his idea to the band of somehow involving the audience in part of this new song. Giving them their “own part.” Can you hear it? Stomp, stomp, clap…stomp, stomp, clap!

If you are inspired to do something collaborative with the entire community, join us in our annual city-wide scavenger hunt. We’ll challenge you, have fun, get to know each other, shine a light on some local non-profits, and celebrate all the good that Hollywood has to offer!

Here and everywhere, we are intrinsically interconnected. Amidst the daily grind, it’s easy to forget how nearly every action we take, or decision we make, has a domino effect on the ones around us. A butterfly effect if you will. Keep that in mind every day, every moment. At work and at home.

Think about it. Stay present. Give, collaborate, lift up your neighbor, breathe, rinse, repeat and do it again. Dare to see through the eyes of the other, dare to truly listen, be a great friend, an inspirational teammate, a leader who makes a difference.

United all boats rise.

All together now, get to it.

Find the original article here.

Teaming Up: The History Of The Modern-Day Scavenger Hunt

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Modern-Day Scavenger Hunt

The “modern day” version of a Scavenger Hunt traces it’s origins as part of the modern popular culture back to the 1920s when notorious Jazz Age gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell, held raucous parties, with “scavenger” aspects to the entertainment.

Items being searched for were as wacky, multi-faceted and strange as the hostess herself. The FIRST hunt, was supposedly held at one of Maxwell’s fancy fêtes in 1920s Paris. Even back then in its infancy stages of being a “thing”, the hunt was typically conquered by teams, rather than by individuals. Just the nature of the beast.

Markus Montola, an expert on “old-time” gaming, who wrote the book Pervasive Games: Theory and Design, claims the “hunt games” actually date back to way before Ms. Maxwell roamed the speakeasies, to the highlands and folk culture. However, I haven’t found anything to back this up.

Regardless of when the hunt originated, it holds true that teams of living, breathing inhabitants of this planet use their individual strengths and senses, combined together with those of others…to win.

Often these teams are made up of people who don’t know each other and have never worked together.

These people come from different socio-economic backgrounds, have different politics, sexual orientations, varied ethnicities, and divergent personal stories. But they share a goal. Win the hunt. Teams can change history. True.

Speaking of teams changing the world, last month the lesser-known Co-Founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen passed away. His partner, Bill Gates is quoted as saying “personal computing would not exist without Paul’s contributions.” While Gates is certainly the more well-known of the pair, Allen is generally acknowledged to have been the idea man. Something I didn’t know. They pushed each other to see things through the other’s eyes, and man did they shake things up! Paul often preached what was “possible” to Bill, while Bill would counter with what was “feasible” or “fiscally realistic.” It worked.

Frederick Banting and Charles Best, a pair of scientists from The University of Toronto, are generally credited with creating insulin for diabetics in 1921. Teams have been making history with their findings and creations since….well since the beginning of time!

Closer to home and back here in present day, The Miami Herald this past February, re-launched a long-running, successful hunt called The Herald Hunt.

The Pied Piper for this world-famous hunt is the notorious Dave Barry, and by all accounts, people from all over the country are thrilled this event has returned in all its quirky splendor.

At the end of the day, scavenger hunts are meant to shake up the world a little bit, while fostering teamwork and creative problem-solving. Two of my favorite things!

It’s why I’m so excited about this year’s Hollywood Scavenger Hunt (The Hunt for Good) presented by title sponsor Art and Culture Center/Hollywood. Collaboration baby!

Whether following an online trail of bread-crumbs or gathering wacky fashion items, scavenger hunts can help players appreciate the world around them by forcing them to consider their surroundings in a new light.

When we begin to see the world through the eyes of “the other,” much can come into focus. We begin to look at solutions (more fun than problems) in a multitude of new ways.

And, while we each see things through our own personal lens, scavenger hunts are at their best, when we work together in the “name of the game” to dig up all the wacky and fun items typically assigned as part of “hunt missions.”

Do it with friends from work, from your place of worship, OR by yourself and get paired up with soon to be new friends.

Find the orignal article here.

 

Emerald Hills Resident Uses Fundamentals of Music to Facilitate Memorable Team-Building Exercises

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Jeff Speaker

Attendees of the opening ceremony of the 2018 Hollywood Scavenger Hunt presented by title sponsor Art and Culture Center/Hollywood on December 6 will be treated to an extra special experience facilitated by Emerald Hills resident Jeff Jacob, who has been writing for the Gazette for the last few months about the art of collaboration.

While we cannot share exactly what the experience will be, you might guess that it will be…collaborative. Because that’s what Jacob does.

When he’s not busy at his day job as Assistant Executive Director at B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Jacob might be found rescuing stray animals, giving his time to various non-profits, or preparing and delivering TEDx talks.

But most likely, he’ll be working with the company he founded in 2012, The Song Team, which offers a unique spin on team building. Using the fundamentals of music to solve problems and foster communication, the Song Team can creatively focus on challenges facing organizations and groups large and small.

“I had been running a large recording studio in Nashville, Dark Horse Recording Studios, a magical place, really,” recalls Jacob, “where lots of famous artists like Faith Hill, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, and Neil Diamond came to record. The owner of Dark Horse had started talking and writing about his experiences with these big stars –why they came to him when they had lots of other choices. It morphed into a unique story of the studio and he began talking and writing about customer service and leadership.”

While running the studio, Jacob was also helping the studio owner market his new business as a motivational speaker, and he got to learn the world of corporate speaking.

There he noticed that people who knew the world of business but were not great speakers, and great speakers who knew nothing about business, could come together, and create great presentations.

“As a musician, it occurred to me that in the history of songwriting, probably 90% of the biggest songs of all time were collaborative pieces,” he continued. “From Broadway to Motown to Tin Pan Alley to modern day country, most songs were written by two or sometimes more people with mutually complementary skill sets. Later on, it was Leiber and Stoller, Lennon and McCartney (and sometimes the others) Jagger and Richards — they got together to complement each other and create the soundtrack of a generation.”

Realizing “the power of the collective,” and that there is always interconnecting in any great idea in business as well as music, Jacob began thinking about how he could combine professional development and songwriting into an interactive experience that would outshine a simple presentation.

And The Song Team was born.

“For my first gig, I did small a small breakout session of about 20 or 30 people at the Univesity of Indiana,” Jacob said. “I had formed a relationship with the client, got my boss a gig as a keynote speaker, and told the client that I did teambuilding by songwriting. I said I was brand new — she didn’t know how brand new, she was the first! — and bartered a discounted rate for having their A/V department do my first video. They brought me back two times! And it grew from there.”

A session with The Song Team includes collaborative songwriting, beginning with a narrative which revolves around the client’s needs. Clients fill out a pre-session questionnaire which focuses on their current situation, goals, and challenges.

Jacob said that he’s particularly successful with company mergers and new product launches.

“We do lots of brainstorming, and always go in with a pre-written hook, to stay on track,” he pointed out. “I never leave anything to chance so nothing important gets left out. “I always know somewhat where I want to steer it but I never tell the participants what to say. Songwriting is just a tool to help people learn that there are many ways to say the same thing.”

Jacob has now become something of an expert on the science of collaboration.  You can see it when you read his column here in the Gazette, and you’ll experience it at the kick off for the Hollywood Scavenger Hunt (the Hunt for Good) at the Hollywood Jaycees Hall on December 6th.

While we can’t tell you exactly what the night will entail, it will, as you might expect, involve music, collaboration, and Hollywood.

And, from now until then, he’s looking for input, seeking words and phrases that express what Hollywood means to you. Please email your thoughts to jeff@thesongteam.com.

“The Hunt for Good is a collaborative event all around,” noted Jacob.  “It allows all the participants to see their city through new eyes and also to see new things about themselves, and discover their own new talents.  It’s very much about collaboration and team and open-mindedness, and that’s what The Song Team does too.”

As our meeting concludes, Jacob shares with me the chorus of a song he’s in the middle of writing which says, in a nutshell, that when we help each other out, all boats rise, and everyone’s life gets better.

Maybe we can all collaborate, and help him write the rest of the verses.

For information on The Song Team, contact Jeff@TheSongTeam.com.

Find the orignal article here.

 

Where does collaboration come from?

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Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, The Loco-motion, Don’t Bring Me Down, Take Good Care of my Baby, Some Kind of Wonderful…and on and on. The duo responsible for these hits, Carole King and Gerry Goffin were a pair in every sense of the word. Their partnership produced a generation’s worth of Pop, Motown, and Rock hits. The norm of the day for a songwriting duo was for one person to provide the words and one the music. That’s how the complimentary skill-sets were assembled by the music publishers of the day. This was the formula.

Jeff Jacob is the Founder and Lead Facilitator of THE Song Team www.thesongteam.com He is also a Non-profit Director, Songwriter, TEDx Speaker, and Animal Rescuer.

Today that same hit song often comes to life differently.

Sometimes a writer contributing to a hit doesn’t even get credit. In the pop world, often unknown writers land in a situation through a relationship they have, to walk into a writing session, and contribute to a monster hit. That writer will often be paid a flat fee for their part, without being named as a writer on the “record.”

In 2010, a young girl named Alex was sitting in a studio with Adele and her primary co-writer Dan Wilson, from the band Semi-sonic. Alex was a genius with words and a prodigy on Fiddle. She had been close to the late Amy Winehouse but didn’t have much a resume as a songwriter, at least not yet.

That day in the studio she contributed two lines to a little song called “Someone Like You.” You may have heard this song a couple of hundred times. That song won LOTS of gold at the Grammys in 2011. Alexis wasn’t called up on stage.

As leaders at work or in the community, we never know where collaboration is going to come from. But, the end result is nearly always an enhanced, optimized version of it’s prior…earlier self.
Finding fun ways to network and collaborate while “doing good” is definitely trending these days. In the workplace, and in the community. Ample opportunities exist in our communities to have fun, while actually doing “good work.”

And, there are many companies out there, who have corporate social responsibility programs that make real impacts on those who reside in their communities. The very paper you read right now is filled with them, as well as opportunities on every page for every reader to get out there and make a difference.

Putting all of this in a pot, stirring and cooking it into a hearty stew, is the concept behind this year’s Hollywood Scavenger Hunt, which we’re calling “The Hunt for Good.”

The Hollywood Scavenger Hunt weaves together participants looking to have a great time with local businesses and non-profits on a collaborative three-day adventure from December 7-9. In the end, everyone who participates will discover Hollywood’s hidden gems and make new some new friends to boot.

“We met lots of new people and got to experience many new things Hollywood has to offer” said past participant Dana Baker. “We were born and raised here and never realized some of the fun events and shows constantly going on.”

If you go it alone, you WILL make new friends! Rock it as a team, and the memories you will make together will last a lifetime.

Participants are tasked with fun and challenging missions that are still being planned and coordinated. And local non-profits will benefit! How? Because some of the missions are sponsored by local companies who in turn…adopt a local non-profit! And unlike Alexis, all will be acknowledged and appreciated for their contributions.

This year’s kick-off party will be held at the Hollywood Jaycee Hall on Thursday, Dec. 6. Mark your calendar, I can’t tell you why but I can tell you I’ll be there and you won’t want to miss it.
Have fun, do good! Sign up soon, as the clock is ticking. (Pssst…..check out the app Scavify, you’ll need it for the hunt.) All together now, get out there and do it.

Find the orignal article at https://hollywoodscavengerhunt.com/29869-2/.

All together Now: The Art & Science of Collaboration

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John Lennon was 16 when he met Paul McCartney.  John’s band, “The Quarrymen” was playing at a church fair in Liverpool. The story goes that at the gig, a mutual friend introduced Paul to John and the two both played music later in the day with John’s band.

The pair was mutually impressed with each other. Their desires were similar, as was their love of music. Their styles and abilities were different. Complimentary.  In short order, it was apparent to John, just how talented Paul was.  And John, as angst-ridden and ego-centric a teen as any, still had the self-awareness, the insight to invite Paul to join him in the band. To share the stage, share their future glory, do the work and equally share ALL writing credit moving forward.  A new band was in the works, and soon “The Quarrymen” would be nothing more than an answer to a trivia question.

You know the story here, and it won’t be complicated for you to figure out the thrust of this column.

Nearly every culture-shifting product introduced to the marketplace, nearly every cure created to defeat a major illness, nearly every innovative service that becomes available to address a community malady, and yes…the vast majority of #1 songs, spanning popular music from Motown, to Rock, to Broadway and Country… have been the result of collaboration.

In Hollywood, a town bursting with creativity, and a community very enthusiastic about finally busting out from under the shadows of big brother and sister cities, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, collaboration between individuals, between non-profits, and between the public and private sectors is the secret ingredient to sustainably, and finally pushing our community forward to where it needs and deserves to be.

When you look at the growth of The Yellow Green Market, or the condos rising up in the downtown areas you can see, taste and touch, the tangibility of collaboration.
When you see the worlds largest guitar-shaped building taking form right here in Hollywood…you’ll see a common thread. Collaboration.

Here, state and local governments, the Seminole Tribe, and The Hard Rock Company, all game (oops came) together. Equally, if not more impressive is the cooperative formed by the eight architectural firms sharing their resources, experiences and designs to bring this project to fruition. These firms might typically be competitors.

This project will create jobs, grow tourism, and increase local tax revenue. Some of these dollars will become increased contributions to benefit our schools.

The point of this column will be to remind each one of you of that which you already know. As thinkers, doers and community leaders you understand that collaboration and strategic planning lead to success, whatever one’s definition of that word is. Let’s call it “measurable community improvement.”

Remember all boats rise, when players get together on any project. More voices at the table. Good ideas becoming great.

Every month, we’ll end with a call to action in this space. So read to the end and collaborate with us!

In the coming months you’ll learn more about this year’s Hollywood Scavenger Hunt, which begins on December 7th. We’re calling this year’s search “The Hunt for Good,” and it will weave together our community, businesses, and non-profits in truly harmonious fashion.

Every year the hunt gets better and this year there will definitely be some cool surprises. Mark your calendar for the free, family-friendly kick-off event Dec. 6 at the Hollywood Jaycee Hall. The BEST part, is that simply by getting together to have some fun, the local community will benefit in multiple ways, on a multitude of projects. Imagine that!

The Hollywood Scavenger Hunt is designed to inspire participants to learn about Hollywood, Florida while having fun, meeting new people and making lifelong memories.

So, as soon as you’re done reading, and I mean…now, take a minute to download the free app “SCAVIFY” from the iOs app store or the Google Play store, search for the Hollywood Scavenger Hunt and create a team name for yourself so you’re ready to hit the ground running.

Find the orignal article at https://hollywoodscavengerhunt.com/all-together-now-the-art-science-of-collaboration/.

Visit www.hollywoodscavengerhunt.com for more information. You can also follow the hunt on facebook.com/hollywoodscavengerhunt/.

All together now, get to it.