Corporate Team Building

Just Another Day in the Park – Setting a Team Intention for 2025

January 21, 2025 by Jeff Leave a Comment

TY Park that is. A gem in Hollywood, Florida with an amazing lake, paths and so many stunning, beautiful, huge, old Southern Live Oak trees. You can’t even attribute a value to the shade they provide here in South Florida, where during our 8-9 months a year of summer like weather, the shadows they cast are so very, very welcome.

In an effort to change the dynamic at my “day gig” we’ve released ourselves from the bondage of a weekly staff meeting, and replaced with a brief, weekly summary to the staff on Mondays, real-time, brief department meetings, AND a quarterly/seasonal ½ day staff retreat in a place of nature, beauty, awe or wonder.

We bring some tasty nibbles and usually good coffee. We start with an ice breaker for about the first hour. This most recent gathering each staffer was asked to express 3 moments of success from their past. Personal or professional, “big”, or “small” didn’t matter. Significance, impact…were key. This gave everyone a chance to reflect upon what those moments were, why they mattered, why they were successful etc. And, to allow everyone at the picnic table to see how the humanity in each of their peers, and the uniqueness of each individual. And how unexpected some of these moments to memories were. When you talk about team-building, there are a million different things that can mean. Here at THE Song Team, music, and songwriting are typically the means to an end. But there are a ton of cool things you can do. Axe throwing and a pitcher of beer? Great. Building bikes for under-served youth? Amazing. The list goes on and on. But one thing that all team-building has in common is that we are supposed to come out the other side of whatever program…with at least a small “pool of light” shining on better understanding of one another, improved communication chops..with BIG emphasis on true or active listening. This year, I am promising myself that I want to be the last in the room to speak as much as possible. Maybe that will help me learn more, and be a better leader.

Back at TY Park, I asked the team to look ahead 3 months to programs, events, initiatives, goals and ask questions, or express concerns wherever there is uncertainty about how certain things are set to unfold.

What are the logistical hurdles
Where do we stand with marketing
Who plays what role
Which opportunities for success on which to focus
When/Timelines
What is our vision looking ahead

We work intimately with one another, typically within the same four walls…and that atmosphere can get stale emotionally, mentally, physically…which can create a dynamic of inertia and acceptance. Even cynicism sometimes. Therefore, it’s incredibly important to me that we get OUT of that space together once in awhile…

One thing I’ve learned since this time last year, is that certain team members really and truly value their personal time away from work, and therefore any “team-building” programs need to be during regular business hours. So, I shut the office down for duration, or perhaps bring in a volunteer to answer phones. But I get it. While I’d love an occasional happy hour with the team after hours….that just doesn’t work for some of them. And for me, it’s got to be all or nothing. The entire team, or none of them.

I wish you a productive, happy, healthy, focused and grateful 2025.

Blessings, Jeff

Team Building

November 26, 2022 by Jeff Leave a Comment

When I first settled in South Florida after a long stint in Nashville, I struggled to find my creative tribe. I had left the songwriting capital of the world, a musical ecosystem built around daily collaboration, to run a large, non-profit dog rescue in Wellington. The opportunity to build a new team, create a revitalized culture and save the lives of man’s best friend was too tempting for me not to give it a whirl. I realized quickly that my experience as the Founder and Lead Facilitator of THE Song Team would not only still be relevant in this new venture, but rather would remain front and center in every professional setting I encountered moving forward.

Corporate team building in Florida, whether at the music-themed hotels Margaritaville, or The Hard Rock Guitar Hotel is more important than ever. Leaders who don’t have blinders on, recognize the value and set aside a budget to intentionally create programs and space for free-form collaborations. It’s the same stuff that created Apple or Google, that created hit songs of a lifetime such as any Lennon & McCartney tune, or the latest #1 hit for today’s country stars.

While I am always happy to get back to Nashville for our self-titled “Nashville style team-building, what I have found is that Musical Team Building in Florida can be every bit as relevant as it was in Music City USA. When we go through the process of ideating a song-concept that molds to the current narrative of an organization or company going through the continual process of evolving in this “Post-Covid” landscape, the excitement and revelatory expressions we see in participants faces for our songwriting/team building programs in Miami, Fort Lauderdale or Orlando are every bit as poignant as they are when we do these programs in Nashville.

Corporate team building workshops or our larger, experiential keynotes where we put notes to the page to form chords, and then combine those chords into an instantly hummable melody for the client are so effective in communicating new initiatives and products, combining corporate cultures after a merger, or launching a new service. Remember, we’re also organically teaching organizational story-telling. It’s this storytelling that connects with all of us out there searching for connection to the products and services we most frequently think we want or need.

So clear a wall in the common space of your workplace, paint it in chalkboard paint to create a collaboration wall, OR keep large, blank POST-IT pads in supply on that wall, or a large, dry erase board. Either way, encourage those ideas, and those re-vamped ideas, and those revisions of the revamped ideas… to keep coming. Encourage and reward the idea process. It’s what’s going to engage your employees and it’s what’s likely to give birth to the most unique new products and services that differentiate your organization from that of your competitors. Now and always. And remember, this is a fluid and ongoing process. Whether it’s Florida Team-building, Nashville team-building, or Denver team-building…it’s all the same. Notes in a chord, and chords and lyrics together…make up the song. Your song. Your Sound. Your story.

A spring blizzard in Denver, brings out the best…and worst in a team

April 9, 2016 by Jeff Leave a Comment

On a recent business trip to nowhere (I’ll explain later) I saw both the best, and the worst in how a team of employees on any given day, for any given organization can rise to the occasion during a crisis…saving the day, or make a bad situation soooo much worse. Even in crisis, especially in crisis sometimes, how your key team members from the front-line… on up respond can either lose you precious customers by the planeload, OR those same people, can become lifelong fans. Warriors extolling the virtues of how your team, turned an awful situation into a pleasurable one.

So, I got on a flight with a back pack and a guitar headed for a seminar in Denver. It was to be a 4 day trip. Days 1 and 4 would be travel, with 2 days of classes in between. A freak blizzard hit Denver that day, one day after 70 degree temperatures filled the air with a touch of spring. Even Denver, used to snow was caught somewhat unprepared for tropical storm force winds and a foot of snow. The airport lost power, while flights were cancelled and diverted left and right. My route, which was supposed to be West Palm Beach, through Newark and then on to Denver changed.

What is tough to swallow was the lack of onsite “Call in” support personnel to handle the influx of delayed and cancelled flights which of course resulted in thousands of travelers being displaced and re-routed. The storm itself was expected, just not the intensity of it.

I won’t name the airline in question in my particular instance, and certainly all carriers flying into the region were affected on this day. However, I can only speak to what my experience was in observing how THIS carrier prepared…or didn’t prepare in advance for the “possibilities.” (this airline was made notorious a few years back by breaking… and even more so, it’s subsequent handling of the breaking, of a traveling songwriters expensive musical instrument. It became a book, and turned this no-name songwriter into an author and well-traveled speaker on the motivational speakers circuit…His topic was of course customer service and the way social media can turn one person into an army.)

Ok, back to regularly scheduled programming. There were not enough customer services representatives at the service desks to handle the travelers who were all in need of routing solutions. Those that were on site, DID manage to for the most part smile and do all they could for the hoards of frustrated travelers. I became one of those travelers upon landing in Newark from Florida when I found out my initial connecting flight to Denver was first delayed and then subsequently cancelled in short order. With some help from my amazing boss, who was pulling the strings behind the scenes, I got re-routed to Houston for a later connecting flight to Denver. The fun started on that flight, as the crew was less than loving and kind. It wasn’t horrible, but it wouldn’t have given an already weary traveler the warm and fuzzies either.

Upon landing in Houston, and all of us turning our mobile devices back on a half-second after touchdown, the word started to spread that Denver airport was closed, and all of our flights were of course, canceled. Welcome to Houston folks, please enjoy your stay.

At the help desk in Houston, the weary, and yes under-manned staff for the airline in question were doing their best, but they were tired, a bit grumpy, under-manned and apparently not “empowered” by their higher ups to do very much to make our unexpected stay in Texas more comfortable. They did give us discount vouchers to local hotels, who on a Wednesday night, were about to get a HUGE boost to their mid-week occupancy rates.

Now, at the hotel the story was entirely different. The staff, though not quite prepared for the surge in business in terms of personnel levels, were entirely ready to smile, accommodate, and inquire as to how they could help to make our unexpected stay wonderful. They succeeded.

That night I found out, I’d never make it to Denver and the entire days’ worth of travel was simply going to take me straight back to Florida the following day. Wow. Who knew what fun that would bring?

As we left the ground the next day, the pilot thankfully warned us of rough weather we’d be flying through, and it sure did get bumpy several times. But the turbulence in the air, bumpy as it was…did not compare to the gruffness of one of the airline attendants who may well have been an Ogre from a Disney movie. People were pissing her off left and right because they needed to “gasp” go to the bathroom. I’ve never in all my years of travel heard an attendant treat guests from all walks of life with such vitriol. “Sir, there is someone in there, you’re going to have to sit down.” “Mam, I will tell you when you can come back to the restroom, it’s currently occupied. There is one up front you can try….if you want.” There is no real way for me to convey here how nasty this woman’s tone and attitude were. Now granted, maybe she was having a horribly off day herself. She is only human. But this is the travel/hospitality industry, and her performance was a solid F.

The Sum of the Parts

February 13, 2015 by Jeff Leave a Comment

It’s been too long since I’ve written you in this space, and for that I apologize. To be honest, since taking on the role of Director of Operations at Big Dog Ranch Rescue, I’ve been overwhelmed by the undertaking in many ways. 11 months into the process I feel I’m starting to get the hang of it, and the inklings of a work-life balance are creeping back into my existence.

Today I read Neil Gaiman’s ‘Make Good Art” speech in book form. It’s a cool concept/graphic design oriented gift book, recounting this well-known speech he made at a University graduation ceremony May 17th, 2012. The gist of the talk is that those who “make good art” make many mistakes, BIG mistakes, and a variety of mistakes…and that the best artists do this often. The concept resonates with me, but truthfully, as I sit here looking at the lake and the seabirds on this Sunday morning…I really latched on to something else, though it was not the author’s intended message.

This book was quite driven by layout. So much so as a matter of fact, that though the entire book was comprised of snippets from Neils’ speech, he and the graphic artist shared billing equally at books end.

What hit me in the face upon reading both what Gaiman had to say, and how he said it was this.

When a painter paints, it’s truly the blending of colors and shades, the contrast between light and dark, and the context of white space vs. occupied space that tell the story of the work. How well the painter accomplishes this teaming of elements, in turn decides how successful the work will be in making a dent in the fragmented impression-span of today’s viewer.

When a dancer dances alone, it’s a sequence of moves, highly choreographed, much practiced…that all work together in creating a seamless stream of movement that is the actual “routine” of a dancer. The story is made of up pieces. Similarly, if the routine involves multiple dancers, rather than a solo act, it’s the joint movements or actions of the collective, which becomes the overall “painting” of this dance.

One of the most prolific songwriting teams in history, husband and wife Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil are featured on Sunday Morning Live on CBS this morning. “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and dozens of other landmark hits, were inked by this dynamic duo. Talk about a collaboration on multiple levels! Their combined talents, Cynthia for the words, and Barry for the music were largely responsible for creating the soundtrack of a generation. See where I’m going here? The sum of the parts is where it’s at.

Who can you team up with today to make progress, improve something, create your personal masterpiece, push one little corner of the world into better shape?

Going to the dogs…for real! Building a team from the ground up.

July 26, 2014 by Jeff Leave a Comment

Ok, so it’s been far too long since I’ve updated you on what’s going on with The Song Team. Partially, that’s been laziness on my part, and partially it’s because there have been vast changes under way.

As of April 1^st, (yes April Fools Day) I left Nashville after 18 years to undertake a unique opportunity. I was offered the position as Director of Operations at Big Dog Ranch Rescue. This is a large no-kill dog shelter in South Florida. www.bdrr.org The chance to build my own team from scratch, while being charged with the task of saving dogs was too good to pass up. Having dabbled in Animal Rescue for years as a volunteer, this cause was as near and dear to my heart as songwriting. Coupled with the professional development angle, it was time for a new adventure.

And phew, what a ride it has been. As you know, Whenever one takes on a new leadership role within in an organization, change is inevitable to one degree or another. As we try to implement new policies, procedures and protocols…place new systems in place and tweak old ones, we start to shed staff sometimes just like a snake sheds it’s skin. We look to mold the team after our vision, and it’s NOT an exact science.

In 2 months’ we’ve turned over approximately 70% of our team, and that hasn’t been easy or fun, but it HAS been necessary in order to tackle the job at hand. The essence of what we aim to accomplish is to take better care of our dogs, adopt more dogs out to the right forever homes, assemble a team that cares for each other and our mission, and do this all in a more efficient manner than had previously been the norm. Creating a new culture…..

The Song Team keeps plugging away though. As I type this entry, I’m on a plane back from leading interactive keynote for Credit Unions of The Dakota’s Annual Conference. Scott, Sherrie and I had a really great time with these folks. The theme to their conference was “Orchestrating Goodness”, and that was a GREAT jumping off point for a large team, songwriting session. Credit Unions are true bedrocks in their communities and the leadership of these fine institutions TRULY understand the concepts of team and collaboration.

Next week, Sherrie and I will be back up in Nashville leading a small group breakout for a healthcare company sales meeting. We are still based in Nashville as that’s where most of our team is, so I’ll be up there many times a year….for Team Gigs, AND for songwriting and recording of course!

Well, it looks as though we’re descending now, and our amazing flight crew on American Airlines is getting ready to tell me to put away my laptop, and make sure seat backs and trays are back in their upright positions. I vow to stay in better touch with you in the coming weeks and months. If you need a hand of any sort with your organization and would like to touch base with us, please don’t hesitate to call or email. We’re always here.

Yours in Dog and Song.

Jeff J.

A Lesson from Google on Keeping Your Employees – (Sharing from Adam Vacarro)

February 14, 2014 by Jeff Leave a Comment

Google’s decision to place senior vice president of advertising (and employee No. 16) Susan Wojcicki at the helm of YouTube offers an important lesson about retaining employees.

Re/code reports that Wojciki had recently had some of her responsibilities on Google’s senior executive team split with fellow SVP Sridhar Ramaswamy. Moving on from Google wasn’t out of the question. “Wojcicki had been interested in running her own thing [and] had also been a recruitment target for a venture capital or perhaps a CEO role,” the website reports.

Google’s dilemma–a high-performing worker wanting to give her leadership skills a whirl–can come up at any company. You might not be able to hand your employees the keys to a brand as powerful as YouTube, but you can let them scratch their itch by letting them launch their own projects under your umbrella. In other words, you can retain your top talent by encouraging a culture of intrapreneurship.

I know, I know. The term is one that causes many business owners to roll their eyes. It’s been found in the pages of Inc. since the 1980s, but rarely is it clear exactly how a small business with a distinct focus can realistically expect to let every employee chase her dream.

A few months back though, I was able to interview the leader of an Inc. 5000 company–Kansas-based marketing firm DEG Digital–about the company’s dedication to encouraging intrapreneurial endeavors. Among the feathers in CEO Neal Sharma’s cap: More than half of all DEG employees have a different title than the one they were hired with by the end of their first year at the company.

Sharma related the story of then-DEG web strategist Cara Olson, who years ago told him she wanted to leave the company to launch her own email marketing startup. Sharma listened to her idea, then asked her whether she’d want to stick around and launch the project for DEG. Eight years later, Olson manages 30 employees, and email marketing is one of the company’s biggest business units.

Weigh Your Interests

The obvious and important caveat about Olson is that she didn’t want to start a recipe blog or open a coffee shop. It’s unlikely that Sharma would have let her do so on DEG’s time. She wanted to start something that made sense for DEG to have under its umbrella.

So it’s important to clarify that for small businesses, an intrapreneurial initiative should be judged on its fit with your company. Sharma says he tries to approach every employee-pitched project as a venture capitalist would, thinking about the kinds of returns it could ultimately net DEG. At the same time, it’s necessary to weigh how well you can afford to lose that employee.

In the case of Wojcicki, Google’s brass clearly didn’t want to lose her. She’s been with the company since some of its earliest days; the company even operated out of her garage for a time. Putting her in charge of YouTube keeps everybody happy.

Google’s experience with Wojcicki doesn’t perfectly mirror DEG’s with Olson, but both drive home one obvious, yet easy-to-forget point: One key asset you have in your effort to retain top employees is, when reasonable, to let them do what they want.