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Song Writing and Team Building

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

(615) 974-0225

jeff.jacob2@gmail.com
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Song team building

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.

Filed Under: Corporate Team Building, team building, The Song Team - Team Building Blog, Uncategorized Tagged With: airline leadership, Building Teams, collaboration, Collaboration in the workplace, Corporate Team Building, corporate team building nashville, innovation, interactive team-building, Song team building

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 1st, (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.

Filed Under: Corporate Team Building, team building, The Song Team - Team Building Blog Tagged With: corporate culture, Corporate Team Building, culture change, dogs, leadership, non profit management, Song team building, songwriting team building, team building

Emdeon Team-Building/Songwriting with Karen Taylor-Good!

June 20, 2013 by Jeff Leave a Comment

Recently, we facilitated an intimately sized songwriting/team-building program for Emdeon’s IT department. The VP’s who attended this program are charged with blending personnel and systems from an old company, with parts of a new company, new personnel, and new systems.

With Grammy-Nominated Songwriter, Karen Taylor-Good at my side, we convened in the collaborative workspace that is C3 Consulting just south of downtown Nashville. Tackling both the challenges of A) A company in today’s fast-changing healthcare industry, along with the B) The challenges faced by a company in the process of merging the “old with the new”, is a formidable challenge.

However, as we often find…the steeper the hill, the more opportunities we have to improve… the longer view vision we tend to have, which leads to a big picture focus. This is especially good when dealing with such complex issues. If we “can’t see the forest through the trees”, then being strategic in our implementation of new engagement systems, new professional development goals etc. becomes quite a bit more difficult.

Filed Under: Corporate Team Building, The Song Team - Team Building Blog Tagged With: Corporate Team Building, Developing teams, employee engagement, interactive team-building, Song team building, songwriting teambuilding, team building events, team building programs, team buillding and songwriting, unique team building

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To reach The Song Team, please contact Jeff Jacob · jeff.jacob2@gmail.com · (615) 974-0225
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