TEAM SPIRIT: WE ARE A BAND (Part I)
Company events usually involve food, drinks and no preparation in advance at all. Not at sofatutor – every event is designed as a unique, once in a lifetime opportunity for all colleagues to get out of their comfort zone and do something crazy.
This is why, when our founder Stephan announced that the next company event is going to be a music festival, the whole team held its breath and waited for the catch. “You are all going to be rockstars,” he shouted, meaning that there will be 15 bands performing on stage… and it’s going to be us. We should mention, that most of us are complete amateurs when it comes to drums, guitars and vocals – but obviously we are a company with a passion for learning and that is what makes it fun. Especially as we are all in this together.
In a state of shock and excitement we accepted the challenge and teamed up. Four professional coaching sessions were scheduled for each band plus optional access to a fully equipped rehearsal room in the office. (Who else has a music studio in the office?!) Wild discussions started about the choice of song, instrument and outfit. Apparently the dream of becoming a rockstar is hiding in more people than you would think.
Happy with our team’s choices, we looked forward to our first band rehearsal. We can’t deny that our feelings were mixed at the start – let’s call it sceptical optimism: Is it really possible to learn and perform a song in only four sessions with no musical background at all? Are we going to rock or are we just going to make a fool of ourselves?
The first rehearsal with our wonderful coach Dirk from Die Bandarbeiter e.V. left us highly motivated. But it also became clear that, besides the choice of song, becoming a rockstar is not going to be a walk in the park. The second session defined a breakthrough and proved that great tasks should be tackled one step at a time. Our performance started to sound like a song. Back at the office all the smiling faces of our colleagues returning from their sessions showed, that this experience was shared by all teams.
Time to draw a halftime conclusion: First of all, becoming a band is a lot of fun and musical enthusiasm is contagious. Our ambitions keep growing and so does our teamspirit. We are surprised how far we have come in so little time and are all looking forward to the weeks ahead of us and the grand finale to come.
to be continued…
