When do you listen to music? In the car, while you’re making dinner, during a workout? Music is a powerful tool that can help people relax, feel inspired, and overcome tedium or challenges (chopping all those onions!). In fact, research shows that music and our social capabilities are tied together. So let’s take a minute here to explore how you can use music in your facilitation to make your engagements even more engaging!

The first, and easiest, way to incorporate the power of music into your events is simply by playing music at key points:

• While people are entering the room. I started doing this only about a year or so ago, but now, if for some reason I forget my music player and there isn’t any music, I really feel the vacuum it leaves. Having music playing in the room as people enter just makes the room feel more welcoming.

• During a mingling activity while people are trying to find partners. Finding a partner or walking around in a room full of strangers can be a rather stressful activity for some people. Putting the music on helps everyone feel more upbeat as they move around the room looking for their match and triggers a “this is fun” response that eases tension. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a goofball who actually starts dancing during the mingle, which is really fun and lightens the mood.

• While people are silently writing and or reflecting in pairs. Although some people find the music distracting, a quiet bit of inspiring music while people are writing or chatting with a partner can help put people into their creative zone and raise optimism about potential.

You can play around with what kind of music you play, too. For example, I have used a “superhero” playlist when I wanted people to feel really inspired, space-themed playlist when I was running a retreat at a science/space center, and a relaxation-mix when I was running a self-care workshop. If you don’t subscribe to a music service, YouTube has lots of free playlists that people have put together (just turn the volume down when an ad starts to play!).

The second way to incorporate music is by actually using it as part of an activity. For example,

• In team builders. A fun team builder is to print out the lyrics of a song and cut them into lines. Now play the song and let teams try to quickly put the lyrics back in order as the song plays. After the activity, reflect on what social-emotional skills everyone had to use to accomplish the activity.   

• To inspire reflection. Play a song or verse/chorus of a song related to the topic you are covering. In the same way you might use quotes, you can now ask participants to reflect on how the lyrics or song relates to their work, or the topic you are covering. Another option is to play two very different songs and ask them to discuss with a partner which one resonates more with them and why.

• As an icebreaker. Ask participants to choose a song that represents how they are feeling, and share it with a partner.

The final way to use music that I am encouraging here is to have participants create it. You can ask them to “write a piece” that describes the flow of their work day, for example. There are many ways to let participants compose:

• The easiest way is to have people create beats on their tables or laps. Have each table assign roles: one person keeps a steady beat, one person lays a steady but fancier beat on top of that one, one person adds flourishes, etc. Or, just let people free form as a table and see what they come up with!

• Bring in an assortment of “things that make noise.” Sticks, shakers, little flutes, whistles, pots and pans… let everyone choose something and create an orchestra. You can even choose someone to be the “conductor” with a pencil baton and let them direct who plays when, how loud, how fast, etc. Can you envision all of the reflection questions you could ask after doing this?!

• Although people are sometimes shy about singing, it can actually be a fun activity to all sing together. You can use a karaoke app, play the radio, or just do it acapella. Even if it’s just singing “Happy Birthday” to someone in the room, singing has a great effect on people’s mood and energy!

Of course, the reflection options after the music-making are also key. “How did you feel while you were making music? How do you feel now that it is over? How did this relate to our topic of the day? How does this relate to your job?” This part is so much fun, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the depth and level of creativity that their responses hold!

Good luck and let me know how it goes!