Team Building ...
An Energizing Musical Team-Building Experience
Facilitated by Dr. Bev Smallwood and Vasti Jackson

COULD YOUR TEAMS USE A LIFT?

Would you like to achieve these results?
·    Boost morale?
·    Improve communications?
·    Fight stress and prevent burnout?
·    Restore a sense of control?
·    Unify your teams?
·    Transform a ho-hum meeting into a powerful, fun learning experience?

Then consider a unique and memorable experience…a Beat-the-Blues Bash.

WHAT’S A BEAT-THE-BLUES BASH?

It’s an intensive, interactive, musically-based experience filled with fun and laughter…and it achieves serious results.

Here’s a step-by-step look at how it works…

PREPARATION

1.    Your facilitators prepare for your event by surveying and/or interviewing key people to determine your specific needs. 

·    We want to know about the challenges your people are facing, the satisfiers that make it all worthwhile, and the daily hassles that steal motivation.

·    We want to know what you’d specifically like to achieve in your program.

2.    If you choose to provide this premium benefit to the standard event, we prepare your own special customized theme song for the event.  Your song includes the name of your organization and company-specific information we have gathered in our initial surveys and interviews.  This original sing-a-long song can provide a rousing introduction to the song-writing activity to follow.


YOUR EVENT

Musical Warm-Up

1.    We begin the session with a foot-tapping set of audience participation songs about the hassles of life and work.  Vasti Jackson adds his renowned and amazing guitar playing to this spirit-igniting musical opener. This initial experience sets a relaxed, fun atmosphere that invites creativity and risk-taking.
 
2.    If you have commissioned “your song,” we close this phase of the program with a rousing sing-a-long rendition.

Teaching by Dr. Bev Smallwood

3.    Dr. Bev Smallwood presents humorous and thought-provoking insights about thriving in difficult circumstances.  She shares powerful take-aways for stress and life management.

Team Exercise:  Brainstorming

4.    We divide the audience into small groups for the exciting creative experience of writing their own songs about what is happening in the organization and how they can deal with it positively. 

5.    We facilitate a brainstorming session on the major hassles that challenge motivation and interfere with customer service and teamwork in the organization.

Teaching by Vasti Jackson

6.    Vasti Jackson prepares the team for action by sharing a brief historical background on musical genres, beginning with “The Blues,” the basis of rock and roll and other styles, which originated in Mississippi.  He also shares the principles of song-writing, giving practical pointers for simplifying the song-writing process and enjoying the creative journey.

Team Exercise:  Creation of Song

7.    After final specific instructions on the writing task from Bev, the groups get to work creating their “masterpiece.”

8.    They select from four pre-recorded tracks from different musical genres…traditional blues, rock and roll, hip hop, and country. They create their own lyrics by describing the real-world challenges in the organization, while incorporating positive messages of overcoming, keeping focus on the vision, and maintaining hope.

9.    As participants work together in groups, they relieve stress by naming “organizational demons” and empowering themselves to face them.  Further, they experience the essential processes of brainstorming, goal setting, team problem solving, consensus building, conflict resolution, and coordination of diverse roles.

Debriefing of Team Process:  Identifying Key Learnings

10.    Both facilitators lead a debriefing of the interactive process just experienced.  They guide participants through retrospective self observation.  Group members discuss with each other what worked well, along with areas for improvement. 

11.    Very importantly, both the constructive and disruptive behaviors of the beat-the-blues experience are related back to the everyday workplace experience.  Participants gain insights they take back to the workplace, becoming more effective in managing their own emotions and contributing to a high-performing team.

Performance

12.    Each team plans how they will present their newly-created song to the entire audience.  We encourage innovations such as makeshift costumes and choreography.

13.    No one is forced to perform.  Like in real life, some may play critical behind-the-scenes supportive roles.  However, the final performance displays the results created by the diverse talents and contributions of every member of the team.

14.    If you choose, we can record all of the performances and create your own CD to be given to each participant as a momento of the day they “beat the blues” together.  

Team Closure Exercise and Musical Send-Off

15.    The facilitators guide participants through a motivating review of their key action takeaways from the session.

16.    Your people participate in a rousing musical send-off…leaving the program energized to face challenges in work and life with a positive attitude and renewed commitment.


MEET YOUR FACILITATORS

Dr. Bev Smallwood and Vasti Jackson, facilitators for the Beat-the-Blues Bash, blend a unique combination of talents, expertise, and life experiences to create an unforgettable experience for your people.  

Bev Smallwood, Ph.D.

Dr. Bev Smallwood’s mission is threefold.  She works with individuals who want to build meaningful lives, with leaders who want to bring out the best in people, and with organizations that want to attract and retain top talent.  

To accomplish her mission, Bev fulfills various roles… licensed counseling psychologist, author, professional speaker, leadership development specialist, and team builder.  She is founder and CEO of Magnetic Workplaces ® and The Hope Center, a private psychological clinic. Over the past 25 years, she’s served as a resource to numerous organizations across the U.S. and internationally.  Her client list includes healthcare organizations, Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing companies, insurance companies, professional associations, and national governments.

Bev’s also been featured in such national media as MSNBC, CNNfn, FOX, Maury Povich, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Weekend, Ladies Home Journal, and Self Magazine.  She’s a newspaper columnist and a former radio talk show host.

She’s the author of KidSpiration: Out of the Mouths of Babes and the upcoming book, "This Can’t Be Happening to Me!”: How to Survive Adversity and Rebuild a Meaningful Life.  In addition, she’s the author and publisher of Dr. Bev’s  Magnetizer, a bi-weekly email newsletter read by thousands around the world.  

Bev’s “other life” is music.  Playing piano and organ since the age of two, Bev has been the organist of her church for the past several years.  In addition, she is a songwriter.  Most recently, she and Vasti Jackson have co-written and produced a motivational music CD entitled, Rise Up!

Vasti Jackson

Guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer Vasti Jackson may well be the busiest musician in Mississippi. In the last several years, Jackson has appeared in several feature films, documentaries and TV shows, and has co-produced a Grammy-nominated album. Jackson also performs with his own band and as a solo acoustic act, and recently stepped up front with a new CD, No Border to the Blues, a collection that is a distillation of all the work he’s accomplished to date. Deb Brumberg of Blues on Stage said, “Vasti Jackson has to be one of the best guitarists I have ever seen.”  

Jackson’s compositions have also been featured in other media. Jackson wrote “Casino in the Cottonfield” for “Last of The Mississippi Jukes,” a 2003 documentary about Jackson’s Subway Lounge. He also recently performed the song in the film Lifetime Network movie, “Infidelity.” Jackson first performed his composition “Train Rolling Blues” in Martin Scorseses’ acclaimed PBS Blues series. “America, Proud and Strong” is a patriotic anthem that Jackson wrote for the Mississippi ETV show, “Mississippi: The Birthplace of America’s Music.”

Vasti Jackson electrifies audiences when he performs with his own band, as a solo acoustic act, or with other well-known artists. Since he learned to play the guitar as a youth in McComb, Mississippi, Vasti has taken the music of Mississippi around the world.  He’s played the Blues from juke joints to the Symphony to corporate meetings, to sports stadiums to the major stages of America, Europe, Asia, South America, and Scandinavia.  

In addition to his own performances and recordings, Jackson has played live and recorded with numerous other well-known artists.  He played guitar on B.B. King’s Grammy Award-winning “Blues Summit” release and has opened for B.B. on numerous occasions.  He’s also played and recorded with Harry Connick, Jr., Denise LaSalle, Bobby Rush, Little Milton, Katie Webster, Bobby Bland, and Cassandra Wilson.

Vasti’s varied musical career has also included television and film.  He appeared in Martin Scorsese’s seven-part docu-drama series chronicling the history of the Blues, aptly named, “The Blues.”  Vasti performed his original compositions “Train Rollin’ Blues” and “Juke Joint Jump.” Jackson was also featured in “Last of the Mississippi Jukes,” a musical documentary produced by Robert Mugge.  This documentary aired on Starz Network.  In the 1998 film, “Stop Breakin’ Down,” the story of the life of Robert Johnson, Vasti played te character Ike Zinnerman.  Jackson also composed two songs for the soundtrack and served as the film’s musical director. In addition, Vasti appeared in the Lifetime Network movie, “Infidelity,” where his composition “Casino in the Cotton Field” was performed.

For Bobby Rush’s  “Hoochie Man,” nominated for a Grammy as Contemporary Blues Recording of the Year, Vasti was co-producer, arranger, engineer, guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist.  He worked with Pulitzer Prize winner Wynton Marsalis on the Warner Brothers “Rosewood” soundtrack. He also co-produced New Orleans pianist Henry Butler’s “Home Land.”

Bruce Iglauer, President of Alligator Records, summed it up: “Vasti is one of the most talented and creative blues men of the younger generation. He’s a masterful guitarist with a deep knowledge of blues roots and a terrific live showman.”