Happy New Year! May 2012 be a turn-around year for everyone!

I’m thankful for many things in my life; and I’m especially thankful for the work that I get to do and the people that I connect with. The events that I facilitate and the clients that I meet are forever amazing and energizing to me. I facilitated an incredible conference event for BP at the end of the year that I’d like to share with you.

BP is one of the world’s leading oil and gas companies; employing 80,000 people across the globe. Exploration and Production employs about 18000 people and is active in 29 countries. So many “tribes” came together as one BP community at the conference; it was a definite challenge to unite such a diverse and geographically dispersed group. But I’m excited to say that Drum Cafe’s powerful keynote interactive program helped them marshal their resources, energy, skills and passion as one percussive team so they could truly push the boundaries today, toward creating tomorrow’s breakthroughs.

I was able to talk at length with one of the “jazzed” attendees Shahid Javed, Chief Procurement Officer, BP-North America Gas. He shared his perspective on how the experience affected him and his peers. Here is a short excerpt …

“…the transformation is the fact that we are different teams, we have to work together, you can work together and create harmony. This was the message that people took back to their teams and to their desks. That's kind of being open minded on how they approached their work, approached their problems, how to collaborate more with their peers. It's that kind of transformation that I saw happening. … there were elements of leadership in that session where I could take back and say, ‘You know what? Even in my world and my role as a leader, how do I lead this varied different teams and sets of groups so they harmonize and work together?’”

My favorite program that we do is the keynote interactive. It has all the power of the interactive drumming and—through collaboration with very talented visionaries in the organization—I completely customize the keynote portion to the company’s objectives. I get to delve really deep into the business culture and tap into the true pulse of the company and its people. It really jazzes me! So, when someone like Shahid says “…pretty much every person said it exceeded what they expected from the session,” I do that celebratory-shimmy-dance in my own head (and sometimes across the room). Yes!!!

In Joy and Rhythm,

Natalie Spiro