The Benefits in Practice

Team Building, Effective Communication, and Building Respect:

1) Singing at the start of a conference or business meeting creates a sense of unity and fosters positive outcomes for the principle objectives of the day.

2) As people embrace new ways to communicate and work together they become more effective at managing change within their organisation.

3) My work opens people's minds to a larger reality. This helps to confirm and reflect management steps towards sustainability and systems approaches.

4) Barriers between cultures, races and differing world views are softened through singing each others traditional music. It gives acknowledgment and respect to another’s culture.

5) By harmonizing together, participants recognise their value as part of a team, together making a harmonious whole. It builds trust and opens hearts and minds.

6) Singing in harmony fosters active listening and communication, increasing awareness of your place within a team.

Tools and Fun:

7) Musical games make effective ice breakers and levellers.

8) This is an activity that includes people with disabilities. No previous experience is necessary.

9) We create a piece together: co-operation is at the heart of the activity.

10) We have a lot of fun and laughter in the process.

Case Studies

** I was visiting a London hospital where staff morale was low. I met a Nigerian employee who was working there and I sang a Nigerian song to her. She was astonished and touched. She felt acknowledgement that I knew something of her culture, and by sharing something could also offer respect. She walked away chanting Yes! Yes! Yes!

**Wiltshire County Council were running an inter-departmental day, bring staff from across Wiltshire to work together. They had to build a common policy. It was anticipated that it would be a stressful day and there was anxiety that the policy would not be achieved. I ran a 1 hour Singing Workshop to start the day and establish a sense of unity as Team Building session. Staff engaged, participated and felt drawn together. The outcome of the day was very successful.

**The Army asked me to run a team building day. They wanted to encourage communication and trust, and respect openness. It felt outside their own comfort zone at first, and there was initial mistrust- how was singing relevant to them and their work? But by the end of the day, there was a sense of cohesion in the group. They felt a real sense of achievement, it had broken down barriers, and they had learned and sung in 4 part harmony.

**I organised and ran an event in Bath Abbey in June 2009- Soul Soundings, in which I facilitated a 2 hour singing event, open to everyone, where people could experience the beautiful resonance of Bath Abbey, without audience or accompanying instruments. 130 individuals came, engaged and all went away feeling that they had had a fulfilling experience.

Don’t just take my word for it

Hear from people who have had the experience and what it meant to them

"Thank you so much for a wonderful moment in the Abbey yesterday. It was truly magical and had the desired effect of waking people up, moving their energy around and engaging with the building. Absolutely fantastic. Throughout the day and evening many many people came up to me to say how much they had enjoyed your session. Words like “high point of the day”, “unexpectedly gorgeous” came up so I’m thrilled it went down so well. My one regret is that I wasn’t able to allocate more time but I will know next time!  Many thanks for all your patience in working it all out with me and your lovely energy on the day."

Clare Hughes, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Oct. 2011

“Towards the end of the module, I experienced one of the most serial yet thought provoking experiences of my life, and Candy Verney gave this to me. She managed to further bring to life…. the connection between sound and the environment…. It was through Candy Verney and Abram (1997) that lead me to consider the Earth as a living organism.”
 Daniel Goodenough, 3rd Year student at Bath Spa University

Sustainability module with Martin Sandbrook, BM 6008 April 2010

“Every week you weave your magic creating a wonderful sense of community, fun and laughter.You manage to draw out ability where there appears to be a felt lack of ability. It all stems from the unique gift you have of creating a space where everyone feels valued, welcomed and part of something special. You believe in us even if we don’t believe in ourselves. I wonder if you have any idea of what a gift your work is to us as individuals and to our community.”

Vicki Palmer, counsellor and NHS management provider, 2008

“Candy Verney...It was such a pleasure working with you...so skilled and professional, and, at the same time, very connected and sensitive to the group.  I marvelled at how artfully you taught us each new piece and how aware you were of which sections were not getting certain parts, and there you were!!  I'm in awe of your talent.  And beyond that, I was impressed with your sensitivity to how the group was coping with the experience and connecting with each other...great trouble-shooting!”

Participant on Bardsey Island Singing Holiday, North Wales September 2010
 

Organisations I have worked with:

Bath Abbey

Wells Cathedral

Wiltshire County Council

The Army

Wiltshire Early Years

Wiltshire Music Centre

Royal united Hospital Bath

Mineral Hospital Bath

Salisbury Hospital

Freiburg University

University of Bath Spa

Transition Towns Bath

Womens Insititute

Bild-werk Frauenau, Germany

Portsmouth Festival of the Sea

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Architects