Looking for creativity? What's your boarding music?

Next time you're about to fly in a plane, listen. No, not to the engines... listen as you're getting on board.

Over the past week I've flown Melbourne to Sydney, Brisbane, Singapore and I'm now Bangalore, India ... at the Agile and Lean Software Development Conference.

With some airlines, when you step on board, find your seat and settle in, there will be some music playing over the speakers.

These tunes helps set the mood, calm anxious or busy travellers and create an environment in the cabin.

I love Qantas' music selections so much that I've contacted them over the years to find out the names of the artists and songs.  

In their reply to me, they named these tunes 'boarding music' and sent me a list of the artists and songs.

Boarding music.

Here's what's special about boarding music:

• It's not the music that plays on the radio channels on the aircraft 
• The tunes are specially selected by the airline 
• It's not instrumental zzzzzzz 'muzak' like in a lift or elevator
• They're contemporary sounds from a range of genres, which people may not have heard before.

So it's often this music I choose to play in workshops, meetings, at team and board (Ha! No pun) events and whenever I'm facilitating in a group environment. Music gives people thinking time, breathing time, shifts the focus, fills the silence and helps make for a creative environment. I think it's even better if it's not instantly recognisable!

• How could you use music to make your - and your team's -environment productive, collaborative and creative?
• What sort of 'boarding music' could you use at the start of an event, conference or meeting?

Way too many events start to the sounds of silence! (Yawn!)

Think about what will inspire you and the people you work with to do your best work and choose tunes wisely. 

Even better... how's this: you can create your very own cafe sound effects (because that's one of the most creative and productive environments) using a mix of these great sounds from Coffitivityplus your own playlist.

It will drive creativity and build an awesome environment to get good work done, in a conference or event, in the office or in your headphones.

Now... press play. 

Comments

[cuan]

Ola,

Love the post, any chance you can share the music list?

C