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April 26, 2005

Reflections on music in the context of self-management

Prasad Kaipa, Ph. D. and Giridhar Tirumalai, Ph. D.

During the 20th century Industrial Age, people and machines worked side by side with little difference between them in terms of the expected output. Efficiency management (of a machine or a person) was the primary focus then. In the 21st century Knowledge Age, the survival and growth of a company depends not merely on efficiency but effectiveness, not on repetitiveness but on innovation, not on one-time success but continuous growth that is sustainable. Effectiveness, Innovation and Sustainability are not objective, external factors and cannot be achieved by efficiency-management by others; they are subjective, human factors that require a great deal of self-management by individuals. The aim of this article is to explore and reflect on the role music could play in helping people self manage their work and bring healing, balance and meaning in their life.

Music is a harmonic combination of sound and silence in a certain pattern. The pattern is established by combination of individual notes � the basic units of music, and depending on the scale and type of music those notes differ. In other words, there is a structure that underlies any and all music. Then there is a process of bringing together various notes and silence that creates a scale and a rhythm. The essence of the music, it�s meaning and the left over taste in the listener conveys, in a subtle way, the spirit of that piece, that music and that musician. The silence between notes represents that spirit giving life to music and bringing uniqueness each time the music is performed.

Many cultures all over the world, for a long time, have understood the power of music. And have created a variety of music to help create the right kind of emotional state for various situations like birth and death, war and peace, being in love, devotion to god, to announce the beginning of seasons etc. Some forms of music are soothing and relaxing whereas some other music are exciting and literally �hair raising.� But due to the adoption of a mechanical outlook towards life in the industrial age, the value that arts, especially music could add to one�s work and life was overlooked. Any suggestion to introduce music at work and sometimes even at schools was considered unscientific. But thanks to the new research in the areas of neurology, music therapy and healing, people are beginning to understand the power of music beyond its entertainment value.

What makes music powerful enough to strongly influence our emotional state?

Resonance, as you know, is a cornerstone of musical instruments. Many instruments have cavities in them where the music resonates and reverberates. Human body is one such cavity and when certain frequencies are generated through music, those frequencies resonate inside our body releasing certain chemicals that affect our emotions. Sometimes, the music that we resonate with, allows us to get excited, creative and move with the sound or become quiet, relaxed and reflective. One kind of music can make you think and some other kinds of music can block your thinking.

Considering that the music has significant impact on the body, emotions, breath, creativity and the spirit, in this short article, we want to focus on how music can be adopted effectively in self-management. Some of the ideas we present here could also be used by managers in offices, factories and other kind of work places effectively to increase productivity, creativity, focus, and healing.
In two separate studies recently released, research is showing that the American workforce is hurting. According to a study just released by the Families and Work Institute found that one in three American employees is chronically overworked, and 54 percent felt overwhelmed during the past month by their workloads. The resulting stress can have devastating consequences.

A separate study by the Conference Board, only half of all Americans today say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from nearly 60 percent in 1995. But among the 50 percent who say they are content, only 14 percent say they are "very satisfied." "Rapid technological changes, rising productivity demands and changing employee expectations have all contributed to the decline in job satisfaction," according to Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board�s Consumer Research Center.

American business is now spending $300 billion per year in stress-related costs. Stress can lead to more accidents, health problems and absenteeism, creating a cascading negative impact on the bottom line.

Relaxation and Stress Management
In the current workplace, people are expected to do more with less. No level of sophistication in technology is freeing up people�s workload and with each lay off, the pressure is enormous on people. Every year, employees are asked to do more and more, resulting in stress that shows in variety of illnesses including overall reduction in immunity, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, and depression.

There are many well-known studies that emphasize that certain kinds of music can relax people and even re-energize them. In the United States, Heart Math Institute in California (www.heartmath.com) have created tools and music that balances autonomous nervous system and increases immunity according studies reported in the journal of stress medicine.

It is known that burn victims who sing during their dressing change experience less pain. Cancer patients who listen to music and practice musical instruments are known to see their levels of stress hormones drop and their immune system gets stronger according to an article by Peter Jaret, titled �the healing power of music� in the readers digest (2001).

Some ragas like Lalit of Hindustani classical, Qawwalis, mantras like Shanti mantras of Vedic tradition, Baroque music, and instruments like Sitar, Santoor and Flute are known to produce soothing sounds and enhance relaxation. Greogorian chants and Sanskrit mantras have been proved to induce alpha brain waves and relax the stressed mind into a state of quiet stillness.

Music and Healing
Stress is not the only thing that can be affected by music and reports from around the world show that autistic children resonate to music and begin responding to people more readily according the readers digest article mentioned above. Music �seems to activate different parts of the brain including networks associated with motor control, memory, emotion and speech� according to Michael Thaut, a neuroscientist and musician at Colorado State University. Using the close link between music and movement, he has helped people slowed by stroke, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson�s disease.

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan � the legendary Indian Carnatic music genius � who runs a Government-funded Raaga research center claims that intense research has proved that �Shankarabharanam� can cure mental illness, �Ananda Bhairavi� has positive impact on hypertension and Bilahari can reduce stomach problems. Studies in the context of Hindustani music have indicated that ragas such as Guna kali, Bhairavi, Hindol, Pooriya, Lalit, Anand Bhairav have specific positive impacts on disorders such as Arthritis, grief and blood pressure.

In the workplace, we don�t have to heal people but if we can find ways to help them relax, reduce stress and not get aggravated, that would be more than enough help. In terms of self management on the other hand, in the context of self management, we have to remember that medicines only cures some diseases but creating an environment for overall healing is entirely up to us and music can play a significant role in doing so.

Meditation and visualization
Yoga, meditation and visualization approaches have been used for thousands of years in personal practices especially in the East but now they are slowly making their way into workplaces in the West as well.

Music has been considered to be an important part of both meditation and visualization.

We recommend readers to block about 30 minutes daily or at least 2 hours a week (during lunch breaks at work) to meditate using appropriate music. If you can sit quietly in your chair with your eyes closed playing soothing music and just pay attention to the music in the beginning, that would get you started in creating your own relaxation approach. Slowly, you can begin to focus on your breath or body sensations or a mantra once you develop the habit and it could have significant impact on your productivity, decision making and ability to make meaningful choices instead of knee jerk reactions.

Visualization methods allow the mind to let go of rigid boundaries and allow one to envision the future, as he or she would like to see it. Because music is such an integrated part of relaxation, it adds significant value to the visualization process. One of the authors (Prasad) has personally experimented with music during visualization in at least 50 executive development courses and workshops and inevitably, many participants would like to know the music that he played during the visualization session and some of them who used that particular music found that it was easier for them to get to the visualization state and mood when they play that music.

When employees are encouraged to visualize a future that is compelling and exciting, it may get them to become passionate and committed to making their vision come alive at their work place as well as for themselves. We personally found that such visualization exercises in families once a week could bring them together and create an environment for them to share their visions and become closer as a family.

Attention and Engagement
According to a recent study in the US, it is found that 72% or more of employees of large companies are not fully engaged at work. Thanks to the pervasive visual media like television, video games and the Internet that surround our lives, there are more reported cases of attention deficit disorder today than ever. That means when people work for 8 hours they might have paid attention to work for less than 50% to be generous and many times less than an hour a day.

Music is known to increase attention span and help people to engage with what they are doing more deeply. According to a report published in Telegraph in 2001, it is found that children who play a musical instrument or sing in a choir are more likely than other pupils to stay on at a school or achieve higher grades. How about trying it on adults to retain employees and improve their performance?

Emotional Intelligence
While listening to music can be a solitary activity, playing music is generally a social activity. When people become ill or feel lonely anywhere, let alone in workplace, they may feel anxious, afraid, disempowered, and experience pain, depression and low self-esteem according to C. D. Dileo (Introduction to Music Therapy and Medicine, 1999).

Music can help ease these feelings by enhancing one�s mood, provide motivation and an avenue for self-expression that can take the focus away from the loneliness, or illness and create opportunities to use existing abilities and strengths. Song writing, improvising, singing familiar songs, listening to familiar songs and preferred music are techniques employed by the music therapists to encourage emotional expression, provide stimulation, and opportunities to respond, initiate and use one�s abilities. When organization development consultants and trainers begin to use music-based exercises to build teams and reduce conflicts at workplace, we will begin to see more emotional intelligence develop in people. Considering that information technology based businesses are proliferating in the world and software engineers are known for their high IQ and not necessarily high EQ, music could be used effectively at workplace to increase emotional intelligence and strong teams at the same time.

Learning and Creativity
A friend of ours, Michael Lindfield of the Boeing Company used to say that �learning is what you breathe in and creativity is what you breathe out.� We say that if you breathe in music, you breathe out relaxation, increased attention and creativity. Georgi Lozanov of Bulgaria found in mid 1900s that music could play a significant role in accelerating the learning processes for people � (which can also be found in Indian Mythologies) - and came up with accelerated learning methodologies. Now his approaches have spread to the rest of the world and many language-teaching methodologies have included music as an integrated part of learning new languages.

Creativity and innovation is the lifeblood of entrepreneurial and established companies and the new idea generation process can be accelerated by using music. While some music relaxes you, there are many other varieties of music that can make you excited, make you feel confident, courageous and be willing to take risks.

Just to get started, how about some of you readers writing some poems, haikus and songs and setting them to music? Maybe some of you can write and others can help setting to music if you want to work as a team! If you send us some of your music and poetry, we will publish it on our websites in audio or text form�

Music as a vehicle for personal transformation and social reformation
Concluding, music was also used to tell stories and bring about social reformation and personal transformation in many countries and traditions. Great Indian musicians (www.carnatic.has.it) have given us so much advice in terms of how to lead a happy life style using music as a vital vehicle. Treatise such as Bhagavad Gita, which has also been translated into music form, has a wealth of information on how to lead a happy life. Compositions of Sri Purandara dasa and Kabir das, have taught us lessons through music. Native American music, music of Aborigines in Australia, many forms of African music contains stories and life lessons as well. When people feel deeply, what comes out many times is music that resonates, moves and touches others for centuries to come and that is the power of music.

What can you do?
Would you like to try find ways to integrate music into your work and life? Here are some suggestions.

� Find a variety of music that belongs to different cultures and different traditions. Spend some time everyday listening to them and find out what effects they have on you. Distinguish the moods that would make you productive, creative, relax or heal.

� Make sure you vary the music regularly and often to create freshness and interest. Allow others to contribute to the music collection and experience

� It is important that the music is present in a subtle volume level and not dominating the room. Music should merge into the background but make you feel relaxed. The question for you could be, can you think and listen to your own thoughts while the music is playing? If not, adjust the volume till you can.

� Identify the music that everyone likes in your team and create short rituals - like singing an elevating song to begin a project or a jolly number to celebrate small successes. These can build strong teams.

� Take 30 minutes every day to listen to soothing music with your eyes closed and flowing with the music. When you learn to relax your body, breath and quieten your mind with such sessions, slowly develop a meditation practice that includes music. It can have significant impact on your health, productivity and creativity.

Workplace and music do not generally go together in the minds of people unless those work places are hair salons or certain conference centers, massage parlors or shopping centers. Some people in offices might have their own CD players or iPods or computers playing music through headphones, but this is not a wide practice yet. Using appropriate music for people to self manage their emotions is not an idea whose time has come (at least officially!). Maybe some of the readers of this article are courageous enough to suggest it to their management at workplace.

Finally, these are some of our reflections on music and (self) management. What about yours? Do you know other ways music can contribute to management? Do you have personal stories or recommendations of music? Write to us and comment on www.prasadkaipa.com and www.carnatic.has.it websites.

Acknowledgments: We appreciate the initiation into music done by Smt. Vasundhara Srinivasan (who also happens to be mother of Giridhar) and editorial assistance of Ragunath Padmanabhan. Thank you!


Prasad Kaipa is a CEO Advisor and Executive Coach in the United States and has conducted executive development programs in USA, Canada, UK, Belgium and India. He can be reached at pkaipa@kaipagroup.com or 1-408-871 0462 and his blog is at www.prasadkaipa.com.

Giridhar is an IT Professional in Australia, with keen interest in classical music. He runs �Bansuri� � school for Indian classical music, along with LOTUS for youth artistes and GIVSeries. For additional details, please visit www.carnatic.has.it.

Posted by pkaipa at April 26, 2005 03:24 PM

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