When PSRS explodes on the scene as the coolest team building workshop in Paris, I'm hoping to get some credit thrown my way. You see I've know this rock school for kids for a while now. My husband is one of the teachers there. And when he came home one day and described how a spontaneous jam session occurred at the end of the class with the owner Jason and some of the parents of the students joining in, I thought that sounded like an awesome thing to do with my team when they came to Paris! So I called up Jason and he was down to beta test a professional team building workshop with my team of Yelp community managers. I came up with a fictitious rock band name (Yeah Yeah Yelps) got some t-shirts designed (thanks Sonia B!), printed them up in time for the occasion and kept the mystery high until we arrived at the Studio where the school rents space. As soon as we stepped into the big rehearsal space my team was half pumped, and half freaking out because no one had any true musical knowledge to speak of. "I love drums but I have no rhythm," one person said. "I love to sing, but I have a terrible voice," said another. Jason the owner didn't flinch. He put us all on different instruments and gave us some notes to play. After a few tries, he switched us around and gave us some more instructions. You play open E, you play A, you lean into the mic and search for lyrics to this melody, and just like that with simple, clear directions, lots and lots of patience, and a mega dose of relaxed American humor, we started to come together and actually sound like we knew what we were doing. The energy was so fun and invigorating that the three hours totally flew by. There were hysterical fits of laughter, insanely goofy faces, spontaneous bursts of lyrical brilliance, a killer guitar solo that appeared out of nowhere, a chorus worthy of a Quincy Jones billboard hit, and in the end we had ourselves a damn awesome original tune that is now our team's anthem. If you lead a team and want a hands on activity that will unite your group, spark creativity, and put everyone out of their comfort zone only to build a more solid foundation, look no further and get ready to rock! read more

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