Innovative Research: Get Rhythm
As a freelance strategist with the chance to get inside corporate cultures and tinker with the best techniques for aligning behavior and processes with the expectations of customers, I’m always working to improve my tools for taking the pulse of an organization. In my most recent post, I suggested that MadLibs work well. Another research tool I like to use is one I call Get Rhythm.
Get Rhythm can be used as a facilitated workshop exercise or as a survey question inside organizations, and it’s pretty simple. Take six songs that represent a range of points of view, styles or meaning, and ask participants (employees, executives) to choose the one that is most like their company and explain their selection. Here’s the songs I often like to use (but there are many more out there that can work great):
• Queen: We Are The Champions
• Michael Jackson: Thriller
• Take Me Out To The Ball Game (as heard at baseball games)
• Johnny Cash: Folsom Prison Blues
• Somewhere Over The Rainbow (from Wizard of Oz)
• The Beatles: Helter Skelter
Obviously, there is no one right answer to this exercise. In fact, the song selection hardly matters. Every song, even one like Folsom Prison Blues, has different associations for different people. The power is in the explanation and the clarity you can get about a culture based on participants’ descriptions. And it’s fun! So, what song best fits your organization? -Scott
