Enabling participation in joint drumming within organizational workshops

Abstract

Art-based interventions are increasingly employed in workplace settings for the purposes of organizational training and development. In this article, we examine the implementation of a workshop where hand drumming is used in two client organizations. Through the detailed analysis of the trainers’ actions, the article shows how the trainers use the combination of verbal and embodied means in order to instruct and encourage participation in joint drumming. In particular, the article demonstrates how the trainers’ instructive practice change across the instructional phases of the workshop and form a trajectory from pre-planned rhythm patterns to free collective improvisation in the pre-designed service product.