A while ago I came across an inspiring article on LinkedIn written by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO (an award winning global design & innovation consultancy) titled “How To Make A Business Sing.” The article recounted a truly unique experience he had with Māori business leaders from New Zealand who had come to tour his office, and participated in a Q&A afterwards.

At the end of the session, the Māori business leaders burst into song as a way to thank Tim and his team for their time. Though he admits to being caught off guard, he says “The group was deeply in touch with why they were in business and how their culture brought meaning to their work.” Tim’s article ended by asking what I found to be a very poignant question:

“How much more meaningful might our work be if it was more closely interwoven with our culture?”

Obviously this piqued my interest as I know that the most important part of my job as COO has been to create a company culture that more closely resembles that of a family, rather than a business. The family culture has unequivocally served as the keystone to fostering a happy work environment, and by proxy a productive work environment.

A great deal of our effort to create this family style culture of harmony and happiness has involved incorporating music into our meetings, our retreats, and our events, both for the company and our community. Suffice to say, reading Brown’s thoughts on music as a “connector” was truly music to my ears!

When it comes to our physical office, we were instinctively drawn to make music an integral part of the design from the start. In our living room there’s a baby grand piano, which both HM team members and guests use regularly. The self-playing piano is also equipped with Wi-Fi so we can download songs and it will fill the entire building with music. We also have a guitar on hand for the musicians on our team, and always look forward to the opportunity to gather on our living room couches for an impromptu cover of our favorite songs of the moment.

But the piano and the guitars aren’t just for show. They are used…daily, as part of our culture. Travis Carter and Danny Turek for example are both exceptional musicians (Travis on guitar and Danny on piano), as well as singer-songwriters. Travis has been known to launch into original guitar numbers he’s composed to kick off monthly team meetings, and after hours, Star Hughes can be found playing the piano and enjoying the solitude the end of the work day brings.

We’ve watched each other perform music in our company talent shows – some with serious talent – and some that will make you laugh until your stomach hurts, like when our own David Marino performed Copacabana in a hot pink satin flamenco-style shirt (and he was actually quite good!). We’ve even invited our team’s family members to join in on the fun. One of most original musical performances we’ve ever experienced came from Dean Petersen’s amazing wife, Jane, who holds a Ph.D. in audiology. Jane performed an entire Christmas carol in American Sign Language for our team, a truly one of a kind musical experience. Likewise, we regularly hire musicians to perform at our company retreats and many of the special events we host for the community.

I have to say, from our experience at Hughes Marino, music does indeed enrich the true human connection between us all. Granted we don’t have a particular song that is “a traditional parting gesture after meeting new people,” but we do know that music helps to reinforce our family style culture and bring us together in a uniquely special way.

So, my answer to Tim’s question of how much more meaningful our work might be if it was more closely interwoven with our culture, would be: Interweaving our family culture with our work, and including music as an integral part of that, makes our jobs and our relationships infinitely more meaningful.

(And by the way…check out Danny and Travis’ cover of Rihanna’s Stay, filmed in Hughes Marino’s headquarters last fall. These guys are phenomenal!)