Curiosity at Work: Lessons from Boomwhackers

It’s funny what you can learn from a bit of coloured plastic tubing.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time with boomwhackers in very different spaces including early years sessions, primary school workshops and then a professional conference.

In each setting, the same instruments created completely different reactions.

And what I saw really stayed with me, because what I saw wasn’t about music.

It was about curiosity… and what happens to it as we grow up.

At an EYFS setting, I handed the boomwhackers out to the younger children and simply said, “Have a play.” And off they went! They looked through them like telescopes, held them to their ears, tapped the floor, rolled them and lay down and pressed their ears to the ground to hear the vibrations.

The children didn't ask “Is this right?” They just explored.

The absolte freedom and lack of self-selfconscious was evident - they weren't trying to make music 'properly'. They were simply trying to find out what the thing could do.

The Primary Years: the 'right' way

Then I ran sessions with Years 3 and 4, and Years 5 and 6.

These were the same tubes, but there was a very different response and energy. They’d already been taught how to use them, so they knew how to use them 'correctly'. The concept of playing their own chosen rhythm, freely and without being told what to do, seemed slightly alien, but they did get into it and soon their own rhythms were being played while I held th space on the cajon.

Without a doubt, that beautiful, slightly wild experimentation had mostly gone.

By the time we got to the older ones, there was almost a sense of, “They’re just tubes.” It was as if the mystery had drained out of them.

The adults: hesitation

But the moment that really stopped me was at a conference.

We had boomwhackers on our exhibition stand and were inviting people to have a go, to mess about and make a bit of noise.

We spoke to many people throughout the day, but most notably some very qualified, very capable professors who couldn't bring themselves to even pick a boomwhacker up. There was awkward laughter, stepping away and a real sense of fear over 'not getting it right'.

It brought me straight back to Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk about how our education system gradually erodes curiosity out of us.

We start off exploring everything. And somewhere along the way, we begin waiting to be told the correct way instead. Or worse, we decide it’s safer not to try at all.

So what does this mean for workplaces?

My observation is, not only does it matter for workplaces, it's actually crucial.

Workplaces don’t need people who only follow instructions. They need people who wonder, experiment, try things, suggest ideas and risk looking a bit daft sometimes. That’s where innovation actually comes from.

If someone feels too self-conscious to tap a boomwhacker in a room of friendly people, how likely are they to share a half-formed idea in a meeting, question a system that isn’t working or try something new that might fail?

When curiosity shrinks, organisations quietly become less inventive.

They stick with what they know.

And in a world that’s changing this quickly, that’s not a great place to be.

What Sounds Joyful brings to workplaces

The curiosity approach sits at the heart of our workplace wellbeing workshops at Sounds Joyful.

It’s easy to look at something like a boomwhacker and assume it’s just about play. But what we’re really interested in is what happens to people when they’re given the space to explore.

Music is simply our way in.

We design sessions so everyone can join in comfortably, whether they think of themselves as musical or not. There’s enough structure that people feel held, but plenty of room to respond in their own way. Nothing is forced and we don't work towards a performance. There's just an open invitation to take part.

From the outside it can look very simple, but the work underneath isn’t accidental. Through our careful, responsive facilitation (which comes from years of reading rooms, knowing when to guide and understanding when to step back), we enable people to feel at ease with each other, creating trust quickly, and shaping the experience so the group starts to move as one.

Outcomes include people listening more closely, noticing each other, the shift of people geniuinely finding common ground and working together, the growth of empathy and confidence. People contribute more freely and ideas surface that might otherwise have stayed unsaid.

These are exactly the qualities strong teams rely on every day: trust, communication, awareness, collaboration. And you don’t need to be a musician to access any of it.

It’s subtle work, but it has a real impact; because when people feel safe and supported, curiosity comes back. And when curiosity comes back, new thinking follows.

That’s the real purpose behind it all.