I synced up with others today.

Synchrony is the new buzzword. Mentioned in the book When by Daniel H. Pink, he says:

“Research by two University of Oxford scholars has found that children who played a rhythmic, synchronized clap-and-tap game were more likely than children who played non-synchronous games to later help their peers. In similar experiments, children who first played synchronous games were far more likely than others to say that if they were to come back for more activities they would be interested in playing with a child who wasn’t in their original group. Even swinging in time with another child on a swing set increased subsequent cooperation and collaborative skill. Operating in sync expands our openness to outsiders and makes us more likely to engage in pro-social behavior. In other words, coordinating makes us better people, and being better people makes us better coordinators.”

I synced with my children this morning as we did yoga and other physical activities together. Did it make a difference? I found that I was more willing to spend quality time with them throughout the day and even found myself planning more activities for us to do tomorrow. So for me, syncing had an immediate positive impact.

In Finland, the first couple of years in school seem to be spent syncing. The children are assigned to a class they will stay with throughout their years in school. They are sent out to play and discover together, to form relationships. These classrooms also rely very heavily on clapping and tapping in sync during circle time. It stands to reason that these children would end up syncing as a group at some point during these formative years.

According to the research, this sets these children up for success as they are more likely to help each other, perhaps even inspiring each other to rise to the same level academically. This benefit of inclusivity also translates to those outside the group as the synced children reach out to others. 

These increases in cooperation and collaborative skills based on syncing have the capacity to help explain the cultural phenomenon found in the Nordic countries. Traits such as equality, a government interested in the common good, innovation, and a proclivity to work well in groups could all stem – at least in part – from this simple approach to the first few years in school.

What did I learn from this?

Coordinating physically with others can help us become more interested in their welfare.