Question

Consider this: You are a marketing graduate from a premier institute and for your fellowship you have chosen to create market linkages for rural products made by bamboo artisans. You took some samples to Mumbai and met some people. Being very articulate you were able to strike a deal with the rotary club for providing 200 bamboo baskets as a souvenir for an event. You came back and passed this great news to the 4 artisans you have been working with. With gusto, the artisans jumped into work as they had to make 200 baskets in 3 weeks’ time. It was daunting but doable. By the end of the first week, they made 75 pieces, but the following week had the festival of Holi which is celebrated with great pomp and the villagers don’t work for 5 days. You are shocked by this culture and devasted by the lack of professionalism as they won’t be able to finish the order on time. What would you do? *

Answer 1

i would tell them to celebrate holi in our workplace then get back to work because of two reasons:

1. In India festivals are more social than religious. Yes they are religious too but you don’t celebrate these alone. Most festivals involve a gathering of friends and family, an exchange of greetings and gifts, a plan to go out for lunch or dinner.  Workplaces too are social and most teams that work together also operate as extended families - again a concept and behaviour largely representative of Indian culture. Which means, paradoxically celebrating a festival together becomes more secular than ever
2. If this involved an employee engagement activity - like a contest on colour coordination, photography, it would get the employees even more engaged. This could have brought together a new festive spirit at work. And this is true of any festival – take the conceptual part of it and make it something that employees can come together and contribute to. It makes both the participants as well as the onlookers valued – as it’s something that recognizes them as individuals. Contests with small prizes and certificates, recognition from peers and seniors – all become morale boosting for the employee.