The ideological divide or the spice of life!

One of the battles that has been going on in our family is that of spicy Vs non spicy food! It is like a never-ending divide, that gets created by the preference of chilies in food.

The origin lies in the family’s circumstances at the time we were growing up. My spouse’s family hails from Rajasthan, where eating spicy food is customary. Whereas, my side of the family has been the largely no spices’ kind of people, with a history of sensitive stomachs. Add to it the time when my mom developed hypertension and was advised to reduce salt intake. And then, when she had a slightly increased blood sugar level, to also reduce sweet intake.

So that left with pretty much the option of having bland food, that got cooked at home. At that point in time, my dad was staying in Mumbai for work and my sister was studying medicine in Gujarat. With that there were just two people in the house-hold - my mom and me. So, the cooking was done with minimal spices for maximizing health.

On the other hand, my husband grew up in a large joint family in the initial years. Cooking was done keeping in view majority of the members with a fair amount of spice. This became a norm and later a preference for all family members. Add to it the fact that catering was started as an interest and later grew into a family business.

Cut to the present, whenever the two families come together spice or no spice is often a topic of conversation. We would sometimes end up with two versions of a curry, to meet the individual needs that are quite varied.

And yet, as time is passing the tastes are slowly altering, to reach a balanced optimum. Where the spice is neither too much, nor too less, but just right!

In the organizational context, we all come to the workplace with our set of beliefs and our own ways of working. At times integrating becomes difficult, due to the sheer difference in opinions and values. What is needed is an open-hearted approach to embrace the differences and being willing to listen and consider opposing views.

A collaborative workplace is not a result of an overnight dose of an elixir. Though, how we wish that were the case! Collaboration results from a series of decisions, that are taken keeping in mind the bigger goals, as against the individual interests.

When leaders lead through example, teams follow the same in their actions. When alignment happens at the top level, the ground level employees find it much easier to break the silos.

Else, there are petty power games, pulling employees in different directions. At times even diametrically opposite ones! This results in chaos and precious energy is wasted, due to the complete lack of focus. That is where change processes fail and cultural stagnation may occur.

Targeted interventions on culture and mind-set change may help bring about some alteration. A complete transformation can only happen when all levels are aligned and open to change.

How is your organization creating a collaborative environment?

#collaboration; #change; #OD; #culture; #values; #alignment