Stake on the "roof"

Yes.. I am making up this caption !

But not making up this age old tradition narrated below !

In rural parts of Eastern India, during the 80s, every upwardly progressing low middle class, had one dream. To have a shelter / home with a "concrete" roof.

It was looked up as an upgrade from Tile, Asbestos or other forms of roofing.

When people built “Pucca” houses, the toughest thing used to be the roof.

They will put the false ceiling with Bamboo pillars, and wood planks.
Put a layer of soil. Then some leaves, then the iron frame.

Then on one sunny day, the concrete mix will be poured in to the iron frame which has to settle for subsequent 21 days before the take off the false ceiling.

Putting the concrete mix to iron frame is considered last mile and considered tough job. It has to be done in ONE SESSION. Point being, if not finished in one go, and a portion left behind, no matter what you do to blend the cast, there would be a gap and the roof would leak.

And in that last day, invariably the chieftain of the mason’s, in the last moment, will put a 4 inch PIPE / Barrel / Cylinder in the soft concrete cast. If not pulled out quickly and blended in the same session, that would leave behind a permanent hole in the roof, which wont be possible to seal.

This is how the tradition goes after that.

The owner of the property is supposed give him a new dress and praise his masonary skills in front of everybody. After that brief drama is over, he will remove the stick. And the job will be taken to completion.

So how is corporate culture any different ?

This week, a major delivery which has taken an year for 100s of employees to complete is supposed to be released. All of them who are involved, have taken their part seriously. And done the job in a coordinated fashion so far to make this happen. There has been no red flags. Most of the last minute errors are done away with. Most of the people are feeling good and relieved. The smart ones are already blowing their horn, etc. The usual corporate circus !

One employee, who has been responsible of final testing, has not yet found a reason to blow him horn. So, he goes ahead and put the "stake on the roof", latching on to an ignorable thing.

And, the solution, was simple. A public praise of the person's effort and a small corporate borwnie point. The ignorable issue was ignored ! Successfully !

Now, Betaal thinks - may be we should make it a tradition - like the mason's in rural India did 20 yrs ago. Would not that reduce a lot of emotions around the last minute scuffle and make it more fun :)