Making people happy at work in India
I’m back. I’m beat. And no wonder – in 11 days I went Copenhagen – Chicago – London – Bombay – Indore – Bombay – London – Copenhagen.
India, especially, was great. Going there was an absolutely amazing experience. I don’t hesitate to call it life-changing.
I went with one big question on my mind: Will my stuff work in India? Will they like the idea of happiness at work? Will my style go over well with Indians? Will my tools and methods work in Indian workplaces? Will Indian managers see the business sense in making their employees happy?
Another happy Indian
I seriously had no idea. I’ve done my thing in many western corporations, but Indian business culture is obviously very different.
Well, my stuff works in India! Boy, does it ever work. In fact, in India, I’m a rock star :o)
The stage for the Indore Management Association annual convention. The place was humongous!
First I spoke at the Indore Management Association’s annual conference where my presentation was a huge hit. People absolutely loved it as you can see from these comments.
The next day it was on to Dewas which is a short drive from Indore where Tata has a plant that makes leather for the fashion industry. Tata is India’s biggest company, responsible for 2.8% of Indias GDP. That’s huge.
Making people happy at work in India
I did one workshop for the 20 senior managers at the factory which went very well and the next day I did another full-day workshop for 45 entry-level managers which went even better. Again, people loved the message, the tools and my presentation style.
Making people happy at work in India
And then to cap it off, I was taken to Indore again where I gave a presentation to the Indore Management Marshals, a group that meets monthly to discuss management. This group consisted of the member and their wives, most of whom are housewives, so I was asked to also speak about happiness in the family.
That was a fun request, and it made me realize that about 90% of my message actually applies equally well at work and at home. And, again, I was a hit :o)
It was a long trip home (about 24 hours) but I spent the whole time feeling quietly elated – a feeling that persists now that I’m back.
Street life in Indore
And finally a great big thank you to:
- The students who took such great care of me in Indore, especially Nancy.
- Everyone at IMA. What a great event you put on.
- Everyone at Tata Dewas. Thanks for spending so much time on my workshops and for being so positive about them.
- The Management Marshals of Indore for a lovely evening.
- James Pal for showing me around Indore and introducing me to Indian street cuisine – which is amazing!
- S Nand for making it all possible by reacting to my original blog post where I said that I’d love to do some work in India.
- Vijay Kumar Bhalla for arranging the whole thing so efficiently
- To every single person I met while there. I must have met hundreds of people and everyone was happy, smiling, gracious, positive and open. Thanks!
You can see many more pictures from Indore here.
I took a class in stand-up comedy in New York a couple of weeks ago run by the American Comedy Institute who offer a 1-year version, a 3-week version and (the one I did) a 5-day intensive version for non-New York natives.
Here’s the deal: I’d love to speak at Google.
It’s been pretty quiet around the blog last week because I’ve been in Istanbul giving a keynote at the HRDergi conference on performance management. 
