Robert White, a manager from the Apache tribe had this experience,
"Indian funerals here take three days, five days sometimes, and if you’re a sixty-fourth cousin, you show up, whether the factory has a deadline or not. I’m not saying give up our traditions. We’re actually exploring trade-off time for workers, so they can spend more time at important gatherings. I know they’re willing to do that, even though Russ says in other plants he’s worked in it would never happen. This past Christmas, it all started coming together. We had a big Christmas deadline, and we’d been threatening for a week to make everybody work on Saturday and during their holiday week if we didn’t make it. Well, everybody got all of their work done, and Dorothy and I were sitting back like big bosses, watching them work and take all their own responsibility. It was just great. We all left early."
(From Smith, D.H. Modern tribal development: Paths to self-sufficiency and cultural integrity in Indian Country. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000.)
If we are going to succeed we need to be sure we are not using our traditions as excuses not to work. The manager in this example gave an opportunity for workers to both honor their traditions AND meet their schedules. What's your excuse for not meeting your schedule?
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