The month of September usually has a hub of activity around culture. It is during this time of the year, that the spotlight is on aspects of cultural engagement. There is hype in the workplace with everyone preparing to dress in their cultural attire to participate in the Heritage Day activities.
Start by getting team members who usually drag their feet to participate in these activities to share ideas on how to celebrate culture. Engage not just with these team members but all team members to identify the best possible way to commemorate all cultures. Opening the floor to your team towards a solution for the celebration can get the team members excited about celebrating their culture. If your team is all out of ideas have a group engagement. If the entire team actively participates, the event will be more successful.
Read More: 6 Ways to Naturally Reduce Anxiety
Incentivise the celebration. The best way to get people to participate is if they can see value for them in the end. Ensure there is a best dressed, best team, most creative outfit etc. If you are worried it might put people under pressure to have to spend and out shine the others, then engage with the team around the guidelines for this. It doesn’t have to be something like a pageant, but rather just a day to have fun getting to know each other’s culture by dressing in traditional attire.
Try initiating the culture swop. For the sake of knowledge sharing, get your team to swop their cultures. Put down the different cultural groups on paper, shuffle them around and assign them to the team members by allowing them to randomly pick one out of a hat. This is spontaneous and will definitely have them thinking out of the box. The culture swop can be used for dressing and for information sharing.
Read More: Here Are The Best Five Books That I Recommend Everyone To Read This Year
Ditch the usual drinks and a braai. Instead, take a trip with your team to a historical site in the city. This way they can share more about South African culture. Take a trip to a national site or even visit a few religious institutes to gain clarity on religious beliefs. This will do wonders in knowledge building and also be a field trip for the office-based staff members. If the work load isn’t permitting a road trip, try getting team members to present information from their culture. Have a fun quiz on South African culture thereafter.
Get your team members to learn a new phrase or sentence from a culture group. This can be useful even when assisting customers on the phone. Don’t stop there. Put up some posters with bits of information on different cultures that come from team members around the office. This can be done weekly or even every month. It will help keep the discussion around culture active.
Since you’re here already, check out Spring Has Sprung, Here’s What You Can Do In Spring