A Bharatnatyam Performance — reinforces management fundamentals

Recently, we performed in a temple on Dhanashree tilana. Apart from the team choreography, it taught us basic management fundamentals of running any team.

Time Management became very crucial here at different levels. Practice is never enough, hence being punctual and time boxing these sessions became very important. This also had a cascading effect on the rest of the schedule. Planning days well and delegating tasks became quite an intensive affair. I am sure every working mum would know the hustle I am talking about. My daughter was performing too, so it all doubles up.

An exam day, not having a baby sitter day, college events, and other priorities of the team also needed considerations for building up a schedule.

Change Management came as an uninvited friend aboard. Change in the choreography, change in rehearsal timings, costume, venue and what not. It does not end till the last minute.

Team Orchestration. There is a lot of planning and visualization involved at every step. How a bunch of people are going to move on the stage? Where would the audience be? How can we create an impact? Playing with strengths and weaknesses of the team and a lot more.

As a team, we also worked out together, so our bodies behaved similarly matching up the speed and stamina. We started learning the lyrics, matching expressions and taking feedback. We helped each other with costumes, accessories, hair, makeup, etc.

Goal Planning. It is difficult to control creative minds but it is easier to make them work on a goal their own way. We broke it down to doable chunks and milestones. Everyday practice, workout sessions, listening to music, watching videos, makeup, costumes, ghunghroo, shopping and more…

We also started taking care of ourselves more, getting good sleep, eating healthy, skin care routine, and other bunch of sub goals were piggy backed.

Conclusion. Though, we call them management fundamentals and we live with an impression that they are used in corporates. But the thing is that they have been derived from real world experiences and is applicable in any context.