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The Business of Carnival
Carnival Economic Engine
Carnival is big business. Trouble is well-meaning carnival
organizations never benefit enough from the culture and events that they put on
in a big way. These tips are not designed to tell carnival organizers how to do
their jobs. They are designed to improve focus in managers and to offer timely
information designed to improve and enhance their performances.
DELEGATE
You can't do it alone. Modern management techniques call for
giving staff and other personnel an assortment of tasks. The manager keeps track
of tasks, sets time lines, and puts back-up plans in place in case some tasks
fail. The manager must constantly review tasks and seek "progress
reports" to make sure that what has to get done does get done.
CO-OPT
Carnival organizations (the vast majority of them) suffer
from a lack of expert and skilled talent. But because of poor management skills
and a tendency to "protect turf' these organizations continue to make
mistakes and to stick with what's comfortable, and not necessarily what works or
what's efficient. My advice in these cases is to find the needed skills and
talents outside of the organization to get the work done. If that's not done
then it only a matter of time before the organization implodes. Sounds familiar?
ACCESS AND REVIEW
Ongoing assessment of projects and tasks, time-lines, and
deadlines are essential, no VITAL, management tools in today's modern climate.
That's not to say that you have to micro-manage or be jack-of-all-trades. You
will master none and eventually fall victim to the "pack rat syndrome"
- hoarding information in the mistaken belief that you alone can run the
organization. Carnival Managers must review their organization and volunteer (or
paid) staffs work and the successes and failures of the ventures. But a review
is not about finger-pointing and blame apportionment; it’s about looking at
how the organization did with a view to building on the successes and avoiding
future mistakes.
SEE THE "BIG PICTURE"
Too many times pettiness and personalities get mixed with big egos. That's
because everybody in the organization wants to take ownership of the carnival.
That could be a positive thing, but when it gets to the point that one person
feels his or her contribution is more important to the carnival than other
people's then that kind of "ownership" becomes negative. So it’s
important that people see the "big picture" - carnival is big
business, it depends on the participation of many people, and is bigger than
any one individual. Its success is therefore a collective effort since one person
is not a steel band and one person is no mas band.
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