Rituals surround us at work, in society and at home.    They help manage emotions- think about what happens when someone dies.  Rituals can bring a sense of control in times of uncertainty.  Whereas habits are what we do (they automate us), rituals are how we do it (they animate us).   We are often unaware of rituals; we have either grown up with them or do them without thinking at work.

At home rituals lead to happier relationships, at work they can cut both ways.   There are both legacy rituals, inherited through the history of the firm, and new rituals that have arisen spontaneously or through careful curation.

Rituals are free, but when did you last think about how you could harness them?  They are meaningful repeated practices that go beyond routine.  Done well they can create a sense of purpose, belonging and shared identity.  Perhaps start with an audit of the rituals in your company (and home!).

Instead of thinking of rituals as right or wrong, identify those that are useful (e.g. weekly shout outs to recognise someone’s contribution, teams eating together once a week) or unhelpful (e.g. forced fun, or exclusionary traditions involving late nights and alcohol).

There are certain events that invoke rituals- onboarding and leaving, celebrating success (or examining failure).   Are these rituals still meaningful for you or just empty habits?  Is the onboarding truly engaging, are people coming out animated and excited about what is to come?  Are you helping people leave ‘well’.  What does a good exit even look like for you?  

 A ritual that is just going through the motions is worse than no ritual at all.  As your company grows or changes, so rituals that worked at first may need updating or scrapping completely.  There is a danger the senior team hangs on to rituals that newer or more junior team members find demotivating or even alienating.

There is also the opportunity to establish new positive rituals.  Start small with something this is true to the company.  Can you tie it to something already happening, perhaps closing that last meeting of the week in a different way?  Ask your teams for ideas, co-creating rituals with them will create ownership and make the rituals more likely to endure.   Check in and evolve these new rituals they are unlikely to be exactly right first time.

In hospitality things go wrong.  No service or food is ever perfect every night.  Great restaurants have a rescue ritual.  The team know what to do when a mistake has been made.  Rather than let the guest leave disgruntled to spread negative reviews, they invoke a ritual (or one of a choice of rituals) that sees the guest as a human not just a customer.  This is more than a process or a routine; it results in the guest leaving with an anecdote that brings new customers along.

Picture a company where Monday mornings used to be dreaded- people came in sluggish and unmotivated.  Leadership introduced a simple ritual-  at the start of the weekly team meeting, everyone answers one light, open-ended question e.g. “What inspired you this weekend?” or “What’s one thing you’re looking forward to this week?”.

This small ritual takes less than 10 minutes but has had a big effect- it energizes the room, helps colleagues learn more about each other, and creates a sense of shared humanity before diving into project updates.  Over time, it’s become one of the team’s most cherished habits- a way of starting the week not just as workers, but as people.

This is the core of what rituals do, they transform workplaces from groups of individuals into communities, and in doing so help people stay longer and boost performance.  There is a saying that culture is defined as the worst behaviour tolerated by leaders, maybe it is also defined by the worst tolerated rituals.   Are the rituals in your life helping or hindering?