Have you ever thought about your rituals at work? I’ll be honest, it’s not something I had really thought about until we were lucky enough to have the awesome Erica Keswin on our recent Reset Show.
Erica came on the show to talk about her latest book Rituals Roadmap which is all about how to transform your company into workplace magic with the power of rituals. Let’s start at the beginning – what do we mean by Rituals? Erica used three simple points to demystify rituals at work:
– Rituals have some kind of meaning and intent
– They have a regular cadence
– And they go beyond a practical purpose -for example we might light a candle in a power cut, which is not a ritual, but lighting a candle at the end of every day and noting your gratitudes for the day would be considered a ritual
And maybe an unofficial fourth point – we miss rituals when they are gone. Ultimately rituals are about connection, which we know is a force for good not only in the workplace but in every aspect of our lives.
So why bother focusing on rituals at work? I can imagine this could be a hard sell in some organisations but it doesn’t have to be, as there is a compelling case for focusing on them. There is both a body of science and established ROI that can help to persuade cynics that rituals deserve our attention. Erica talked about the three “P’s” as a good place to start:
- Psychological safety – rituals can help to develop psychological safety at work, whether we are working in the office, at home or elsewhere. They provide familiarity, connection, and belonging all of which make us feel safe as part of the “in-group”
- Purpose -rituals also provide an opportunity to connect to purpose. Erica talked about how rituals can be and should be aligned with our values which further contributes to this.
- Performance – rituals contribute to improved performance. There are a range of studies in the book, but one example which is compelling demonstrated that firefighters that more closely observed the firehouse ritual of preparing and eating meals together outperformed those that didn’t. This finding has been replicated many times with different groups of employees.
So how do you go about designing and building rituals in the workplace? Erica suggests starting by observing what is already happening and what is working well. There will already be many rituals within your workplace, albeit they might not be labelled as such, so watch and learn is the advice. She also suggests the beginnings and endings are “prime rituals real estate” – that could be the beginning and ending of a day, or a week, or maybe a meeting or a project. Rituals can be formal and informal, both are helpful to create that sense of connection and belonging at work. Erica also suggests getting out there and asking your people when they feel most connected to your organisation, when they experience that sense of belonging, and use these insights to build on.
When I look back on my best experiences at work they often feature and involve rituals – I just didn’t realise it until promoted by Erica’s brilliant work to think about rituals in this way. Erica also left us with a great challenge to consider our personal rituals, she asked us when do we feel most like ourselves. A brilliant question to reflect on as we move from the confines of lockdown and re-discover many of our rituals. For me personally I never feel more like me than when I’m at a gig, which was a ritual I missed dearly over the last 18 months.
We’d love to hear about your rituals at work and outside of work too -what are they and how do they make you feel? We’ll look forward to hearing your thoughts.
