Office Rituals as a Form of Employee Team Building

I was alerted to a great article today by Pat Kiernan’s Website, Pat’s Papers that appeared in the WSJ: “The Power of a ‘Project Beard’ and Other Office Rituals.” It’s a fun look at research conducted by Harvard Business School and other top universities on the power of ritual – defined as “repetitive, symbolic behaviors that aren’t motivated by reason and lack a particular goal or outcome” – in boosting morale and fostering team spirit.

“With teams in an office, rituals learned and performed as a group ‘make them feel closer and more connected’ — and tend to boost team performance” says HBS associate professor Michael I. Norton in the article. If you’ve ever worked in an even mildly-competitive environment, this is probably familiar to you: traditions, superstitions, “the way we do things here.” All of these rituals have a real value in the workplace as far as forming group cohesion & pride, as well as serving to calm nerves and get results.

But as a form of employee team building, there’s an added benefit as well: shared “insider” knowledge unique to the group. I always say that the key to a successful team building activity is a positive shared experience, and when planning our trivia team building events in NYC and elsewhere, it’s these types of quirky, office-specific details I’m looking for to ask questions about. The reason? It’s shared habits, routines and customs which make a workplace what it is, and give team members a sense of belonging. If you can cultivate that within your group and somehow create a ways for your staff to positively identify with the office and each other, you’re golden.

Not every workplace is happy, but that doesn’t mean yours can’t be. When employed correctly, rituals can be a significant piece to the workplace happiness puzzle.

(Photo courtesy Tim Gruber for The Wall Street Journal)