For several months we have been kept updated about the celebrations that will take place when Charles III is crowned king. The UK media has extensively covered the quaint rituals that will be zoomed on our TV screens for a whole week. Dedicated royalists must by now be experts in the protocol that will decide who of the royals will appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
Undoubtedly rituals are an essential part of who we are as humans. People perform rituals when they attend religious ceremonies, sporting events or team-building activities in the workplace. These gatherings are opportunities to pause the daily hustle and bustle and be present momentarily to engage in something special.
Rituals are an essential part of who we are as humans. They structure our social worlds and how we understand time, relationships and change
Historian Yuval Noah Harari is a Jewish historian and author. His book Sapiens argues, “All large-scale human cooperation – whether a modern state, a medieval church or an ancient city – is rooted in shared myths, which exist only in people’s collective imaginations.”
In business organisations, which are just micro societies, rituals are a crucial part of the organisational culture and define the behaviours employers would like employees to emulate. The rituals promoted by particular businesses naturally become the established standards for most employees.
Many businesses acknowledge the importance of having a motivated workforce where employees strive to work together in harmony for the company’s good. Love or hate them, team-building rituals can strengthen the bonds among co-workers and create a shared sense that work is more meaningful.
Of course, some employees resent these artificial activities. They often gang to form a sub-culture of dissenters who secretly try to undermine the effectiveness of team-building activities. Every organisation will have dissenters who engage in covert rituals to project a negative image of their company secretly. They often resort to leaking harmful information about their employers’ actual or perceived mismanagement and, in general, put spokes in the wheels of their managers with the hope of seeing them fail.
Political life abounds in rituals to build a positive image of politicians and their parties. Come election time, we will see politicians hugging elderly persons, kissing babies, embracing housewives and petting cute animals to convince ordinary people that they are just one of us.
Political communication also follows various rituals like stage-managed photo opportunities with inspirational speeches to reassure us that our leaders are indeed looking after our interests, contrary to rival politicians’ claims.
Rituals have three core elements: physical, communal and psychological. Different religions, for instance, abound in rituals to ensure that their faithful feel a sense of belonging that they share with others. The way religious leaders dress may seem completely out of date with modern society’s values, but it helps the faithful identify with the symbols of spiritual power and righteousness that traditional church paraphernalia is supposed to project.
Culture and the rituals that go with it cannot be enforced. Like language, it evolves, and every organisation has its way of adapting its rituals to remain relevant. In the last few decades, business organisations used their mission statements, vision and values to motivate employees and build bonds with customers and the community.
Some would argue that the ritual of repeating the narrative of a company’s mission and values on marble plaques in their main office or reproducing them in glitzy company literature has become ineffective in business communication protocols.
Rituals structure our social worlds and how we understand time, relationships and change. Many are increasingly becoming profoundly ritualistic. Just look at Facebook posts every morning. Photos of graduations, holidays, parties, memorial concerts, sporting events and food are posted. Some people just want us to know how they spend their time. Facebook encourages the propagation of ritualistic events intended to create or celebrate social ties.
Psychologists believe that rituals help us to live out our values. They may also make us less anxious. Many ritualistic practices can help bring a degree of predictability to an uncertain future. Rituals convince our brains of constancy and predictability as they buffer against uncertainty and anxiety. They also help us cope with some of the most challenging periods of our lives, such as when grieving.
One of my favourite musicals is Fiddler on the Roof, the longest-running Broadway presentation in history. My favourite quote is that of Tevye: “Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as… as a fiddler on the roof!”
Even the most sceptical must admit that some rituals can become powerful over time and help us cope with so many uncertainties in our lives.