Rituals and events are both important in both change management and KM work and practitioners need to have a clear understanding of the importance of such activities. Rituals and events present an opportunity to reinforce certain value systems, stories and ideas. They can be used to reflect on the past, celebrate a moment in time and also create focus for the future.
Typical organisational rituals may be performed as birthday celebrations, awards, roadshows, graduations, end-of-year functions and product launches to name a few. Creating your own rituals and events, especially if they are novel and memorable can become key cultural aspects that differentiate your organisation.
We have worked with an ad agency that has large African drums in the reception – these are beaten whenever a new client is brought in. They communicate a sense of victory, happiness and that a advertising-style party is going to happen soon. Everyone one hears it and everyone immediately knows what is going on. Of course, this could be communicated via email or newsletter but then it wouldn’t have the same immediacy and impact.These kind of rituals are carefully conceived, designed and implemented. As a physical activity, they leave a profound collective memory that reinforces certain values and ideas about the organisation.
Another company we work with has a client ritual where the MD always visits the new client with their very first invoice which is tied by colourful ribbons to a walking stick and a packet of sweeties for everyone in the accounts office. This approach, they assure me, gets the invoice paid quickly.
Think about the following questions designed to help you are groundwork for creating a ritual or event:
- what key events are being marked and celebrated? How are they celebrated?
- how are you stimulating innovation, team-work, improvement and quality using rituals and events?
- how are you using rituals and events to mark milestones in the journey eg. anniversaries, seasonal festivities, new clients, sales milestones etc.?
- What rituals and events do you have that engage calamity and loss and change?
- How does your organisation handle personal transitions eg. death, birthdays, marriage, initiations etc.?
- How do your events and rituals stimulate knowledge sharing, organisational learning and fun?
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