Team Rituals: What They Are, Why They Matter, and How to Build Your Own

If you could scroll away with only two pieces of knowledge about team rituals, we’d make it this. First, they’re best when co-created with employees. Second, they’re one of the wisest time investments an organization can make.  

It helps if you’re already operating in a culture of gratitude, but rituals can be part of a new initiative to create one. Keep reading as we share why rituals matter, how they might differ in the workplace, and share easy team engagement ideas to try.

What’s inside:

What do we mean by team rituals?

Why rituals matter: Creating a culture of belonging in the workplace

The psychological benefits of workplace rituals

How rituals support organizational success

What research says about rituals

Rituals are everywhere

Rituals increase organizational citizenship

Accentuating the positive in workplace rituals

How to make your own team rituals a success

First, identify team values

Test small rituals–SMALL

Choice and transparency

Keep adapting to the culture

Real rituals: 7 team engagement ideas and examples for every workplace

1. Weekly check-ins
2. Targeted team-building exercises
3. Hello, hot takes
4. Virtual celebrations
5. Paper plate awards
6. Unusual ice breakers
7. Taco Tuesday (Classic!)

Team engagement tools that ritualize recognition

Team rituals FAQ

What are the 5 pillars of belonging?

How to create a sense of belonging at work?

What are the 5 steps of team building?

What is an office ritual?

What do we mean by team rituals?

Team rituals in the workplace are activities we carry out with intention. The purpose is to build connection, belonging, and emphasize a shared identity. 

Most importantly, we distinguish them from other processes. When rituals are distinct from the rest of our day, they stand out from our individual routines. 

Team rituals also distinguish one team from another. The New Zealand All Blacks perform a haka before every rugby match. Walmart employees start their day with a cheer, and the Wisconsin Badgers football season starts with the whole stadium jumping to “Jump Around” at the beginning of the first home football game. Those rituals tell us we are part of a team. 

Why rituals matter: Creating a culture of belonging in the workplace

Your organization may already have some team rituals in place. Maybe you all like getting coffee from a particular place or do a company chant before the shift starts. If so, your teams are more likely to find their work meaningful.

The psychological benefits of workplace rituals

Rituals increase job satisfaction for employees because they:

• Create a sense of belonging
• Help define their identity at work
• Motivate them to repeat positive behaviors
• Reduce burnout by making people feel supported

How rituals support organizational success

The psychological benefits for employees, as always, translate into better business outcomes. Team rituals can help:

• Increase engagement
• Improve retention
• Support productivity

What research says about rituals

Every Thursday after work, as you get out of your car, you are welcomed by a gust of debris and foliage. Every Thursday! Your neighbor mows, trims, and leaf-blows their property into manicured submission, and the clippings always just so happen to blow across your path to the door. 

“Sorry!” your neighbor says, with a broad smile and a wave.

But then one Thursday, the yard is empty. You don’t even notice until you’re putting your key in the door. You pause and wonder if your neighbor is okay. 

Rituals are everywhere

Even if we aren’t necessarily enjoying a ritual, it means something to us. It orients us within communities we belong to and connects us to individuals we share spaces and challenges with. At least, according to Interaction Ritual Theory. This sociological framework focuses on repeated interactions that end up training our emotions and include their own little symbolic forms of communication. 

From the anthropological perspective, that aligns neatly with our understanding of what rituals have accomplished over thousands of years. From the community-affirming reciprocity of a Potlatch ceremony to the cultural significance of your morning coffee, we are, in some ways, what we repeat. 

Employees can easily create rituals of their own, and whether management is aware or not, they likely already have. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if leaders supported them in doing so? It could ensure that what they repeat includes everyone and aligns with company values.

Rituals increase organizational citizenship 

The topic becomes more complex when we bring it into the workplace. Here, ritual activities can be boundary-blurring. We learn that Livy fosters seven animals at a time in her home. Steve can’t do trust falls because he miraculously survived a serious accident years ago. How we see everyone we work alongside, even our leaders, evolves. 

It turns out this may be a necessary part of building bonds and, consequently, building rituals that mean something to us. Research indicates that seeing the human side of coworkers can increase our willingness to collaborate. Moreover, this type of bonding increases organizational citizenship, where employees are willing to go above and beyond. 

Accentuate the positive in workplace rituals 

So, will the leaf-blowing neighbor approach work in the workplace, where we iterate until they realize there’s a connection? Or, do we just need employees to bond with one another ritualistically to make engagement happen?

Both of those approaches could work, but only to an extent, and not for job engagement. A recent study (as well as some studies resulting from the research within that study) has some insight to share on making rituals effective. 

Simply put, for rituals to improve employee engagement, people need to have more positive experiences than negative. 

What qualifies as a negative experience? It isn’t all about the quality of the catering at the party, although that helps. Across the board, employees have negative feelings about rituals when they feel forced or meaningless. And when they did go the extra mile to participate anyway, they felt those efforts were insufficiently appreciated. 

Just like most other features of a successful culture of recognition, rituals must make sense. Employees must come out of them feeling valued as an individual as well as part of a community.

How to make your own team rituals a success

Forced rituals build a tenuous connection. Team bonding helps, but can easily be undone by a few negative experiences at meaningless rituals. 

Here’s how to incorporate rituals that serve our retention and engagement goals, as well as create a more authentic sense of belonging.

First, identify team values

Teams that collaborate on projects may appreciate chances to brainstorm or offer one another more support. High-performing teams that run on accountability might like rituals where everyone offers updates and reports progress. 

Take time observing behavior and considering what everyone’s workday is really like. Some team members may need more face-to-face interaction with coworkers. Others may feel rituals interrupt their work and throw them off. Consider this when deciding what type of ritual (social or project-related) and when you plan on carrying it out.

Test small rituals–SMALL

To begin, keep it brief and low-stakes. (We’ll share some team engagement ideas that meet that criteria coming up.) Starting small increases participation and reduces pressure to show enthusiasm. Employees will be sizing up the task or activity, so let them process the whole experience before judging whether or not they like it.

And always, always express appreciation for their participation.

Choice and transparency 

If employees regularly raise concerns about benefits, scheduling, or PTO, they’re going to side-eye the amount of money spent on things they don’t want and didn’t ask for. When including larger rituals, like lunches, parties, and other events that come with a cost, bring them in on it.

Some organizations approach the team with a budget and suggestions. In these cases, we’re enabling a ritual, not creating it. It can be the fast track to a better understanding of employee values, higher participation, and a positive experience for all. 

Keep adapting to the culture

Accept the team for who they are; you cannot build a community out of people who feel they can’t be themselves. For instance, the term “icebreaker” can elicit eyerolls in some environments. Call it something else. 

This is essential for keeping rituals relevant and meaningful. The bottom line is introducing a custom that employees can feel some ownership of. It helps to see what the team is doing on their own and amplify that. 

For instance, they’re getting together and taking turns ordering lunch from certain places. This is a natural opportunity to create rituals with evenly distributed ownership, not just top-down.

Real rituals: 7 team engagement ideas and examples for every workplace

A can’t-skip part of implementing any framework is testing out different activities to see what employees end up ritualizing. 

To get started, here are seven ideas that can help create belonging in the workplace. Some are thoughtful, while others are thought-provoking. Some are light and fun, while others can get flat-out silly. And all can work on remote and hybrid teams. 

1. Weekly check-ins 

It’s like a meeting, but management doesn’t hold the floor. One-on-one check-ins are also great. Check-in questions can help us measure progress, collect feedback, and solve issues. However, their best purpose is simply engaging with employees, getting to know them better, or making them feel seen. 

2. Targeted team-building exercises

Announcing that team building is about to take place may not lend itself to organic ritualization. However, suggesting quick activities at specific times (such as rising tension or a slow Monday morning) can rapidly catch on. 

3. Hello, hot takes

Advocating your point of view, challenging norms, and sharing laughter are all parts of eventually experiencing genuine feelings of belonging. Hot takes are a great tool for this, where we share unique observations or (mildly) controversial opinions. 

4. Virtual celebrations

Remote workers don’t get to wriggle out of being part of a team. Start celebrating milestones virtually with trivia nights, Zoom-enabled happy hours, and other online events that humanize screen-only coworkers. 

5. Paper plate awards

Awards feel great–if you’re the winner. Some organizations eschew old traditions like Employee of the Month because they don’t go a long way in bringing people together. Paper plate awards let employees nominate one another for unserious (but thoughtful) “awards” like The Spreadsheet Sorcerer and the Slack Savant.

6. Unusual ice breakers

Conversation starters can be a necessary pit stop on the path to authentically built team rituals. Whether there are a bunch of new people or the culture is mid-transformation, icebreakers are a great beginner technique. 

7. Taco Tuesday (Classic!)

You can create a real taco bar if you want, but HeyTaco’s rituals are more recognition-focused (and cheaper). Taco Tuesday is a standing weekly post that prompts team members to give virtual tacos and celebrate each other. It helps make recognition a habit, even among quieter people. 

Team engagement tools that ritualize recognition

How do you know when a team ritual has taken hold? Well, try getting rid of it. Global digital agency Eugeniuses started a tradition of sending out their HeyTaco leaderboard every week. 

Except for one week. One week, the project manager forgot to send it out. 

“People were messaging me, asking if the tacos were still a thing!” she recalls. “They were worried I had taken it away.”

When employees own rituals, they don’t deliberate; they just do them. And when the rituals are simple, they’re much more likely to leave a positive imprint. Tools like HeyTaco facilitate easy, non-disruptive participation.

Virtual tacos have now become part of team rituals worldwide–even in places where they’ve never had a real taco. For example:

• Core Values Taco Challenge. A month-long challenge focused on one company value. It gives your team time to absorb what that value looks like in action and recognize it in others, tossing out a taco when they do.
• Tacos for Charity. During this team challenge, everyone gives tacos toward a shared charity donation goal using HeyTaco’s “Tacos for Charity” collaborative reward. People bond when they do good together. 
• Monthly Taco Champions. Each month, celebrate the top taco givers on your team leaderboard. Winners get a fun, custom Zoom background to flex their Taco Champion status all month long.

We’ve got many more ways to support recognition, rewards, and team rituals in every organization. If you’re new to these parts, try HeyTaco for free.

Team rituals FAQ

What are the 5 pillars of belonging?

The five pillars of belonging at work are feeling welcomed, known, included, supported, and connected. Making someone feel like they belong begins during onboarding, is reinforced by the company culture, and is enhanced with recognition.

How to create a sense of belonging at work?

Team rituals are one of the best ways to foster a sense of belonging in the workplace. In general, personalized recognition means people will feel seen (and accepted) for who they are. 

Creating an environment where people feel free to offer ideas and share feedback can also strengthen one’s sense of belonging. 

What are the 5 steps of team building?

The five stages of developing or building an effective team are forming, storming, norming, performing, and, eventually, adjourning. This describes their stages of behavior as a unit. 

The Lencioni model assesses five behaviors as well: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results.

You can get details on both while reading our team cohesion checkup.

What is an office ritual?

Office rituals are pretty synonymous with team rituals–you just have to be in an office. Celebrations, meetings, lunches, coffee breaks, orientations, and check-ins can all become office rituals.

However, organizations with a culture that leans more corporate and less recognition might also use “office ritual.” It can describe norms and habits that aren’t tied to gratitude, bonding, or any intentional connection-building at work.