Why Rituals Matter: The Secret Glue of Amazing Teams

I recently had the pleasure of joining Nikki from the PeopleForwardNetwork on the Gut + Science podcast to talk about one of my favorite topics—rituals. Not strategy, not tools, not OKRs—rituals. The small, intentional actions teams take repeatedly that end up becoming the heartbeat of a culture.

Why rituals? Because ‘they’re how societies come together’. I can’t remember who said it, but that quote stuck with me from the moment I read it. You could swap “societies” with families, sports teams, or companies—it’s still true. Rituals are the connective tissue. They’re what make a group of people feel like a team.

From the Court to the Culture

My obsession with rituals started in sports. I watched my mom, a youth European handball coach, build incredible cohesion through weekly team traditions. I experienced it as a college volleyball player—music before warmups, team dinners, game-day routines. At the time, I didn’t think of these as rituals. They were just "what we did."

Now, decades later, I see it clearly. Those small acts were our culture in motion.

And today, I see the same thing in the workplace. At HeyTaco, I get a front-row seat to the best teams in the world—teams who don’t just recognize people occasionally, but who build rituals around recognition. Teams who create small moments of connection that, over time, become powerful culture-builders.

Rituals Make Culture Tangible

Most organizations have values, but values without rituals are just words on a wall. Rituals are how you live them. They’re how your team sees, feels, and understands what matters.

For example, on the podcast, Nikki described how her team has a tradition of closing down for two weeks every holiday season. But the ritual is what they do when they return: each team member reflects and shares how they spent the time to replenish. That action turns a break into a bonding moment.

A company we work with has a ritual they call “Taco Love Time.” At the end of every engineering sprint, they play music and flood Slack with taco gratitude. Ten minutes, once every two weeks—and yet it shifts the whole energy of the team.

These aren’t complicated. They’re just intentional.

Rituals Don’t Have to Be Top-Down

The best rituals aren’t handed down from on high—they’re co-created. They come from people on the team who want to bring a little more meaning, connection, or joy into their work. 

They’re also flexible. They don’t have to be perfectly polished. In fact, the best ones often start grassroots—an inside joke turned recurring ritual, a Slack channel that takes off, a simple question repeated at every meeting. Leaders don’t have to design every ritual, but they do have to nurture them. Invite others in. Shine a spotlight. Make space for the “us” to emerge.

So ask your team: what would make our meetings more meaningful? What’s something small we can do consistently that would help us feel more like a “we”?

And then make it a ritual.

Rituals Take Time—And That’s the Point

A common misconception I hear is: “This sounds great, but we don’t have time.” And I get it—especially in fast-growing, high-pressure environments. But here’s the truth: rituals aren’t a time-waster. They’re a time investment in the kind of team you want to build.

You can’t shortcut trust. You can’t automate belonging. But you can create rhythms that help them grow.

At HeyTaco, we’ve seen it again and again—teams that ritualize recognition are the teams people want to be a part of. Not because someone told them to, but because gratitude became part of their culture’s DNA.

So whether you’re launching a leadership community, scaling a startup, or coaching a sports team—don’t underestimate the power of simple, repeated actions. Start a ritual. Build your team from the inside out.

And if you're curious what rituals other amazing teams are using, check out the Amazing Teams podcast—I co-host it with Doug, our founder, and we dive deep into stories just like this.

Because at the end of the day, great teams aren’t built with grand gestures. They’re built with rituals.