Behavioural Design by Ritual: A Toolkit
Ritual is often understood to be practices in a religious context. We rarely acknowledge the presence of ritual in our daily lives, and even less so in the business world.
In this toolkit we take a closer look at secular rituals - activities and practices that carry meaning, connect us to stories, remind us of intentions, mark milestones and punctuate the flow of life.
Our world has never been more interconnected, and our actions have never held such profound consequences. In this increasingly complex context for examining and influencing human behaviour, disciplines like anthropology, psychology and behavioural science point to the power of Ritual to cause positive shifts.
Typical business scenarios like collaboration, innovation, psychological safety or even sustainable growth are all generally addressed with solutions like standardizing systems, institutionalizing or operationalizing actions, creating SOPs, mandating processes etc. These interventions don’t take into account the emotions and beliefs of the humans whose behaviour they seek to shift or transform. Ritual is a tool that allows for thoughtfully designed experiences which create a context for systemic change with the human at the center of it.
In this toolkit, we look at some key insights that emerged from our conversations about Ritual with people from various walks of life.
What is included in the toolkit:
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Why Ritual?
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What is Ritual?
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How does Ritual work?
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How do you design a Ritual?
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Workbook: contains a guide for building your own Rituals