Inspiring Workplaces: Ritual and Tradition Ideas for Your Workplace

Published: Wed, 10/24/18

Humor at Work

ISSUE 748 - Oct. 24, 2018


			Ritual and Tradition Ideas for Your Workplace

	Every inspiring company I've researched around the world is a huge believer in the power of rituals and traditions as a way of helping them not only inject some fun into their workplace, but as a way to strengthen their culture. As a reminder of how many opportunities there are to create some fun rituals, here are just a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing... Start of the week tradition: Something that jump starts everyone's attitudes and/or reminds them of the priorities of the week. End of the week tradition: Something that would celebrate your team’s top successes, perhaps a huddle where everyone shares their "three biggest wins" of the week. A different tradition for each day of the week: Fun Dance Mondays, M & M Tuesdays, High Five Wednesdays,Third Person Thursdays (where everyone refers to themselves in the 3rd person), Fun Food Fridays. Start of the morning and/or end of the workday ritual. A ritual to kickoff each quarter. A tradition to celebrate the end of your fiscal year. Traditions around welcoming new employees and making them feel part of the team. A ritual that kicks off every meeting and/or ends every meeting. A ritual that every meeting participant must adhere to before making a presentation. Traditions around celebrating employees’ birthdays. A tradition that celebrates the founding date of your company. A tradition that celebrates every large sale over a certain amount. A tradition that celebrates each time your organization takes on a new major client. A tradition that celebrates a certain monetary milestone or number of customers reached. A tradition to celebrate milestones of accident-free workdays. A ritual that celebrates some of the offbeat holidays, such as “International Talk Like a Pirate Day”. A “We're half way through ___________” ritual to celebrate the midway point of a massive project. Appreciation rituals that encourage people to take responsibility for thanking each other on a regular basis. Rituals that celebrate smart failures and setbacks in fun ways.

		Mike's Fun at Work Tip

Here's an idea you could adapt for your team or workplace: At one Quicken Loans office the CEO occasionally invites people over their P.A. to call his extension in order to win tickets to an event - the winner is then interviewed by the CEO over their P.A. system.
		Quote of the Week

“For the most part, extraordinary people, teams and organizations are simply ordinary people doing extraordinary things that matter.” Bill Strickland
		It's a Wacky World

Caseloads of accidentally funny humor can be found in the transcripts of court documents, such as this example: Attorney: "What is your date of birth?" Witness: "July 18th." Attorney: "What year?" Witness: "Every year."

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Humor at Work TV
Mike shares some thoughts around the importance of leaders embracing their sense of humor: Leading With Laughter (6 minutes)

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