Culture: Rhythms, rituals & routines

Last week I was asked to share some thoughts on how we can sustain a company culture when people have been working remotely for so long and we’re faced with ongoing uncertainty.

Culture is a complex topic and the idea of managing or controlling it feels a bit counter-intuitive to me.

“There is no magic formula for great company culture” Richard Branson

However, I think you can influence it and I believe there are 3 things that are in our control that can contribute to culture:

• Rhythms
• Routines
• Rituals

I’m going to explain each of these areas as I understand them, outline why I think they contribute to culture and share ideas to inspire and support action.

“If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff will take care of itself” Tony Hsieh

Rhythms

Rhythms represent the flow of your business. It may be the key company dates that happen each year, like the planning, performing and review cycle. Perhaps it's the flow of each working week, where activities and focus on Monday looks and feels different to how people spend time on Friday. In my own business, our annual rhythm is punctuated by activity peaks in January and September (we all seem to over-invest in our career development at those points!), with more time for reflection and creation during the summer months (illustrated somewhat messily below!). This rhythm helps us plan and predict our work.

When I was at Microsoft, this concept was referred to as the RoB, the ‘rhythm of the business’. It helped you to have a sense of clarity and as a new person to the organisation it gave me a quick sense of how things ‘worked around here’.

The RoB gives a sense that, no matter what else occurs, this is the beat of business that we all work towards.

Working out the rhythm of your business and aligning this with your team members can provide a useful sense of stability in uncertain times.

Routines

I think of routines as the details that define us. The day-to-day activities and processes that embody the business. It could be the particular meetings you hold or communications you send. I was reminded recently about a previous manager who sent a ‘3 things' email every Friday when I worked for him. This routine gave us all an insight into his thoughts and focus. I looked forward to it each week. It became part of the open and fun spirit of the team.

In my own business, we regularly share a ‘win of the week’ over What’s App as a way of sharing and celebrating success. This is about practicing what we teach to the people and companies that we work with.

Our routines are repeated actions that should align with what we want to be known for.

Reflect on the routines that are present in your business. Do they support the culture or could new routines be introduced that might help in the current working context? One of our clients has recently introduced ‘kitchen hours’ a weekly virtual drop-in session, where people can join and have a chat. It supports the connection and understanding of each other that is an important part of their culture.

Rituals

These are memorable moments that create meaning. They can often be ceremonial in nature and become part of the fabric and folklore of an organisation. When I was at Virgin it was things like the Virgin’s Star of the Year awards and when I was at Microsoft’s it the was the annual Ready conference, where thousands of people came together each year to celebrate.

In our current reality, we need new ways to make these moments happen. Whether it’s about translating a previously face-to-event to a virtual one or the creation of something completely new, these rituals translate into engagement and pride for employees.

Activities I’ve seen in some of the companies we work with include:

• Virtual company meetings, supported with at home ‘activity’ kits for post event social (some great inspiration for this sort of thing from Rocketfish)

• Virtual learning weeks with internal and external speakers sharing knowledge
• Virtual company auction events with funds going to the chosen company charity
• Virtual book clubs and speaker series (we’ve been involved with several of these with The Squiggly Career)

I think a good way to focus on rituals is to ask team members to reflect on the most positive and memorable team/company moments from the year. This insight can help to focus efforts on new activities that can be initiated in 2021.

I hope the idea of sustaining company culture through rhythms, routines and rituals prompts some thoughts for you. If you have any examples of these in your organisation. I’d love to hear about them!

Helen