{"id":4654,"date":"2025-05-08T20:23:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T20:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:42:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:42:24","slug":"the-importance-of-social-rituals-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-importance-of-social-rituals-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Social Rituals at Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher <\/a><\/p>\r\n

Whether you\u2019re a CEO or rank-and-file employee, and no matter how good you are at the nuts-and-bolts aspects of your job, ignore social-emotional factors in the workplace at your peril.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Jessica Methot<\/a> of Rutgers University and the University of Exeter\u2014who coauthored an Academy of Management Journal article<\/a><\/em> on that topic with Emily Rosado-Solomon<\/a> of Babson College, Patrick Downes<\/a> of the University of Kansas, and Allison Gabriel<\/a> of Purdue University\u2014said that it\u2019s important to ask ourselves questions such as: Am I feeling especially disconnected today? Have I talked to anyone outside of my home?<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe can assess our own social-emotional health and how much time we spend interacting with other people\u2014don\u2019t fall victim to mistakenly seeking solitude,\u201d Methot said. \u201cSome people tend to avoid small talk, either because they overestimate how awkward they seem or they don\u2019t see any benefits to it.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cPart of it is elevating and highlighting the benefits of having small talk, because it isn\u2019t difficult; it doesn\u2019t take too much effort; it isn\u2019t too intimate, and it still helps boost our energy,\u201d she said. \u201cRemotely, we want to think about how we can recreate or create new social rituals for our teams.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Social rituals at work include weekly check-ins, project retrospectives, and celebratory events for milestones or achievements.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re bringing our team back into the office, let\u2019s say we\u2019ve got a group who was working remotely or is working in a hybrid schedule, we might not be able to go back to the way that it was and recreate the exact workplace situation or climate that we had before,\u201d Methot said.<\/p>\r\n

Most people\u2014bosses and employees alike\u2014have to adapt to changing work environments. Creating new social rituals fosters better teamwork and helps with maintaining a positive culture.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat does this new social ritual look like? What does our team need now? How can we innovate but still ensure that we use that as a norm in our team or in our organization,\u201d Methot said. \u201cWe can also integrate spontaneous conversations into our remote work ecosystem, so we and colleagues could try setting our availability, specifying times for when others can connect with us.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cA social ritual could be as simple as encouraging team members to join meetings five minutes early to catch up informally and say, \u2018Hey, how\u2019s everyone doing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Methot\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n