Rituals at Work: Teams That Play Together Stay Together

According to research by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Norton, participating in regular group bonding rituals, such as doing the Walmart Cheer or firing a Nerf toy gun to conclude a project, increased how meaningful employees judged their work by 16%.

Employees who engage in these rituals show better "organizational citizenship" and tend to go the extra mile for the company.

Many group activities involve food, from community potlucks to global design firm IDEO’s tea time.

Group rituals have three core elements:

• physical, such and specific words or actions
• communal, meaning we're all doing it together at the same time.
• psychological. It feels good to do this in the way we do it.