Monday
Sep272010
Change and the need for new rituals
Monday, September 27, 2010 at 8:30AM
Rituals are a part of being human, they are the way we do things. Businesses and organizations have their own cultures and rituals. When change is called for, there is a need for identifying the old rituals and ceremonies, challenge them and then bring in new alternatives, or simply abandon the ones that stopped making sense.
Photo by mckaysavage, Flickr CC
Examples of rituals are the way we great visitors, how we dress at the office, the way we speak at conferences. The large majority of rituals and ceremony made sense at some time or other, but they tend to outlive their purpose.
In Southern Europe, it is common to great someone using their title and function, followed by name. In formal Portuguese settings it happens that people speak to me by saying "Sr Administrador Engenheiro Johan Frisk", and in a letter the phrase would have started with "Your Excellency..." - Italian has similar forms.
The ceremony of treating persons by their function, and not by their individual name, gives a hint of the culture's priorities - just as many asian cultures will use the family name first and personal name last, since the family is more important than the individual.
Jeffrey Phillips says that: "Rituals are important for another reason as well. They are developed behavior and often learned or taught, so they can be studied through ethnography. We need to understand the entire ritual of an experience, whether that is shaving, or car repair, or eating a meal, to truly understand the problem solved or opportunity addressed."
I would suggest that companies going through change, be that new market, new products, acquisitions or any other substantial move, take a "foreigner's view" of their ceremonies and rituals. Challenge the value, the use, throw some old things out and bring others to the forefront. After all a culture distinguishes itself through its rituals and ceremony!
Photo by mckaysavage, Flickr CCExamples of rituals are the way we great visitors, how we dress at the office, the way we speak at conferences. The large majority of rituals and ceremony made sense at some time or other, but they tend to outlive their purpose.
In Southern Europe, it is common to great someone using their title and function, followed by name. In formal Portuguese settings it happens that people speak to me by saying "Sr Administrador Engenheiro Johan Frisk", and in a letter the phrase would have started with "Your Excellency..." - Italian has similar forms.
The ceremony of treating persons by their function, and not by their individual name, gives a hint of the culture's priorities - just as many asian cultures will use the family name first and personal name last, since the family is more important than the individual.
Jeffrey Phillips says that: "Rituals are important for another reason as well. They are developed behavior and often learned or taught, so they can be studied through ethnography. We need to understand the entire ritual of an experience, whether that is shaving, or car repair, or eating a meal, to truly understand the problem solved or opportunity addressed."
I would suggest that companies going through change, be that new market, new products, acquisitions or any other substantial move, take a "foreigner's view" of their ceremonies and rituals. Challenge the value, the use, throw some old things out and bring others to the forefront. After all a culture distinguishes itself through its rituals and ceremony!
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