Our local ancestors lived close to nature in small communities, or tribes. They sat in a circle around the fire and listened to wisdom, to the elders. They honoured their ancestors and passed down stories to each other. Primal stories of inner growth and inspiration. They gave meaning to things through symbols and visions, by reading nature and moving along with it’s cycle. Through rituals they initiated each other in wisdom, they celebrated their kinship and showed gratitude for abundance and for their existence among all else. They praised connectedness, universal love and life force. They knew their humble place in the whole. And they lived in their bodies. They exemplified embodied and natural leadership. 

We are their descendants, wherever we come from, and in that sense, we are still members of the original tribe. We still aspire to wisdom, love, consciousness, and unity. We have the same need for connection and meaning, for purpose. We have never stopped being in circles. With following an inspiring, spiritual path. Throughout the centuries, there have always been plenty of people who believed in miracles, in goodness, in wisdom and love. Even though dark, controlling forces have made us deny our own wisdom over the centuries. So much so, that people who demonstrated natural wisdom were burned at the stake. Errors of interpretation with great impact.

To collectively make different choices and achieve maturity and awareness, we need inspired leadership. We have to tap into all the creativity, inspiration and wisdom within ourselves. In the midst of these harrowing times, we wake up and know that we can do things differently. It is high time for collective wisdom, right-mindedness and unconditional love!

Today we have the language and tools to harness this wisdom as a group. With growing awareness, inspired leaders are emerging everywhere. With rituals as tools to act inspiredly, to inspire others and to stimulate conscious and constructive collaboration.

Rituals inspire, they spark ideas, awaken visions and awaken inner fire. They help mark important moments of transition, process impactful events, honour the old and step into the future strengthened. Through the wisdom of our ancestors and ritual ceremonies, there is connection, meaning and anchoring of values and mission, at deeper levels.

In this way, rituals can be magical accelerators of change. By standing still together and acknowledging what is alive, they make it possible to process situations, lovingly let go and intentionally step into the new. Rituals create space for transformation in collective contexts.  Especially in organizations, where we find it difficult to be fully present and where we need humanity and connection to do the important work we have to do.

What is an organisational ritual?

• A ritual or ceremony consists of a series of actions that empower a meaningful moment, with a transformative nature.

• It takes place out of the ordinary, in a sacred space, where we sense a higher vibration coming from silence and serenity, and where we feel safe.

• The experience is a profound, transformative, inner process, anchored and empowered by the collective.

• Expressing and articulating individual experiences in a group also strengthens the collective as a whole.

• By performing a ritual together, a ritual strengthens our personal commitment to the group and the mission.

• Rituals allow us to express our feelings symbolically, to channel, regulate and master emotions.

• Not just feelings of sadness and anger, also of joy and happiness. Positive feelings also deserve a proper coping process.

• Through an organisational ritual, our wisdom is addressed and we experience connection with the bigger picture, the web of life, and the divine within us.

• A ritual appeals to our personal leadership, it works with intention and self-building power deployed so that we can show our greatness.

• There is a very wide spectrum between traditional and self-created, simple or complex, open or planned, cocreated or only prepared rituals.

• In a ritual, we thank, celebrate, deepen, change, process, forgive, deepen, change and/or strengthen through appropriate themes, symbols and actions.

• A ritual articulates and visualises a universal symbolic language, while also expressing your organisation's unique language, voice, colour and mission.

• Rituals are like a gesamtkunstwerk with a well-chosen narrative, emotional flow and build-up, led by one or more master of ceremonies, preferably supported by spaceholders and musicians and in an ideal world: artists and performers.

Good reasons for an organisational or team ritual

• Enable a transformation process in change

  e.g. during structural changes: the merging of existing teams or companies or decoupling of departments or when a new way of working is installed.

• To mark important organisational moments

  e.g. when installing a new leader or moving to another building.

• To give recognition to people and teams

  e.g. to honour leadership within an organisation or to appreciate an important delivery.

• When something has reached its destiny

  e.g. when saying goodbye to a leader or pivotal figure, end of career or end of a particular way of working.

• To balance give and take and maintain a healthy exchange

  e.g. at thanksgiving moments by the leaders or in circle discussions.

• To heal collective trauma

  bv by dwelling on emotions at impactful events and commemorations.

• To create a (lost) sense of belonging

  e.g. to strengthen interpersonal bonds or integrate newcomers.

• To raise awareness around our legacy

  e.g. by collectively connecting to sustainability and inclusion themes or bringing SDG or ESG goals to life in the organisation.

• To connect to our deeper purpose, mission and values

  bv by deepening our understanding around the organisation's purpose and life mission.

A ritual is always about leadership

In recent years, I have immersed myself in organisational rituals, experiencing ritual practices from all over the world and learning about different shamanic and spiritual movements. I helped build the story of Corporate Rituals and, while learning, while guiding organisational rituals, I developed a truly participative way of designing and establishing rituals in teams and organisations, based on two pillars: on the one hand, ancient wisdom, ritual practices and spiritual lessons and, on the other, methods that invite collective wisdom, such as Sociocracy 3.0, Deep Democracy and Liberating Structures.

Bringing rituals into organisations requires a contemporary translation and a feel for what the culture, leadership, language and symbolism is of an organisation or team. As an organisational coach, I have a fine nose for this. I am used to interacting with the leadership in an organisation. As tribal leaders, standard bearers and tenure holders, they are essential ambassadors in a good organisational ritual.

An organisational ritual works on several systemic levels simultaneously. It makes it possible to work simultaneously at the level of personal and collective wisdom. In a ritual, there are only participants, so you have to stand in your personal leadership. When everyone does this, you lower the waterline together as a group and are collectively brought into a higher consciousness, everyone is lifted up with you!