Better.

Ari Weinzweig on rituals ...

Not every routine we engage in becomes a ritual. We’ve been throwing out garbage, turning on the lights, and doing financial statements for 42 years. All are important, but, at least from my limited view (I’m not an accountant), none are about the sort of recentering and spiritual uplift that rituals can help us to create. At their base level, they’re a great business practice, a clearly stated job expectation, and a tactical and practical way to improve customer service and collegiality amongst coworkers. Sticking with those routines, as Verne Harnish said, is important. If we find ways to imbue them with more inspiration and meaning, it’s all the better still. Author Anne Lamott offers,

Here’s the true secret of life: We mostly do everything over and over. In the morning, we let the dogs out, make coffee, read the paper, help whoever is around get ready for the day. We do our work. … I love ritual and repetition. Without them, I would be a balloon with a slow leak. 

It's the rigor, the routine, the rhythm, and the repetition that helps hold our organizations, and our lives, together. If we stick with stuff we believe in that is beneficial, good things are likely to come from it. The Marginalian’s Maria Popova writes,

The true purpose of discipline—for this is the practice at the heart of routine—is to make room for the magical in the mundane. Paradoxically enough, it is an act of liberation rather than submission—routine grants us the stable platform within, from which we can begin not only to tolerate but perhaps even to enjoy the shaky messiness without.

My realization of recent days is, as I’ve shared above, that when we use those routines in the right way, when we engage deeply with open hearts, they have the potential to be rituals. “Managing by Pouring Water” is a routine I’ve been doing for probably 15 years now. It is, I now realize, a ritual as well. It’s certainly practical—I fill water glasses, customers get better service, and staff feel supported. But truly, it’s just as important for my own self-management. By doing it every evening, in a wonderful way, it helps me get my mental feet underneath me! When I do it, I am informed, inspired, recentered, reminded of our impact, and excited about ways we can get better.