I love Halloween. Driving through the neighborhood this time of year, admiring the elaborate displays of spookiness and horror, always puts me in a festive mood. And I especially look forward to the parade of little kids (and a few big ones!) making their way up the walkway, sporting imaginative costumes and enthusiastically demanding candy with that familiar refrain: “Trick or treat!”
It takes me back to growing up in the ’70s and early ’80s. The decorations were different, and so were the costumes, but the ritual was much the same. What wasn’t the same was the Culture surrounding it. Back then, we didn’t have parents escorting us from house to house. Neighborhood kids assembled into roaming packs, occasionally joining forces with friends from nearby streets. Homemade treats were commonplace, and sometimes we’d even be invited inside for a visit. Try imagining that today! The ritual has endured, but the underlying Culture has evolved.
There’s a lesson here for leaders. Rituals can be remarkably effective at establishing and reinforcing organizational behaviors and beliefs. But over time, people may continue performing them out of tradition rather than a genuine commitment to the values they were intended to reinforce. Rituals can reinforce Culture, but their persistence doesn’t necessarily demonstrate that the Culture has endured. The real test isn’t whether people continue performing the ritual. It’s whether the underlying values influence their behavior when the ritual isn’t there.
So, as you enjoy the Halloween festivities, consider your organization’s own traditions. Are people performing the rituals because they believe in what they represent, or simply because it’s what they’ve always done?
Happy Halloween!