Hello Friends,
Greetings from Barcelona☀️where we celebrated Midsummer’s Eve last week with food, fireworks, and bonfires🔥.
If you are joining The Quest for the first time, welcome to our weekly exploration of creativity, facilitation, and learning.
I’ll be slowing the pace down over the summer to once every two weeks.
Hopefully this will give you a chance to catch up on last week’s edition on 🎊How to Close Well and all past editions.
This week’s edition is all about ✨Creating Rituals🔎
👉 A masterclass on creating meaningful rituals
👉 Rediscovering rituals – a facilitator’s perspective
👉 James Clear on the Power of Ritual
👉5 easy rituals for your group and more…
Let’s dive right in!
✨A Masterclass in Creating Meaningful Rituals
It was about to be revealed.
A giant piece of paper was lying in the middle of the room face down. In a windowless room in the basement of the Central Bank of Greece, 35 training participants were standing in a circle. No one had the foggiest idea of what was about to happen.
An awkward silence settled over the group.
I shot a glance over to my co-facilitator Peggy Taylor searching for a signal on what to do next. But Peggy was looking the other way. She had a twinkle in her eye. I had worked with Peggy long enough to know that things were about to take an interesting turn.
Finally, someone reached down to turn the paper over.
“Wait!” she cried. Peggy wasn’t going to miss this opportunity to infuse this moment with something special. Something magical. Even mystical.
“Let’s create a ritual for this ceremony.”
Peggy put out a call to the group. “Let’s come up with a song!”. One of the bankers immediately started drumming the beat of Queen’s “We Will Rock You”. “Let’s move around!” Peggy called. We were now dancing around this still mysterious piece of paper in the middle of the room. The ceremony was in full swing.
And then it happened.
The giant paper was finally turned over. Earlier each participant had made a colourful drawing of one of their strengths on a piece of paper. A few volunteers from the group had taped them together. It became a giant colourful “quilt” with the strengths of the entire group. There were several gasps. Lots of “ooh’s” and “aww’s”. The quilt was spontaneously paraded around the room. And the ceremony was complete.
Rituals transform the ordinary into something special
Simply turning over the paper may have been good enough for another facilitator. Not for Peggy. She relishes in making the ordinary special. In transforming the mundane into something enchanting. And it’s one of the things that makes her a truly exceptional facilitator.
Peggy gave me a Masterclass in Creating Meaningful Rituals
Peggy knew that there was enough trust in the group that people felt safe to leave their comfort zones. She invited the participants to come up with ideas. And they created a ritual that was pitch-perfect for that moment.
So how can we create meaningful rituals for our groups? That’s our Quest for this week.
🪄Rediscovering Ritual: Bringing Magic to Everyday Life
A blog by facilitator, experience designer, and executive coach Julia Winston. Winston shares her experience in rediscovering rituals. She writes about re-making traditional religious rituals, into more contemporary, inclusive contexts to bring more magic and meaning into everyday life.
What rituals (if any) do you have?
James Clear on The Power of Ritual
An excerpt from James Clear’s best-selling book Atomic Habits on the power of ritual to develop habits that change behaviour. Clear argues that starting with a simple ritual makes it easier to follow through on a bigger behaviour change. He also gives examples of how you can apply ritual and routine to shift behaviours. I like this one:
👉 Become more creative: Follow a creative ritual before you start writing or painting or singing.
Read the excerpt here. And check out the book here.
How have rituals helped you?
🔮5 Rituals that Can Add Magic to Groups
Peggy taught me how rituals can help people to be present, connect with meaning, and create moments of shared celebration.
Here are 5 ways you can add ritual to your groups (and any event!).
- 🎵Add some music. Start your session by playing or making music. Invite participants to contribute songs. Create a special playlist for your group.
- 📖Recite a quote or a poem. Choose one that connects to the aim of the session. Invite participants to contribute and read the poems.
- 💪Celebrate weekly wins. Start your session by recognizing and celebrating the accomplishments of participants and the group.
- 🤔Start with a check-in. Leave it open or give participants a prompt. For example, one thing you are excited about. Something bringing you joy. Something that surprised you today.
- 💡End with a check-out. Make a habit of asking a question to close your session well. For example, one insight from the session. One word that describes how you feel. One action that you will take as a result of what you learned.
📖Quote + photo of the week
It seemed to be a necessary ritual that he should prepare himself for sleep by meditating under the solemnity of the night sky… a mysterious transaction between the infinity of the soul and the infinity of the universe.
Victor Hugo
The Moon at Midnight on Midsummer’s Eve in Barcelona |
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Until next week!
