One of our favorite family rituals is going to Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks play.
Even during the years when we were losing more than we were winning (the Knicks are known to break their fans’ hearts!)…it was still always a win for our family.
If you’ve read my book Rituals Roadmap you know that rituals give us the Three P’s: a connection to Purpose, a sense of Psychological Safety, and a boost in Performance.
In the case of our Knicks family ritual, the purpose is to be together and cheer on our city. The sense of psychological safety and belonging comes from the fact that, even when things get busy, crazy, or scary in the world, we all feel comforted knowing we’re part of a family. And the boost in “performance” is that when we are together our oxytocin (feel-good hormone) goes up and our cortisol (aka, stress) goes down. We feel more connected to each other and to ourselves.
So to get a little Rituals Three P’s magic, on Monday my three kids (who are all now in college) took the train in from Philly to meet me at MSG for Game Two of the playoffs. Daniel even came in after an exam just for the second half—talk about dedication!
One thing great human leaders do—especially in this hybrid world—is to connect people to others in their organization. And rituals are a great way to do this.
To get started, ask yourself…When do I or the people on my team feel most [company]-ish? (Fill in the name of your organization). Another way to ask it is, When do people feel most connected to the company?
And the answer to that question is where you start!
In other words, I’m sure that if I were to ask my kids when they feel most “Keswin-ish”—they would say when we are watching the Knicks or the Rangers together—in addition to the 24/7 texts about the games in our family group chat!
So we keep the ritual alive—no matter what. It’s always worth the schlep.
If you have some amazing team or company rituals, I’d love to hear them!
4/22/25
