# The ritual of team meetings By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2022-08-29 If you spent any time in business, then you've experienced the ritual of recurring team meetings. If you are lucky, most of your recurring meetings are monthly. If you are unlucky, then these meetings are daily such as the daily "stand-ups." The stated intention behind these meetings is to make sure everyone is informed about what is going on or to encourage collaboration. Sometimes this is true, but often not much changes day to day. Instead, these meetings are often employed by management to subtly remind you of what [[work]] you are supposed to be doing and for you to get a baseline as to where you line up compared to your peers. Essentially, recurring meetings are a tool for managers to manage. It's not the only tool managers have, but a manager today who doesn't schedule recurring meetings is like a carpenter who doesn't use a saw. So, why are recurring meetings used so widely? As mentioned they do remind us of the work we should be doing and they tap into the competitive instinct many individuals have. But, they also are a business ritual that provides a sense of [[control]], predictability, safety, and togetherness. Rituals outside of work do the same thing for us, but it is worth noting that rituals only provide a sense of control and community. Almost everything in the world is out of our control and only under certain circumstances do rituals form real and reliable support communities. It is easy to perform a ritual to feel better but it is hard to perform a ritual that brings people [[together]]. Often a common belief is needed for a ritual to form a real community. Examples are often found in religions where close-knit communities often form. The question is whether you believe that any business ritual is building a true community or whether it is just hijacking our brain's ritual feel-good [[instinct]]. Consider the following: has any daily meeting created a community that supports team members recently laid off due to a market downturn? How has the business supported them? More people are waking up to the idea that the company isn't going to help them beyond its own objectives. Hence ideas like quiet quitting have emerged. Business rituals might make you feel good now, but they will often fail to deliver in the long run. So, the next time you are in a team meeting at work, it might be worthwhile to think about what's a better and more authentic path forward for everyone. #### Related Items [[Rituals]] [[Meetings]] [[Business]] [[Management]] [[Quiet Quitting]] [[Community]] [[Authenticity]]