RITUAL AT WORK
WHAT / WHO
RITUAL AT WORK DESIGN RITUALS FOR WORK
Having rituals at work means having moments that collects, thickens and remarks upon the significance of different topics that are present for us. We create these moments with you and for you - and we call it ritual design.
While we are in these moments we can cross thresholds and interact with what has been placed in the ritual frame in very impactful ways. Rituals also gift us with a stronger connection to our sense of purpose and put our intentions into action.
Rituals to set our intentions, bring us through different stages in life and navigate our relationships is an essential part of leading a purposeful life, and we love it when people take this mindset to work!
WE SEE WORK AS THE PROCESSES OF MAKING SOMETHING
Our rituals fit these processes, regardless if they take the shape of artistic practises or as the work of organisations.
We are based in Europe and have an international focus.
Our services can be delivered online.
WE PRIMARILY HELP PEOPLE IN FOUR WAYS
We design rituals for transformation
We design rituals for cohesion and rhythm
We create spaces for ritual
We offer consultancy services
RITUALS FOR TRANSFORMATION
We create and host rituals for transformation, such as initiations, shifts, and endings. This might take the form of creating a clear moment of starting a project, as a ceremony to help someone let go of a role and step into a new one, or as a celebration of being finished with something. These rituals facilitate the shift between ‘before’ and ‘after’. Rituals for transformation meet the need for ritual that is inherent in threshold spaces.
By creating rituals for threshold spaces, we can help you to not stand by as the work slowly seems to become disjointed and disorientated, and fundamentally deprived of its power. Instead, thresholds can be ritualized with a lot of awareness and become sources of clarity, of lightness, of transformation and springs of energy for doing truly purposeful work.
RITUALS FOR COHESION AND RHYTHM
We create and help implement rituals for cohesion and rhythm, such as daily rituals and end of the year/cycle rituals. These kinds of rituals give music to the work, which enables community and flow. They might take the form of stand-ups and check-ins or more creative shapes that communicate what you are all about.
Having reoccurring rituals can bring people together around a shared idea of what is to be done and support the support structures between those doing it. For the individual, it is extremely valuable to have meaningful moments that clear the mental pallet and offer a transition between different parts of the work. Rituals can also be implemented as spaces of reflection and revitalization.
CREATING SPACES FOR RITUAL
We create ritual spaces, such as physical thresholds that prompt action before entering a space and rooms that get people connected with the sacred aspects of their practice. We can also help through finding relevant environments. Such as the botanical gardens if a process needs to be connected to a wider concept of life. We love creating and finding the right space for the needs present.
CONSULTANCY SERVICES
We offer consultancy services. We can help you understand how your product or service can better meet a need for ritual, you can involve us a partner in event design projects, have us research your organization's need for ritual and ask for our feedback on a ritual you are creating, etc.
"The work of Viktor is powerful and brings results that move. I expanded the cooperation with Viktor and worked together on an event design which integrated depth and transformed it. Viktor always has in mind the needs of the target group, the effect of the rituals and the desired outcome. He pursues this with calmness and clarity which makes the collaboration absolutely enjoyable.
The feedback from the participants and the enthusiasm about the elements that were integrated by Viktor expressed the added value of Viktor's work. If you want to realize an extraordinary event with depth, meaning, and clarity I can only put the cooperation with Viktor to your heart."
- Kristoffer Trautmann, The Trainer Community, 2019
WE MAKE RITUALS THAT FIT
We strive to create rituals that are both effective and entertaining. Entertaining in the sense that they have to feel right. They have to fit.
Once you are in it there should be nothing else you would rather do at that moment, even if what you are doing is very challenging.
Being ‘in it’ doesn’t necessarily mean taking part in something that is easily identified as a ritual. It can also refer to being in a state where actions become ritualized.
WE RITUALIZE BASED ON WHO YOU ARE
Many would argue that ritual is more of a quality to actions than a form of action. Drinking a coffee can be experienced as a ritual and it can be experienced as just having a coffee. To give actions this ritual quality is referred to as ritualization.
An understanding of our client's symbolism, stories, relationships, values, and relevant bodily actions, etc., is what informs what is to be ritualized. This means that we are focused on listening carefully, being creative with what we find and applying it to structures and flows that great rituals share.
Helping clients by offering rituals that have a set content or style is secondary - as the right content and style for the situation at hand show up in the meeting with our clients.
WE HAVE A CARETAKING AMBITION
We care about care. A successful ritual for us is one that meets the needs of the people involved, and meeting needs is always about taking care.
This also means that we are open-minded and nonjudgemental in the process of helping our clients get in touch with their needs.
We only create and lead rituals that all people involved can agree to. The work we deliver is uniquely made for the people who will take part in it. Rituals and the exercise of power is a wild topic, and we want that every ritual we help create is in support of the integrity of those involved and makes the world a bit better.
Wholesome and ethically clean.
- Client, 2018
WHAT IS THE STORY?
Ritual at Work was initiated in 2014 by me, Viktor Lysell Smålänning.
This initiative is one of the outcomes of my education in Ritual Design. The education was conducted in Brighton, England, where people and culture consultancy NixonMcInnes agreed to host a self-made university in which I was both the headmaster and the only student. Prior to that, I had been enrolled at KaosPilots Switzerland in Bern. A highly ritualized education for change makers, leaders and social entrepreneurs that sparked a huge fascination in me about how rituals fit the world of work.
I left KaosPilots early because of topics related to ritual and personal integrity. This action became a great intiation for an exploration of ritual facilitated by myself. Given my interest in topics related to change-making, leadership and social entrepreneurship, I was lucky to have my self-made university hosted by a company the likes of which I would have loved to work for if I had finished the education. My two big exams to pass my self made course was firstly to create and host a ritual for my parents and I to end my childhood. And secondly, to create and host a ritual to take apart and transform NixonMcInnes as being an organization was not fit for purpose(s).
Since then I have been an alumnus of my own university and have lived in Glasgow, Scotland and Leipzig, Germany. All the while working as a ritual designer, exploring and sometimes creating art, and studying philosophy and religious studies. I have directed my studies in the field of religious studies to the study of new religious expressions (for example religious expressions at workplaces) and the study of ritual. A dream for the next part of the story is to set up a ritual studio and bring together a group of people who want to explore these topics together.
"Moving, enlightening, impactful... a perfect balance between introspection and almost spiritual reflection, alongside very clear and easily applicable learning. I left feeling not just like I'd picked up a new set of tools, but feeling lighter in myself."
- Workshop attendee, 2017
WHO IS MAKING THE RITUALS?
Viktor Lysell Smålänning created his own university for ritual design in 2014, attended it, and is today a ritual designer. Working with award winning businesses, artists and a wide variety of international collaborators, Viktor and his collaborators brings a unique tool kit of ritual, philosophy and creativity to the fields of creative practices and organizational development. Viktor has been featured on national radio in the UK on BBC4 and in Australia on ABC.
Viktor is from a village called Freluga outside of Bollnäs, Sweden and lives in Leipzig, Germany. He updated this website after dreaming of defeating a bear in a wrestling match.
