The Power of Rituals

In The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions, Michael Norton explores how the little things we do can create big impact.

Norton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he also leads the unit for negotiation, organization, and markets. A well known and respected researcher on behavioral economics and well-being, his new book demonstrates the power of small acts—and how a subtle shift of turning habits into rituals can add purpose and pleasure to life.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Norton discusses how we can use rituals deliberately and effectively in our life and work, why it is important that rituals evolve over time, and how COVID changed our rituals as individuals and as teams.

Key topics discussed: 

00:52 | Ritual vs. habit

03:39 | The power (and pitfalls) of rituals

07:08 | Deliberately using rituals (in private life and the workplace)

13:41 | The importance of evolving rituals

18:22 | How COVID changed our rituals

21:20 | How CEOs can harness the power of rituals

Additional inspirations from Michael Norton: 

• Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending co-authored by Elizabeth Dunn (Simon & Schuster, 2013)
• How to Buy Happiness (TED Talk, 2012)