Rituals to shape us & our world today
We believe there are many life transitions that our modern cultures don’t recognize as requiring significant effort to navigate. Rituals can be a powerful way to help people deal with these transitions.
Unfortunately, traditional and religious rituals either ignore these transitions entirely, or do a poor job at helping. We think there is an opportunity to help design secular rituals open to anyone who wishes support with these life moments.
This toolkit is meant to provide some structure and support to people who are designing rituals in their lives and for their communities. We are approaching this work from a secular point-of-view to make this toolkit as useful in as many contexts as possible: graduation, moving, break-ups, team offsites, pet adoption, birthday parties... any time when it's helpful to be intentional about structuring energy to support or mark the changes in our lives.
Unfortunately, traditional and religious rituals either ignore these transitions entirely, or do a poor job at helping. We think there is an opportunity to help design secular rituals open to anyone who wishes support with these life moments.
This toolkit is meant to provide some structure and support to people who are designing rituals in their lives and for their communities. We are approaching this work from a secular point-of-view to make this toolkit as useful in as many contexts as possible: graduation, moving, break-ups, team offsites, pet adoption, birthday parties... any time when it's helpful to be intentional about structuring energy to support or mark the changes in our lives.
In the toolkit
Ritual context canvas
Frame the ritual you'd like to design by gathering your thoughts & taking stock. |
Intent cards
Clarify the intention & desired outcomes of the experience for you and others. There’s a screen version. |
Ritual flow map
Understand and architect the basic flow of any ritual. |
Method cards
Inspiration for activities to use as part of the ritual. |
How do rituals work?
Rituals work because they provide a nameable container for managing transformation and making meaning.
Read more about the thinking behind our approach on the theory page.
Read more about the thinking behind our approach on the theory page.
What kinds of rituals is this toolkit for?
This toolkit is focused towards reactive, transitional, and seasonal rituals. There are a lot of people working on behavior change and designing or managing habits, and this is a hotly studied topic with a huge variety of tools. There are not, however, a lot of resources for designing secular rituals of the other kinds, and those are what we aim to support.
FAQ
Who is this toolkit for?
We have designed this toolkit for a wide range of people. If you have lots of facilitation and event design experience, you'll find this toolkit most useful primarily as a way to structure your thoughts. If you're an absolute beginner at designing experiences, you'll find a lot of value in following the whole process.
Either way, we hope you'll find plenty of opportunity to use your own creativity and insight.
Do I need to believe anything specific to design rituals with this toolkit?
This approach doesn't ask you to believe anything; it is explicitly designed to be secular and not reference any particular spiritual or theological tradition. You can use this toolkit whether you're deeply religious or flamingly atheistic.
Aren't rituals the same as habits?
Not quite. This toolkit is not focused towards building habits. For that, you may need more precise psychological tools, such as the BJ Fogg behavior model. Though many rituals are repeated and habitual, we are mostly focused on supporting situations for which there are few good tools and which not many people are working on. Here's more on our definition of "ritual".
How can I get a physical copy of the toolkit?
Currently, you'll just have to grab the PDFs from the links above and print them yourself. This works well with the context canvas and the flow map, but the cards take a lot more effort. We hope to set up an ordering system soon by which you can buy a set of the cards, but that will take some time. If you know how to do this, please get in touch with us.
Who is behind this work?
This toolkit is the work of Adam Menter and Arvind Venkataramani. We're systems thinkers and design professionals who want to bring our professional skills to bear on thorny and difficult social problems with humility, openness, and creativity.
Can you help me design a ritual? How can I contribute?
Get in touch with us; the contact page will guide you through the best means of contact based on your needs. We hope to hear from you!
We have designed this toolkit for a wide range of people. If you have lots of facilitation and event design experience, you'll find this toolkit most useful primarily as a way to structure your thoughts. If you're an absolute beginner at designing experiences, you'll find a lot of value in following the whole process.
Either way, we hope you'll find plenty of opportunity to use your own creativity and insight.
Do I need to believe anything specific to design rituals with this toolkit?
This approach doesn't ask you to believe anything; it is explicitly designed to be secular and not reference any particular spiritual or theological tradition. You can use this toolkit whether you're deeply religious or flamingly atheistic.
Aren't rituals the same as habits?
Not quite. This toolkit is not focused towards building habits. For that, you may need more precise psychological tools, such as the BJ Fogg behavior model. Though many rituals are repeated and habitual, we are mostly focused on supporting situations for which there are few good tools and which not many people are working on. Here's more on our definition of "ritual".
How can I get a physical copy of the toolkit?
Currently, you'll just have to grab the PDFs from the links above and print them yourself. This works well with the context canvas and the flow map, but the cards take a lot more effort. We hope to set up an ordering system soon by which you can buy a set of the cards, but that will take some time. If you know how to do this, please get in touch with us.
Who is behind this work?
This toolkit is the work of Adam Menter and Arvind Venkataramani. We're systems thinkers and design professionals who want to bring our professional skills to bear on thorny and difficult social problems with humility, openness, and creativity.
Can you help me design a ritual? How can I contribute?
Get in touch with us; the contact page will guide you through the best means of contact based on your needs. We hope to hear from you!
