When I was a high-school student I hated pep rallies [1]. The entire school was dragged into our gym, sat on the bleachers while the football team ran into the room through a paper banner and various students on the pep squad would juggle, dance and force everyone to make some noise. It felt like a gigantic waste of time. Nearly 30 minutes for 450+ people.
When I joined in the corporate drudgery I hated all of the equivalent rituals. I worked at a game company that did a literal equivalent of a pep rally for the 100+ employees who were in the process of finaling a game. Quarterly all-hands meetings are usually veiled pep rallies where making some noise is replaced by polite applause as division managers tout rose-color tinted bullshit.
Nothing alerts my cynicism quite as much as this fake-it-till-you-make-it forced optimism and team building. I've been through a dozen flavours of team building including learning my MBTI, my DiSC color and more. I've gone on day long retreats/field trips and I have been forced to awkwardly mill about every Friday for flat beer and microwaved appetizers. I cringe at the very thought of this stuff.
I wouldn't be able to count the number of company value presentations I've been subjected to. Core values, OKRs, and a host of company culture defining paradigms I don't even remember. I've seen laminated principles posted in break rooms and hallways only to be usurped by some new systems within months.
And yet I truly and deeply believe it is not only worth the effort - I believe that things like these are essential to build high-functioning teams. It is a bitter medicine but once I wipe away my cynicism I must admit it works. Just like advertising - that stuff sinks into your subconscious whether you like it or not. Only stubborn fools will insist it doesn't work on them, as if they have some kind of mental fortitude/resistance unlike all other humans.
IMO, aligning people to a small number of shared values is maybe one of the most important and powerful things we can do.
It works, for better or for worse, because most people do believe in it. Most people like pep rallies (however hard for me to understand why). Most people like seeing their name in a powerpoint near a bunch of exclamation points and showered in clipart confetti.
I never understood why we celebrated product launches. Half the time it seems the thing quietly dies a year later. Why don't we celebrate things that go on to actually provide value instead of just celebrating that labor was done? What's the point of labor that doesn't produce value? Should that be celebrated?
Because for most people social recognition makes it worth it, regardless of how meaningless it really is.
If you can't tell, I don't really care much for celebrations.
There is an anecdote related to Neils Bohr but possible only tangentially related to him [1]. From the linked article I've pasted the anecdote:
> Bohr used to keep a horseshoe on the door of his house. In European (and Indian) superstitions, the horseshoe is believed to be an object that guards the house against the evil spirits. A friend, upon seeing the horseshoe on the door of Bohr's house, asked Bohr as to whether he subscribed to the relevant superstitions. Bohr replied that he didn't believe in them but he was told that the horseshoe works whether or not one believes in their power.
Team rituals are like this horseshoe. They appear to work whether or not you believe in their power.
Product launch marks going from zero provided value to greater than zero provided value (assuming the product doesn't somehow subtract value from the customers). And it is also easier to iterate and respond to customer requests after launch. And launch is often the development milestone requiring the most concerted effort to overcome.
So I think having a party to anticipate is a way to emotionally incentivize pushing through that barrier.
Absolutely agree. It reminds me of people who claim they are immune to advertising.
Personal anecdote, I am not a sports person, but I was at a baseball game once. The crowd briefly got wild and I could literally feel that weird elation of being part of a cheering group.
I know that feeling of being caught up in the energy of a crowd. Massive music festivals can often provide that feeling.
Another anecdote I frequently recall is one from the documentary "Wild Wild Country". This documentary follows an Indian guru named Osho as he establishes what amounts to a cult in the US. One journalist recounts going to the town where the community has established themselves with a mind to expose them as a cult. He relates the members lining the streets waiting for the Guru to drive along and he can't help but feel their ecstatic energy as they wait for him. As the car slowly drives down he sees the adherents completely lose control of themselves as the car slowly passes them. When the car arrives in front of him he makes eye contact with Osho, the guru, and the journalist himself burst into tears. He didn't become an adherent or start to subscribe to the cults beliefs but he was overcome in that moment.
When I joined in the corporate drudgery I hated all of the equivalent rituals. I worked at a game company that did a literal equivalent of a pep rally for the 100+ employees who were in the process of finaling a game. Quarterly all-hands meetings are usually veiled pep rallies where making some noise is replaced by polite applause as division managers tout rose-color tinted bullshit.
Nothing alerts my cynicism quite as much as this fake-it-till-you-make-it forced optimism and team building. I've been through a dozen flavours of team building including learning my MBTI, my DiSC color and more. I've gone on day long retreats/field trips and I have been forced to awkwardly mill about every Friday for flat beer and microwaved appetizers. I cringe at the very thought of this stuff.
I wouldn't be able to count the number of company value presentations I've been subjected to. Core values, OKRs, and a host of company culture defining paradigms I don't even remember. I've seen laminated principles posted in break rooms and hallways only to be usurped by some new systems within months.
And yet I truly and deeply believe it is not only worth the effort - I believe that things like these are essential to build high-functioning teams. It is a bitter medicine but once I wipe away my cynicism I must admit it works. Just like advertising - that stuff sinks into your subconscious whether you like it or not. Only stubborn fools will insist it doesn't work on them, as if they have some kind of mental fortitude/resistance unlike all other humans.
IMO, aligning people to a small number of shared values is maybe one of the most important and powerful things we can do.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pep_rally