Seen at GoogleLearning & Performance
Colleague-Taught Class
Once a month, one colleague teaches a short session on something they know well — a skill, a tool or a lesson learned — to anyone who wants to come.
Monthly45 minutesOrganisation-wide
The field guide to operationalising culture
Culture is what you repeat.
Practical rituals, research and stories for leaders who want to turn values into everyday habits — and use culture as a lever for transformation.
What are you trying to change?
Ritual Library
Rituals you can run this week
Change & Transformation
Crack the Egg
Introduce any new plan or process as a deliberately unfinished draft — and let the team build the rest, so they own it instead of just complying.
Milestone60–90 minutesSmall team (2–10)
Recognition & Appreciation
Daily Recognition Habits
Five small habits, each taking a few minutes, that build a recognition culture day by day — start meetings with a win, thank someone before lunch, and more.
Daily5 minutesAny
Psychological Safety
Early Signal
An eight-minute slot at the start of an existing weekly meeting where anyone can name one delivery risk — and the leader responds with help, an owner and a date.
Weekly8 minutesSmall team (2–10)
Seen at GooglePsychological Safety
Five Dynamics Team Check
Each quarter, the team rates itself anonymously on the five dynamics Google found behind effective teams — then talks honestly about the weakest one.
Quarterly45 minutesSmall team (2–10)
Seen at DBS BankPsychological Safety
MOJO: Meeting Owner & Joyful Observer
Every meeting gets two roles — an owner who runs it, and an observer (who can be junior) who gives the owner honest feedback on how it went.
Weekly1 minute of feedback per meetingSmall team (2–10)
The idea
Values don’t change behaviour. Repetition does.
- 01
Name the shift
Pick the one behaviour your strategy needs more of — not ten values.
- 02
Design the ritual
A small, repeatable moment with a clear purpose, rhythm and owner.
- 03
Run it on rhythm
Consistency beats intensity. Weekly rituals outlast annual events.
- 04
Measure & evolve
Watch the behaviour, not the attendance. Retire rituals that lose meaning.
Articles
Latest thinking
Leadership
Google tried to prove managers don’t matter. The data said the opposite.
Google’s Project Oxygen began with the hypothesis that managers were unnecessary. Years of data showed great managers drive results, happiness and retention — and revealed what they actually do.
26 Oct 2026
Psychological Safety
What Google learned about great teams: it’s not who’s on them
Google studied 180 teams to find the secret of effective ones. The answer wasn’t talent, seniority or size — it was five dynamics, led by psychological safety.
26 Oct 2026
Living the Values
You don’t have a culture problem. You have a culture design problem.
Nobody sets out to build a bad culture. It happens quietly — when leaders stop designing and culture drifts toward whatever is pulling hardest.
21 Oct 2026
Nudges
The science of small changes
Leadership
The Curse of Knowledge
Once you understand something, it becomes very hard to imagine not understanding it — which is why leaders consistently overestimate how clearly their priorities have landed.
2-minute read13 Oct 2026
Learning & Performance
The Feedback Intervention Paradox
Feedback makes performance worse surprisingly often. Whether it was positive or negative barely matters — what matters is whether it points attention at the work or at the person.
2-minute read10 Oct 2026
Learning & Performance
The Zeigarnik Effect
Unfinished tasks keep tugging at your attention — but you don’t have to finish them to make the tug stop. Writing a specific plan does almost as much.
2-minute read8 Oct 2026
Video
Is your culture always looking backwards?
Why steering your culture with an annual engagement survey is like driving using only the rear-view mirror.
21 Oct 2026
Video
If only I said something
The day Roshan stayed quiet in a meeting — and what that silence cost. An introduction to the Silence Tax.
21 Oct 2026
Free playbook
Operationalising Rituals Using the Büdaya Framework
A free, practical field guide for leaders, HR partners and culture champions: diagnose one behaviour, design a ritual around it, pilot it for 30 days, review it with five simple signals — and keep only what works.
Get the playbookStories
Culture change in the real world
Change & Transformation
The Day a Nurse Stopped a Doctor: How One Ritual Helped Transform a Hospital's Culture
What happens when a nurse dares to stop a senior doctor? Discover how Virginia Mason Medical Center transformed its culture through a simple yet powerful ritual that empowered employees to speak up, challenge authority and put patient safety first. This remarkable story reveals how small, repeatable practices can break down hierarchies, build trust and drive lasting behavioural change, proving that culture transformation happens not through what we say, but through what we repeatedly do.
Virginia Mason Medical CenterHealthcare
Psychological Safety
The Bank That Gave Junior Employees Permission to Challenge the Boss
How did DBS Bank turn meetings from a source of bureaucracy and silence into a catalyst for innovation? Discover MOJO, a simple ritual that empowered junior employees to challenge senior leaders, improved meeting effectiveness and helped lift employees' reported share of voice from 40% to 90%.
DBS BankFinancial Services · Singapore
Onboarding & Belonging
The Funny Little Hat That Makes You a Googler
A colourful propeller cap, an unusual nickname and a tradition that welcomes newcomers into Google's community. Discover why small rituals can play an outsized role in helping employees feel they belong.
GoogleTechnology · Onboarding & Belonging
Culture Tools
Keep your rituals alive
The digital and physical tools we recommend for running rituals, recognition and feedback at scale.