The Hidden Rituals of Change
The Change Signal with Michael Norton
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Most change leaders assume ritual is all incense and corporate retreats. Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton sees it differently.
His research shows that the most powerful organizational rituals aren’t the big, top-down ones imposed by leadership. They’re the small, everyday practices teams invent for themselves — like who brings lunch on which day, or clicking emojis at the start of Zoom calls.
Norton also introduces the idea of ambiguous loss: the grief we feel when something hasn’t clearly ended but has fundamentally changed. Think of keeping old business cards from a company that no longer exists. This kind of loss is everywhere during organizational change — yet it’s rarely acknowledged.
The answer isn’t to erase all the old or dictate the new. Like blended families inventing fresh holiday traditions, successful change preserves meaningful parts of the past while creating new rituals for the future.
If you’re leading transformation and wondering why people resist seemingly small changes, this conversation will reshape how you think about the human side of organizational change.
Here’s three provocative questions that emerge from this Change Signal conversation with Michael Norton:
Can we ever escape ritual?
Why is ambiguous loss harder to process than clear grief?
How can we honour the past while creating a new identity?
ABOUT MICHAEL:
Michael Norton is a Professor at Harvard Business School and an expert on human behaviour, ritual, and meaning-making in organizations. His research has been featured in leading journals and media outlets worldwide, and his work helps leaders understand the hidden psychological dynamics of change.
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michael-i-norton
