Rhythm beats events.
Connection is built by small things that keep happening. Micro-rituals are the smallest unit of that: five or ten minutes, on a cadence, where people are known by more than their output.
It happens on a known cadence, so nobody has to decide whether it is worth scheduling. A ritual people can predict is one they can rely on.
It connects people to something past the task list. A stand-up is not a ritual. Five minutes where one person is actually known is.
The team has some ownership of the form. Rituals handed down from a program office get performed. Rituals a team shaped get kept.
Five minutes. One person. Their photos and the stories behind them. Once a week.
Vivek Murthy ran this ritual with his Surgeon General team and wrote that it changed how they saw each other.
One offsite resets nothing. A weekly five minutes changes what normal feels like.
Required participation produces attendance, not connection.
The weeks you cancel it are the weeks it was doing the most work.
If it could run at any company, it will not mean much at yours.