Dilbert often mocks team rituals, and things that help unify people, but it these little things...
There's been three companies that I've worked at that tried to bring peopel together-
The first, a 500+ person monolith did the traditional Company picnics- It helped to connect people together, but it felt generic. It felt like anyone could have been doing that because, well, everyone was ;)
Years later, when I was working at a Video Game company working on a 3d shooter, we brough everyone out for paintball. It was Fun, and it meant more because it was more about what we were doing.. It wasn't just generic company stuff- I remember some of the programmers talking about shots they made in the paintball, and how they could implement those in the engine.
Later still, I worked at a startup. Working at a startup we were all closer to one another- We often put in long hours to try to get the next revision out, or the next round of bugs squashed. While we haven't done any massive outings yet, we've developed out little in-house traditions. We "always" go out to Foo for food, or "always" do Halo games after a hard night of code.. It doesn't matter that it's easy, what matters is that it's what -we do-.. We develop out own little in-jokes, and it helps everyone to feel like they're on the same journey, rather than just in the same office.
