Croatia: Glagolitic Script Team Calligraphy Circle

Glagolitic Script Team Calligraphy Circle, Croatia

Context

Croatia’s oldest written voice, the Glagolitic script (Croatian: glagoljica; “Glagolitism” = glagoljaštvo), is more than a museum piece: it is a living cultural marker. In 2014 Croatia formally inscribed “the skill of reading, writing and printing in Glagolitic” on its national register of intangible cultural heritage, turning everyday encounters with the script into acts of stewardship rather than nostalgia. In 2019 the Croatian Parliament went further, declaring 22 February (Gregorian calendar) the Day of the Croatian Glagolitic script and Glagolitism to celebrate the first Croatian printed book of 1483, with upcoming observances on 22 February 2026 and 22 February 2027. These actions signal that Glagolitic belongs to the present as much as the past. * *

That modern presence is literal: since 1 January 2023 the 1-, 2-, and 5-cent euro coins minted in Croatia carry a ligature of the Glagolitic letters “HR,” putting the script into daily circulation in wallets and cash drawers from Zagreb to Dubrovnik. For teams that gather in Croatia, writing in Glagolitic can be a gesture of place‑based identity, anchored in a nationally recognized symbol you can also find on your change, and while the script appears widely in tourism signage and souvenirs (including diaspora contexts), partnering with heritage institutions helps avoid trivialization and keeps benefits local. * *

Meet the Company/Cultural Tradition

On the banks of the Korana River in Karlovac, the family-run Hotel Korana Srakovčić has turned this heritage into a practical team ritual. Among its corporate packages, which include meeting rooms, nature excursions, and cultural add‑ons, the hotel offers a “Glagolitic letter class,” hosted either on‑site or in partnership with Karlovac City Museum (Muzej grada Karlovca, which manages Dubovac Castle) at the medieval Dubovac Castle a short ride away, noting that while glagoljica has historic centers in Istria, Kvarner, and northern Dalmatia (for example, the Baška tablet on Krk), today’s recognition is national and availability varies by city. Corporate groups can book it as a discrete module inside a broader off‑site program, and as a Karlovac City Museum educator notes, “We encourage participants to credit glagoljica correctly and avoid sacred texts,” quoted with permission. *

The workshop itself is designed to be inclusive, with large‑grip pens, tracing guides or stencils, left‑handed exemplars, large‑print sheets, seated or standing options, and multilingual cues. Facilitators introduce the alphabet’s shapes and origins and then guide participants to practice strokes and write their own names or initials and short phrases, with speaking optional and no evaluation of handwriting. The Croatian History Museum (Hrvatski povijesni muzej) and other museums run similar educational sessions, demonstrating how most beginners can learn to form letters and produce a personal keepsake, which shows that this is not only a specialist pursuit. *

The Ritual

Minute	Scene	Purpose
0–5	Arrival and quick story: why Glagolitic still matters in Croatia today (coins, national day)	Set meaning; connect to place
5–15	Stroke warm‑ups on practice sheets	Reduce anxiety; build shared starter skill
15–30	Write your name in Glagolitic with guidance	Early win; personal ownership
30–45	Team motto: agree a short value phrase and draft it in Glagolitic	Translate abstract values into a tangible artifact
45–55	Final pass on cardstock; optional team “seal” (date, project)	Create a durable token for the office wall
55–60	Group photo; facilitator collects copies for scanning and follow‑up	Closure; easy internal sharing

Variation for remote or hybrid teams: use a downloadable Glagolitic font to practice letterforms on tablets or paper, then hold a five‑minute brief sharing at the end of a video call with captions, camera‑off options, and an asynchronous upload path. *

Why It Works

First, it is culturally authentic without being exclusive. Writing a few letters connects participants to a nationally celebrated symbol (now literally minted on Croatian euro coins), which can nurture a sense of belonging to the host place for global teams rotating through off‑site meetings. The act resonates because it is recognized and promoted in contemporary civic life, not just in textbooks. * *

Second, there is a cognitive upside to pen‑and‑ink. Handwriting engages broader neural networks than typing and has been associated with stronger memory encoding and learning in several EEG and behavioral studies. That extra sensorimotor effort may help the shared motto and names “stick,” reinforcing the values a team just wrote down while acknowledging that individual effects do not automatically produce team‑level outcomes. * *

Third, calligraphy is calming. Experimental comparisons, primarily in Chinese calligraphy contexts, have reported reductions in physiological stress markers (heart rate, muscle tension) and links between calligraphy practice and improved stress self‑management and perceived wellbeing, and applicability to Glagolitic or Latin calligraphy may vary. In a corporate context, those few quiet minutes of focused strokes can provide a low‑tech decompression window that supports candid conversation afterward. * *

Outcomes & Impact

Teams leave with visible artifacts, names and a short Glagolitic motto, ready for a project room or reception wall with opt‑in display consent. Because handwriting has been associated with stronger memory consolidation compared with typing, those words may be recalled and referenced more readily than slogans pasted from slides. That mechanism can run as belonging cues leading to more help‑seeking and then to a higher rate of cross‑team ticket resolutions per week, so the ritual may support day‑to‑day alignment. * *

In provider reports and small pilots, the practice can travel well across cultures and abilities when adapted with accessibility supports. Museum‑style workshops show that most beginners can produce legible letters in under an hour, while the hotel’s portable format (hotel hall, museum room, or castle chamber) allows teams to embed the session as an opening session, a midpoint pause, or a closing reflection. Measure outcomes with brief pre‑ and post‑surveys (two‑item belonging and four‑item psychological safety short forms targeting a +0.3 change on a 5‑point scale, and a one‑item stress VAS targeting a −0.5 change), plus behavioral proxies such as a +20% increase in cross‑team Slack or Teams replies within 30 days, using a matched‑team comparison or stepped‑wedge pilot. * *

Lessons for Global Team Leaders

Principle	Why It Matters	How to Translate
Ground in a local symbol	Place‑based rituals deepen belonging and memory	Choose scripts, crafts, or icons native to your host country
Make it hands‑on	Embodied action encodes values better than slides	Produce something together that you can display
Keep the bar low	Beginner‑friendly tasks maximize inclusion	Prioritise activities everyone can do in 60 minutes
Create a take‑home token	Tangible artifacts cue recall and pride	Frame, scan, and share the outputs company‑wide
Partner with cultural hosts	Local experts add credibility and context	Book museums, heritage NGOs, or hotels with cultural modules

Implementation Playbook

Book a provider that offers Glagolitic workshops as part of corporate programs (e.g., Hotel Korana Srakovčić), target co‑located off‑site teams, onboarding cohorts, and cross‑functional project groups, avoid on‑call or customer‑critical windows, budget the all‑in cost per participant (60 minutes of time × loaded cost plus materials of approximately €10–€25 and vendor fees), name an accountable owner, facilitator, comms lead, and data steward, and note that a remote variant typically costs 30–50% less.
Pick the setting that matches your tone: a quiet hotel salon, a Karlovac City Museum (Muzej grada Karlovca) room, or a historic venue like Dubovac Castle, and schedule to avoid night‑shift burdens and to respect prayer and holiday calendars.
Time‑box to 60 minutes—story (5), warm‑ups (10), names (15), team motto (15), finishing and photo (15)—with group size capped at 24, one facilitator per 12 participants, a pre‑brief that makes participation voluntary and handwriting non‑evaluative, a neutral motto menu with a silent vote option, strict opt‑ins for photo and scanning, and a 6–8 week pilot across 2–4 teams with a matched comparison team, defined fidelity elements, cadence and dose, debrief prompts, success thresholds, and stop rules.
Provide materials: practice sheets, cardstock, fine liners, large‑grip pens, broader markers or brush pens, left‑handed exemplars, tracing guides or stencils, and large‑print versions; arrange a facilitator trained in the alphabet basics, inclusive facilitation, and basic conflict de‑escalation.
Capture and share only with explicit opt‑in consent: define the data categories (images of artifacts and names), the purpose (internal recap), storage (secure corporate drive), access (team and organizer only), and retention (delete raw scans after 90 days), allow initials or pseudonyms, permit individuals to take originals without scanning, and avoid public posting or tagging without separate consent and Legal/HR review.
Respect and adapt ethically: use the correct local term glagoljica, give a brief origin note, partner with licensed local providers or museums, avoid reproducing sacred or liturgical texts as team mottos, include a per‑person donation to a heritage organization (for example, Staroslavenski institut or a museum partner), and credit Croatian institutions prominently.
Offer a remote variant: provide a Glagolitic font and hold a short brief sharing at the end of a virtual sprint with captions, camera‑optional participation, and an asynchronous upload path.

Common Pitfalls

Turning the workshop into a lecture: limit history to five minutes and get pens moving.
Mixing in unrelated activities (e.g., competitive games) that dilute the reflective mood.
Over‑complicating the art with advanced styles; stick to a few letters and one short phrase.
Treating it as a one‑off souvenir; failing to display and reference the artifacts later with the consent of participants.

Reflection & Call to Action

Rituals bind best when they fuse meaning with motion. Croatia’s Glagolitic Scribing Circle does exactly that: a shared minute of cultural immersion, a few mindful strokes, and a tangible emblem of what your team stands for, crafted by your own hands. If your next off‑site takes you to Croatia, set aside an hour for a quiet handwriting session. If you are elsewhere, borrow the principle responsibly: find a local script or craft, make something together, secure permissions and compensate local experts, avoid sacred content, choose neutral civic symbols, and offer accessible alternatives.