[vple]

I've seen this too, and I'm wondering how (or if) this fits into the shapes/additive/subtractive model.

"Ritual" work doesn't seem like it falls under additive or subtractive to me. Maybe it's some combination of being multiplicative / reshaping? If you can multiply/reshape you or others' efforts towards the project, the project (hopefully) becomes easier.

There's a bit of an assumption that someone is "modifying" work in a useful way--multiplying a shape won't help if more of that shape isn't useful.