Celebrating The Traditions That Define Your Organization’s Culture

With the arrival of another new year, many of us have been busy celebrating various traditions which serve to not only remind us of events from the past year, but which also imbue us with a sense of optimism for what we might achieve in the months ahead.

In the case of my family, our New Year’s Eve tradition stems back to when my wife and I were newlyweds, celebrating the start of a new year just a few short months after our wedding. As we had put most of our money into buying new furniture and appliances for our apartment, we didn’t have much money left to celebrate our first New Year’s Eve. Even though we couldn’t afford a night out on the town, my wife and I still wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual milestone.

So an hour or two before midnight, we left our apartment and walked down to our local convenience store and ‘treated’ ourselves to whatever junk food we felt like having – an assortment of sugary treats that brought back fond memories of our youth. We then returned to our apartment to enjoy our stash of potato chips and candies, ringing in the New Year with a toast of our favourite soda.

Although this wasn’t anything extravagant, it still felt nice to celebrate this event despite the constraints we faced. In the following years, we continued to celebrate New Year’s Eve with this ritual, mainly because this simple gesture connected us to those first months in our marriage. When we became parents, we had our children join us in this end-of-year ritual and in a very short time, it became their own end-of-year tradition as well.

In celebrating this annual New Year’s Eve tradition with my family, I thought about how organizations also have their own unique traditions. Although these might arise from some insignificant event or moment during their early growth stages, they nonetheless become ingrained into the organization’s culture and way of seeing things as a result of the conditions that existed during those formative years.

Unfortunately, we tend to gloss over or dismiss the significance of these traditions both to how we operate, as well as to how we approach making changes to our organization. In many ways, the growth and development of an organization mirrors that of a tree, in how the environmental conditions in their ecosystem help to shape and define the structure of the plant as it grows over time. While economic and workforce changes can alter the present and future direction where an organization can grow, as is the case with trees, organizations can’t simply add a new branch without taking into consideration its connection to the existing network of stems and limbs.

With this in mind, here are three reasons why leaders should encourage the active celebration of their organization’s traditions:

1. Traditions make your organization stand out from the crowd
As my family has been celebrating New Year’s Eve with this tradition for several years now, it’s not something that we tend to view as being noteworthy to others. After all, seeing kids running around a store trying to decide what candies to buy is hardly a rare sight. However, a past encounter helped to prove otherwise.

A few months ago during the summer, I stopped by this convenience store with my kids to pick up a few items. When we got to the pay counter, the cashier asked us if we were the family who had that New Year’s Eve tradition of coming to the store to buy all sorts of junk food. Although I was surprised that she remembered us, what made this even more memorable was her calling her co-worker over to point out how we were that family she had told him about who had that “cool tradition for New Year’s Eve”.

Many organizations also have traditions which are viewed internally as being relevant only to those who work there. However, it’s these seemingly insignificant traditions which often give rise to the organizational cultures that garner much respect and admiration for their ability to drive the creation of innovative products or services.

Think about any company that consistently receives attention from outsiders about their successes and creative approach to conventional business situations. The cultural routines or activities are certainly not very dramatic or difficult to replicate. And yet, they still attract all this attention because of how unique they are, both in their respective field as well as in the business world.

As such, instead of trying to mimic the traditions of these well-respected and often-discussed models of business success, leaders should take note of how their own team’s traditions help to make their organization stand out from the crowd, both for existing and potential customers as well as prospective employees.

2. Traditions foster a sense of shared identity
One thing that my wife and I enjoy about this end-of-year family tradition is how our children have really taken it on as something that has a significant meaning for them as well. Although they might not be able to relate to the history behind this tradition, it still hasn’t stopped it from becoming an activity that helps to reinforce the shared identity that defines our family.

Similarly, whether an employee was around since your organization’s early days or not doesn’t mean they can’t appreciate or relate to the values which are promoted through these traditions. In fact, if one were to look at companies that consistently rate as being some of the best places to work, one will find that it’s not because of the fringe benefits that are offered. Instead, it’s a result of the sense of belonging derived from the various traditions which have served to define the organization’s culture.

3. Traditions remind us of past challenges and of how far we’ve come
Over the years, my family has celebrated the New Year through a variety of activities and events, but none of them have taken hold like how we chose to celebrate that very first New Year’s Eve together. Granted, it was never our intention for it to become a family tradition. Then again, if one considers the nature of traditions, it’s also not surprising that after all these years, we continue to use this activity to mark the beginning of a new year.

After all, unlike resolutions where the goal is to change something about ourselves we don’t like, traditions foster a sense of optimism because they remind us of a time from our past which showcased our resolve and determination to press ahead.

By encouraging the celebration of traditions within their organization, leaders can not only remind their employees of the challenges they faced in the past, but also of how they were able to overcome them, often with fewer resources than they have today.

So, in addition to preparing your teams to implement the plans you have mapped out for this year, take time to also reflect on the traditions that define your organization. While leaders can inspire their teams with their visions of the future, celebrating an organization’s traditions will help motivate your employees by reminding them not only of their shared commonality, but also of how these unique rituals which define your organization’s culture can once again help your team succeed in overcoming the challenges they’ll face in the months ahead.