Tonight I will do something I haven’t done in more than 25 years: perform in a stage musical. It’s opening night of my son’s high school production of “Fiddler on the Roof”, the story of a Jewish family in Tsarist Russia. My son has been honored with the lead role of Tevye, a dairyman, who knows something about Contented Cows, and who’s getting some hard lessons in adapting to change. The cast includes not only students, but faculty, alumni, and parents, including my wife and me, who are background villagers.

In the opening number, “Tradition”, Tevye tells the audience of the struggles of living in their challenging environment, and asks, under such difficult conditions, “How do we keep our balance? That, I can tell you in one word: Tradition!” Without tradition, he says, their lives would be as shaky as a Fiddler on the Roof.

While it pales greatly in comparison to the life-and-death struggles of Tevye’s people a century ago, the modern workplace can be about as shaky as a rooftop fiddler as well. So, how do you keep your balance? Tradition can help.

Even though we’re all probably over-connected electronically these days, most people are under-connected to the people, mission, customers, values, and yes, traditions of the place they spend 8+ hours a day working. And yet, with all the changes in the workplace over the last decade or so, among the things that have not changed, is people’s need for connectedness.

Traditions connect us to the past, a place where, as long as we don’t dwell there too long, we can find some useful elements for success. They also help create some of the best of the future. Some thoughts on tradition at your workplace:

• Don’t underestimate the value of tradition. People need something they can count on. Today’s workplace doesn’t offer much in that department.
• Don’t assume that you, as the manager, know what traditions are important to the people you work with, and which ones aren’t. Ask. Observe. Listen.
• Traditions that connect somehow to your organization’s mission serve lots of purposes: they’re a visible manifestation of the mission, and as such, are easier to sell to those who need to be sold.
• Encourage traditions that connect people together, rather than those that separate and divide them. The Executive Washroom is a relic of a tradition that doesn’t do anybody much good, including the executives. An annual celebration of the year’s good work, among people who actually know each other (as opposed to a mass gathering of everyone who happens to be on the payroll) can be a good tradition that strengthens the bonds necessary to do good work.
• In an interview in our first book, Contented Cows Give Better Milk, Betty Kahn, who was at the time, head of Communications at Crate and Barrel, put it beautifully when she told me “We do a lot of group eating.” There’s something about breaking bread (or at least a few coffee mugs) together that binds our souls. And at the risk of sounding all new age here, bound souls do better work than do unbound ones.
• Sometime in the next week, consider sunsetting a tradition that doesn’t help people, and therefore the business.
• Wanna leave a valuable mark on your organization? One that endures long after your physical tenure? Start a new practice that fortifies the connections among people, and between people and their work. Don’t force it, but if the practice fills a need, it could become, over time, a tradition, and one of your most important legacies.