The Traditions We Keep (Even When They Don’t Work Anymore) 🦃

Traditions are funny things — and with Thanksgiving right around the corner, it’s hard not to think about them. At their heart, traditions are just repeated practices tied to meaning. They help us bond, mark time, and reinforce values. We gather for holidays, sing certain songs, eat certain foods, wear ugly sweaters in December — not because these things are necessary, but because it’s what we do.

Workplaces are full of traditions too — only they tend to come with calendar invites.

Think about all the recurring meetings and events we create:

• 📣 Town Halls
• 👋 All Hands
• 🐛 Bug Bashes
• 🚀 Hackathons
• 🎙️ Tech Talks
• 🔬 Science Fairs
• 🤝 Collaboration Sessions
• ✏️ Sprint Refinements
• 🗓️ Quarterly Planning
• 📝 Annual Reviews
• 💬 Multi-Source Feedback / 360 Feedback
• 👥 Manager Check-ins

Every one of these started with a purpose. A Town Hall to keep everyone aligned. A Hackathon to spark creativity. Refinements to improve sprint planning. Reviews to support growth.

But over time, that purpose often fades. The original problem gets solved. The company grows. The audience changes. The people who started the tradition leave. And yet — we keep doing the thing, often without asking whether it still helps.

Worse, when a tradition starts to feel ineffective, we don’t retire it — we layer new ones on top:

• The Town Hall isn’t connecting? Add a Team Sync.
• Reviews aren’t working? Add more check-ins.
• Sprint Planning drags? Add pre-refinement meetings.

Before long, calendars are clogged with overlapping rituals, each built to patch the last one. And just like real traditions, even when everyone quietly agrees some of these aren’t useful, we keep going. “We’ve always done it this way.”

It’s not just the harmless traditions I worry about — the ones that fill up calendars but don’t help anyone. I worry about the long-term detrimental ones that persist simply because no one questions them.

It’s a pattern you see in life, too.

We all agree that domestic violence is awful. Animal abuse is abhorrent. Assault illegal. Bullying is terrible.

And yet — the physical disciplining of children is still defended and accepted in many circles.

And the excuses sound familiar:

• “That’s what worked in the past.”
• “I feel it works.”
• "I came out okay."
• “That’s what everyone does.”

But… why would we want to be like everyone else? Shouldn’t the goal be to evolve — to be better?

That same thinking creeps into the workplace. We cling to meetings, feedback cycles, and rituals that no longer help — sometimes even after they start doing harm:

• Burned-out employees dreading endless performance syncs.
• Feedback cycles that erode trust.
• Rituals that waste time and create resentment instead of collaboration.

Tradition isn’t a good enough reason to keep doing something — especially when it’s hurting people or slowing us down.

We owe it to ourselves, our teams, and our culture to ask:

• Is this tradition still serving us?
• Has the world changed since we started doing this?
• Are we brave enough to stop — and imagine something better?

How to Keep Traditions Healthy

Some ways to make sure your traditions evolve instead of weighing you down:

• 🕑 Put an expiration date on traditions
  When starting any new recurring meeting or initiative, set a review date. When the time comes, survey the team — should we continue, change, or retire this?
• 📜 Always state the problem and expected outcome
  For recurring meetings, include the problem being solved and what success looks like in the invite notes. If no one can remember, that’s a sign.
• 💰 Estimate the cost
  For meetings and events, calculate the cost in hours and salary. Include it in the invite. It’s harder to ignore waste when you see the price tag.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Run a regular “tradition audit”
  Every quarter or twice a year, review what recurring meetings and practices your team has — and which ones still serve a purpose.
• 💬 Create safe ways to give feedback
  Not everyone feels comfortable challenging traditions in public. Use anonymous surveys or suggestion boxes to surface issues.
• 📉 Track engagement
  Monitor participation in optional events (Hackathons, Tech Talks). If interest is fading, it may be time to refresh or retire.
• ⚖️ Weigh opportunity costs
  If you had this time or budget to spend another way, would you spend it here?
• 📜 Document when and why traditions start
  Record when a tradition begins — and why. Give future teams context for when it might be time to change.
• 🛑 Normalize sunsetting traditions
  Make it safe — even celebrated — to retire practices that no longer fit.
• ✨ Encourage new experiments
  Cultures thrive when they evolve. Support teams in trying new ways to collaborate, celebrate, and learn.

Signs of Good Traditions

Of course, not all traditions are bad — some are well worth keeping. So how do you tell the difference?

Here are some signs you’re working with a good, healthy tradition:

• 🧭 Clear purpose
  Everyone involved knows why the tradition exists — and it still solves a real problem or provides clear value.
• ✨ Positive energy
  People look forward to participating. It energizes, connects, or inspires them rather than drains them.
• 🗣️ Voluntary participation (when possible)
  The best traditions often don’t need to be mandatory — people show up because they want to.
• 🕑 Right cadence
  The frequency still makes sense — it isn’t just happening because “it’s always been weekly.”
• 📈 Adaptability
  The format evolves as the team evolves. Feedback is welcomed and changes are made over time.
• 👥 Builds culture
  The tradition helps reinforce the team’s identity or values in a positive way — it makes the team stronger.
• 💡 Sparks growth or creativity
  It helps people learn, try new things, or expand their thinking.
• ⚖️ Respects time and attention
  It’s worth the investment — the benefits outweigh the costs of time, energy, and resources.

Traditions aren’t bad. They can bring meaning, stability, and connection — especially during the holidays, when they remind us of who we are and where we’ve been. But at work, when left on autopilot, they can also bring stagnation.

The world changes. Our work changes. Our teams change. Our traditions should too.

So as we reflect this season on the traditions we’re thankful for — it’s also a good time to ask: which ones are worth keeping, and which ones can we finally let go?