Does Tradition Matter?
Tradition is awesome, untill it gets in the way.
“Dad, we want to choose our own husbands."
Tevye’s daughter in The Fiddler on the Roof musical was adamant about making their own choices. Their dad was not too happy about that. He’s all about tradition. These old ways of doing things have worked for them and helped them create a way of life and culture.
Although this musical focuses specifically on Jewish traditions and their struggles while living in Anatevka in Tsarist Russia, it creates a great road map of the struggles of holding strongly to tradition while adapting to the changes of the future.
Most traditions start as never say. Members start to hold on to the way things are done. But eventually…what happens? A struggle to maintain the status quo and embrace change becomes an internal struggle.
Consider looking at your business and team while asking the question: Are you doing these things from tradition without noticing its negative effect on what were trying to do in the future?
Asking questions like this could open a can of worms but they can also help you see how you are stuck in what you’re doing. Maybe the best way forward is by doing something completely new, but you’ll never know it if you say now to every piece of technology that comes your way. if you deny every new idea for fear that your team or business will fail then you’re screwed because innovation will never come.
So look at tradition not through the lens of Tyvye, but through the lens of his daughters. Through this lens, you can embrace change, without being bogged down by tradition.
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