At Work with The Ready

In this miniseries, we’re exploring Depthfinding—an easy-to-grasp framework designed to help leaders and teams solve their gnarliest cross-functional challenges. This week, Rodney and Sam look at the Sky—the external forces like market shifts, technological disruptions, and political changes that shape your organization. While most companies are comfortable staying heads-down in the day-to-day, failing to look outward creates costly blind spots that lead to org debt, misaligned strategy, and even existential risk. Cultivating a regular practice of looking up and outward is the key to successfully meeting this moment—and all the ones to come. Download the Depthfinding guide to get the template and examples of how to use it. Want to learn more about Depthfinding? Head here: theready.com/depthfinding -------------------------------- Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: lido deck Deep River potato chips the giant Snickers "building the bridge to the next thing" - dual transformation Kodak's digital revolution moment the Information age "op rhythm": BNW Ep. 118 "Liberating Structures": BNW Ep. 49 with Keith McCandless Critical Uncertainties red team "essential intent": BNW Ep. 90 with Greg McKeown This episode's theme music is Yaggadang by BG & Coyote Radio. Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.

Over the last decade at The Ready, we’ve seen firsthand that the most significant organizational challenges are nearly all cross-functional. But most company structures? Very much not cross-functional. Adding more project managers, looking to external partners for one-and-done silver bullets, or assembling yet another task force just isn’t cutting it as the world changes faster than most organizations can keep up. Enter Depthfinding—an easy-to-grasp framework designed to help leaders and teams solve their gnarliest cross-functional challenges. In our new Depthfinding miniseries, Rodney and Sam will help you see your organization in a new way whether you’re individual contributor or a C-Suite executive. Ready? Let’s dive in. Download the Depthfinding guide to get the template and example Rodney mentioned in this episode. Want to learn more about Depthfinding? Head here: theready.com/depthfinding -------------------------------- Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: The Ready's OS Canvas strategy pancakes: AWWTR Ep. 2 even/overs: BNW Ep. 44 essential intent: BNW Ep. 90 with Greg McKeown check-in round This episode's theme music is Yaggadang by BG & Coyote Radio. Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.

2024 felt like a bit of a rollercoaster—and while we’re ready to close the book on this year, we wouldn’t be first-class org designers if we passed up the chance to hold a retrospective. Add in the fact that this is Rodney’s 200th episode and BNW + AWWTR have crossed the one million download milestone, and a little celebration feels like the right thing. In today’s episode, Rodney and Sam reflect on the show’s 2024 season—including the episodes they loved, the episodes they want a do-over on, and what they hope for the show in 2025. We want to know what you think! Take our 2024 Listener Survey. -------------------------------- Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: The Future of HR Miniseries The Ready's OS Canvas RACI episode: AWWTR Ep. 10 Leaders as org designers episode: AWWTR Ep. 13 "McGillicuddy" All the small things episode: AWWTR Ep. 19 "video about the woman who doesn't use a calendar" Jason Fox episode: AWWTR Ep. 17 with Jason Fox Dual Transformation, book from 2017

Rebroadcast note: We're hard at work recording a brand new miniseries for January, so this week we're resharing one this episode from our Future of HR miniseries. As we've worked with companies over the last year to reimagine their HR departments, we've seen this episode's ideas and lessons about evolving the HRBP even more important in practice. So take a listen with some fresh ears, and we'll see in two weeks with a brand new episode. The role of HR Business Partner is often a tale of two experiences. On the one hand, HRBPs are some of the most empathetic and passionate people you’ll ever meet. On the other hand, they’re stuck on the hamster wheel of busywork, bouncing from crisis to crisis without the authority to prioritize their energy—and without the respect from leadership to make a real difference. Look up “burnout” in the dictionary and odds are you’ll find a picture of an HRBP. In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Today on episode 5, they explore how this critical role took a hard left turn from it’s intended purpose, what its future-of-work glow-up (hello, HR Business Coach) could look like, and how HR Business Coaches + Mission-Based Teaming = unlimited potential. References mentioned: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Episode 1481 "Talks about Competition" (1981). "How People Make Crayons" begins at 05:20. American Gladiators Dave Ulrich, of the Ulrich HR model -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected].

It’s mailbag time! And while we know we said this last time, we really mean it that this was probably the hardest group of questions we’ve dealt with on the show yet! Rodney and Sam get out their thinking caps and answer some questions from listeners like you about non-traditional organizational leadership, workplace dynamics around project capacity planning, and more. Questions tackled: Are great teams and strategies impossible without traditional leadership? Can project capacity planning be done in a people-positive, complexity conscious way? Why do traditional orgs bias towards convergent thinking, especially around annual planning? How do you prioritize cross-functional initiatives between leadership and teams that avoids zombie projects and mutual disappointment? -------------------------------- Interested in learning more about Depthfinding and the ocean framework? Head here. Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: the LinkedIn post asked about Rube Goldberg machine "MBT" (mission-based team): FoHR Miniseries Ep. 1 "DAO": BNW Ep. 96 with Chase Chapman "product mindset episode": AWWTR Ep. 23

There are plenty of organizations that say they want to be “customer-focused”—but in practice? It’s easy to fall back on leader-driven opinions and assumptions about what customers really want. That’s especially true in big companies with entrenched processes and hierarchies that prioritize internal agendas. In those environments, staying aligned with customer needs can be an uphill battle—and organizations instead get stuck building solutions based on what leaders think customers should want, rather than what they need, leaving exciting opportunities on the cutting room floor. In this episode, Rodney and Sam dig into what it actually takes to adopt a product mindset. From navigating a “hammer looking for nails” ethos to designing flexible solutions that adapt to actual user behavior, they unpack how to bring customer-centricity into daily practice—and what to do when you start to veer off course. -------------------------------- Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: Depthfinding psych safety ep: AWWTR Ep. 20 experimentation ep: BNW Ep. 62 founder mode ep: AWWTR Ep. 22 Josh Bersin ep: The Future of HR Ep. 12 with Josh Bersin revealed preference

If you’ve been on LinkedIn this past month, you’ve likely seen at least one post (or more than you’d care to) about “founder mode.” Presented as a counter to “manager mode” (meant to represent highly bureaucratic leadership rife with micromanaging and delegation), “founder mode” is all about championing the pioneering, hands-on behaviors of startup founders scaled to organizations of any size. And sure, when these are the only choices, anything that’s not “manager mode” sounds like a good option. But show us a binary, and we’ll respond by asking tough questions. This week Rodney and Sam dig into how “founder mode” actually shows up in practice, whether it causes more organizational harm than good, and what it means when real leadership seems to be left out of the discussion entirely. -------------------------------- Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: Diane from Cheers Founder Mode, article by Paul Graham either/or thinking Kim Scott's op-ed about founder mode "people positivity episode": AWWTR Ep. 21 "strategy episode": AWWTR Ep. 2 "futures thinking" BNW Ep. 34 with Kevin Kelly Depthfinding John Cutler Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety Andon cord

Over the last nine years, The Ready has seen firsthand how organizations designed to be people positive (a.k.a. a foundational belief that people are eager to contribute and capable of change) outperform those that aren’t. Turns out when you treat people like adults, it boosts your team’s motivation, adaptability, and contribution. The only catch? Unlearning nearly everything traditional leadership and management science has taught us for decades. Once beliefs like “People are lazy,” “People can’t be trusted,” and “People will actively abuse any flexibility they get” get baked into an organization’s culture, it’s tremendously hard to change. But not impossible. In this episode, Rodney and Sam get candid about the fears that come with letting go of control, offer real-world examples to help skeptical leaders flip the script on trust, and explore how people positive principles can lead to long-term benefits. -------------------------------- Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: "the tower" Theory Y vs Theory X "Dan Pink stuff" mastery: BNW Ep. 63 "psychological safety episode": AWWTR Ep. 20 "nature vs nurture" "complexity conscious" "discretionary spending discussion": AWWTR Ep. 16, question 3 negativity bias

Psychological safety is a buzzy topic every company claims to want—but only a handful actually achieve. Sometimes, it’s misunderstood as being about “niceness” or “politeness”, but real psychological safety is deeper and more complex than that. It’s an ecosystem of behaviors that add up over time to impact how your team shows up day after day. Unfortunately, this misconception has a stranglehold on most leadership teams as well, who spend more time talking the talk than walking the walk. We’ve seen and worked with many executive teams over the years where people didn’t feel comfortable speaking up, challenging ideas, admitting mistakes, or sharing concerns without fearing retribution or embarrassment. When that’s happening inside the team responsible for some of a business’s biggest decisions, there are big consequences. In today’s episode, Rodney and Sam break down why leadership teams often feel the most psychologically unsafe, how to move the needle on developing trust, and why a ropes course can’t solve a team or organization’s culture problems. (Producer’s note: Ok, so we're zero for two this week with Sam's mic going rogue after Rodney's mishap last episode. Taylor's been working some major magic lately. Hopefully third time's the charm with episode 21 🤞) -------------------------------- Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team (NYT, 2016) ”emperor has no clothes” ”leaders as org designers episode”: AWWTR Ep. 13 ”hard vs soft power” team charter working agreements ”mundane episode”: AWWTR Ep. 19

While exploring bad meetings a few episodes ago, Rodney and Sam hit on something that doesn’t often get a lot of air time: the power of good habits and the discipline to care about the small things. Because when we’re trying to change companies on an atomic level, it can feel like small potatoes to focus on check-in rounds, or writing Slack messages, or how we compose to-do lists. But you can’t run toward the future of work at full speed when your shoes aren’t properly tied. Here’s what we know: High-performing teams—from ice hockey to symphony orchestras—all prioritize the fundamentals. So why don’t we do that in the workplace? In this episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin dig into why building strong work habits are more important than you might think and the mundane but fundamental practices they start with. (Producer’s note: We had a tech mishap during recording, so this week’s episode might sound a little different. We blame Rodney’s lake house ghost (more on that in the SXSW episode). We’ll be back to our usual sound next episode.) -------------------------------- Interested in learning more about Depthfinding and the ocean framework? Head here. Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: "op rhythm": BNW EP. 118 "all work is now meetings": White-Collar Work Is Just Meetings Now, from The Atlantic, 2024 John Madden (the hockey one) John Madden (the football one) John Wooden, UCLA basketball coach Atomic Habits, book by James Clear Sunsama 80/20 rule "5:1 praise to criticism": The Ideal Praise-to-Criticism Ratio, HBR, 2013 action meeting: BNW Ep. 80 with Sam Spurlin retrospective meeting: BNW Ep. 10 with Jordan Husney check-in rounds "don't say hey website": https://nohello.net/en/ inspired by https://www.nohello.com/ "Amazon memo meeting" "silent meeting"

No burying the lede this week: Employee engagement surveys are broken. We expect them to tell us everything about a workplace’s culture—but they often miss the mark, capturing just a sliver of what's going on and usually only symptoms instead of underlying causes. As leaders try to make sense of the data, there’s frequently a lot of smoke chasing, but nobody can tell where the fire is, or if there’s one at all. Add to that employee distrust around anonymity, spun-up initiatives to make changes that never go anywhere, and the fact that most surveys don’t even ask the right questions, and it’s no wonder everyone, from the C-suite to the frontline worker, suspects these surveys do more harm than good. In this episode, Rodney and Sam explore what “engagement” actually means, what organizations should be measuring instead and why, and how to truly understand the health of your organization. -------------------------------- Interesting in hearing more about the zones of the ocean? We've got stuff coming soon! Sign up here for first access: https://theready.ck.page/newvision Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram ------------------------------- Mentioned references: RACI episode: AWWTR Ep. 10 performance management episode: BNW Ep. 56 The Ready's OS Canvas "complication" vs "complexity" "state" vs "trait" Marcus Buckingham

We talk a lot about the importance of emergence—of being more comfortable with being uncomfortable. However, it’s hard to practice what you preach… especially for a podcast with a tight schedule. Normally, when one of two hosts is out of commission, you don’t record. But when this recently happened to us, we asked “How might we?” and took a big ol’ step into the unknown. We’re glad we did, because this week’s guest is Dr. Jason Fox, a self-proclaimed wizard-philosopher, best-selling author, and senior leadership advisor to Fortune 500 companies around the world. In classic wizard-philosopher fashion, he and Sam throw out the script for a far-reaching conversation about the importance of rituals, the roles we play when we’re at work, and how embracing uncertainty is where the magic truly happens. Learn more about Jason: On his website On LinkedIn Read How to Lead A Quest or The Game Changer Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: Game Frame, book by Aaron Dignan Brave New Work, book by Aaron Dignan James Carse, author of Finite and Infinite Games Rodney's "I am CEO vs I hold the role of CEO": AWWTR Ep. 14 Lands of Lorecraft, series of articles by Venkatesh Rao Jevons Paradox "rivalrous dynamics" "multipolar traps" "operating rhythm": BNW Ep. 118 Creativity, Inc., book by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace basilisk "GTD": BNW Ep. 39 with David Allen John Keats and "negative capability" Antifragile, book by Nassim Taleb "Metacrisis" The Ministry for the Future, book by Kim Stanley Robinson Children of Time, series by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Expanse, series by James S.A. Corey The Culture, series by Iain M. Banks

It’s mailbag time! We’ve been diving into specific problem areas every episode—and turns out if you go deep, your audience will go even deeper. Listeners, the questions you send us are getting hard! The ones that feel extra complex and extra tangly? We take those to the airwaves to unravel them live and share our knowledge back with you. On today’s episode, Rodney and Sam tackle another batch of our audience’s thorniest questions. Questions tackled: How to combat business speak in the workplace? How do we use new ways of working and psych safety in an arena that relies on older practices as part of its identity? What are your thoughts on how to divide up total compensation for employees? How much is salary vs health care vs perks? Is there a size threshold to organizations? What do companies do that have gotten too large and it’s hurting their operations? What are the trends around new ways of working, and what motivates organizations to engage with The Ready? How can orgs unlock real collaboration, not just sharing information? Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: Junior Mints Jets Pizza Detroit style pizza Maslow’s hierarchy Span of control "rule of 7" Dunbar’s number W.L. Gore Adaptive strategy ”Hail Mary” pass ”Jamnado”: AWWTR Ep. 7

Planning a corporate workshop or off-site often feels like making a burrito. So many options—and so many opinions on what should go in it. A presentation rodeo on the next quarter’s objectives? Absolutely. Time for a key initiative to get the spotlight in front of the C-suite? Yes, please. Extra scoops of mandatory team-building to strengthen your culture? Why not. Everyone likes fun, right? But when it’s time to actually chow down, it quickly becomes clear you’re dealing with an overstuffed, leaky, $20,000 mess. And everything the workshop was supposed to accomplish? Yeah, that didn’t happen—so you’re back at square one come Monday. In this episode, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore why our workshop eyes are often bigger than our workshop stomachs; standard off-site practices we need to offload; and how to design new experiences that are actually meaningful and productive. Interested in hearing more about the sunshine, twilight, and midnight zones? We’ve got stuff coming soon! Sign up here to get first access. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: spinning top game "Skittles" "meetings episode": AWWTR Ep. 12 "strategy stack": AWWTR Ep. 2 "even/overs": BNW Ep. 44 "essential intent": BNW Ep. 90 with Greg McKeown working agreements: BNW Ep. 103 Topgolf Liberating Structures Ball Point game Brainflakes

It’s an unspoken truth in most knowledge work that summer is a wasted season. From late May to early September, many teams face reduced numbers and it’s nearly impossible to spin up anything new. The director you need approval from? On a cruise. The graphic designer you need for that new marketing campaign? Camping with the kids. When people just aren’t around, it can sometimes be easier to keep the lights on during the vacation relay race and run out the clock until fall. The two most common sense solutions: take vacation yourself or focus on different things when people are away. But actually doing either of those things? Way harder than you’d expect, especially when modern work is tuned to overwhelm mode 24/7/365. In this episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin talk about why summer is where organizational progress goes to die, and how we can stop spending those months doing business as usual and instead live a hot employee summer. Interested in learning more about Depthfinding and the ocean framework? Head here. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: "Vacation OS episode": BNW Ep. 142 "async episode": AWWTR Ep. 7 "medieval peasant vacation time": all articles point back to Juliet B. Schor's 1993 "The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure" "workshop episode": will be released Monday, July 22nd! "work as a paycheck discussion": AWWTR Ep. 11

The world is changing faster than ever. But leadership teams seem a little… stagnant. Sure, there’s plenty of changeover as one CEO is replaced by another, or as new C-suite roles pop up, but the way leadership teams operate is largely unchanged from the 1950s. That model? It’s antithetical to the change that’s needed for the rest of an organization to become more adaptable and resilient. In this episode, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore the ways in which leadership teams are holding their organizations back from the future. They’ll dig into how leaders can shift from defense to offense, set the right expectations for their teams, and recognize what their “real work” actually is. Interested in learning more about Depthfinding and the ocean framework? Head here. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: "totchos" management science servant leadership The Ready's OS Canvas Functional Analytic Psychotherapy Made Simple, by Gareth Holman Gareth's podcast episode: BNW Ep. 5 with Gareth Holman "Closing Time" by Semisonic Mural

It seems everybody’s up in arms about meetings these days. “There’s too many! They ones we have suck! We have meetings to prepare for other meetings! They keep me from doing my actual job!” We get it, and we hear you. In fact, between BNW and our current show, we’ve devoted 9 episodes to meetings! What more could there be to say in a tenth? Turns out, a ton. There’s so much intertwined with modern meeting culture that we’re often doomed to failure before we even get in the room. From the trap of the status meeting to leaders hogging all the stage time, Rodney and Sam dissect where most meetings go wrong and give you the tools to rewrite the script for how to start holding meetings that matter. If you’re looking to make your next meeting better, make it a huddle! Learn more about how huddles can bring side-by-side collaboration and creativity to your remote teams at Slack.com. Interested in learning more about Depthfinding and the ocean framework? Head here. Prefer to watch rather than listen? Check out the extended live cut over on Youtube. Want future of work insights and experiments you can try? Sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery! LinkedIn Instagram Youtube We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Mentioned references 1:1 meetings: BNW Ep. 19 with Michael Bungay Stanier; AWWTR Ep. 4 retrospective meetings: BNW Ep. 10 with Jordan Husney OS Coffee meetings: BNW Ep. 144 an operating rhythm of meetings: BNW Ep. 118 action meetings: BNW Ep. 80 with Sam Spurlin "RACI episode": AWWTR Ep. 10

In the nearly five years since launching this podcast, our inbox has received one type of question more than any other: “If I’m trying to change a system that just doesn’t want to change, how do I keep going? When should I admit defeat and leave?” As people who function as “professional resistance” in organizations all over the world, this questions always hits us hard—because change itself is hard and often can lead to burnout. So we’re finally having this conversation out in the open to tackle why the people who care the most are the ones who leave. Rodney and Sam dig into why burnout is so common among change agents, how to identify signs of meaningful progress, and when individuals and leaders should see the writing on the wall and throw in the towel. Oh, and we're on Instagram now! Check us out there for fun behind the scenes stuff and extra things you won't find anywhere else. To see the video version of this episode, head on over to Youtube. Mentioned references: "orthogonal" "wasta" "emotional labor of change": AWWTR Ep. 6 "Sisyphean" "the maze and the mouse" "see through The Matrix" Mission-Based Team: FoHR Ep. 1 "the yips" Rick Rubin EMDR Therapy Basecamp scandal: BNW Ep. 71 Want future of work insights and experiments you can try? Sign up for our newsletter. We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.

The RACI matrix (as well its cousins DACI, DARCI, etc.) aims to neatly categorize stakeholders into roles—who’s responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for every decision your team makes. We spend a lot of time filling out those RACI boxes, because it’s supposed to give us order and predictability—a single source of truth for all future choices. We’re all about achieving real clarity, but we often see RACIs treated as a one-and-done exercise, rather than something that evolves with a team. People end up in the “R” or “A” space without having the actual authority to execute a role, and then we make those roles the fall guy for a system never set up for them to succeed. In this episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore the good intentions that lead us to make RACIs in the first place, where they fall flat, and why decision making is always more complicated than what can be captured on a chart. Interested in learning more about Depthfinding and the ocean framework? Head here. Mentioned references: Responsibility assignment matrixes (such as RACI, DACI, and DARCI) DARE model MacGuffin DRI (Directly Responsible Individual) SPOA (Single Point of Accountability) "traditional consulting ep": AWWTR Ep. 8 "future tension": BNW Ep. 16 with Thomas Thomison "scenario planning": BNW Ep. 34 with Kevin Kelly Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter. We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.

“Ask Us Anything” episodes were a Brave New Work tradition, and we knew they were going to live on in this next new chapter of the show. What we didn’t know was how much harder the questions would be this time around! Turns out, after nearly 200 shows our audience is pretty sharp and asking some very specific questions. On today’s episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin look at what arrived in our inbox and tackle our listeners thorniest questions…and even tease a little something coming on the horizon. Sign up to become the first to hear when the thing Rodney teased in this episode is live! Check out the extended live video version of this episode on our Youtube channel or shoot us a message if you'd like a transcript. Questions answered in this episode: How do you give critical feedback without being seen as a threat? Any thoughts on orgs moving to eliminate excessive layers of management? What's a workplace project you thought would be easy but turned out to be hard, and vice versa? What's a starting point for orgs that want to work with someone like The Ready? Can you have an episode about the disconnect between senior leadership and where the work happens? Mentioned references: "high and low umbrella" "org debt" "how might we?" Chesterton's Fence Bayer's elimination of managers Humanocracy: BNW Ep. 47 with Michele Zanini Haier's elimination of managers The Ready's OS Canvas Liberating Structures: BNW Ep. 49 with Keith McCandless "anti-pattern" We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.

For decades, traditional consulting (think “management” or “strategy” varieties now synonymous with the Big Three) has been a go-to move for organizations looking for a shake up. Need a bulletproof vision for the future or a new org restructuring that’ll win over the C-suite and shareholders? You can’t beat their analytical prowess, strategy design, and slick presentation. But too often clients wind up stuck with expensive change plans they can’t execute on their own. Without real coaching, structure, and experienced guidance, these efforts stand a high chance of fizzling out and collecting dust on a shelf. Facing that reality time and time again lead The Ready to study and understand how organizations actually work and evolve. Yes, we’re also consultants—but the processes, outcomes, and experiences we create differ greatly. And that can lead to a whole bunch of confusion. In this episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin delve into the stark differences between traditional consulting and how future-of-work firms like The Ready operate. Because not all consulting is created equal. Prefer to watch instead of listen? Check out the extended video cut of this episode, with even more Rodney and Sam moments, on our Youtube channel. Mentioned references: VUCA "participatory change": BNW Ep. 43 "cross-functional teaming": Future of HR Ep. 1 "strategy pancakes episode": AWWTR Ep. 2 We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.

For decades, face-to-face working has been the default way of working. Launching a new project; untangling an OS problem; updating a team on progress made in the last week—our classic go-to for all those different kinds of work is blocking off time on a calendar. When in doubt, just corral everybody into a room, real or virtual. But this “one-size-fits-all” approach is coming up short as work evolves. And while almost everyone dreads having a meeting-stuffed calendar, ideas for what to try instead can be in short supply. Plus, when 85% of leaders find it hard to trust that their employees are being productive, async work can look like a risky free-for-all. In this episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore how our attachment to synchronous work is hampering performance and why asynchronous work is a mindset, not a tool stack. Looking for other ways to asynchronously enjoy this episode? Check out our Youtube channel for the live video version, or email [email protected] to get a transcript for reading. Mentioned references: Loom Rodney's article on org debt: How to Tackle the Biggest Threat to Your Team's Growth Red, amber, green (RAG status) Tanisi's podcast episode: BNW Ep. 88 with Tanisi Pooran Miro Pitch Pomodoro method We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.

Every time something changes at work, someone’s bound to be upset. Digital transformations take resources from analog teams; restructuring a department can take authority from one group and give it to another; removing a step from a workflow can eliminate a role altogether. Any change, including those meant to make things better, will create winners and losers and that’s bound to kick up a hornet’s nest of feelings. Here’s the puzzling part: Despite years of research showing us that surfacing and processing these feelings is key to unlocking a company’s ability to be adapt, many workplaces often treat emotions as taboo. They’re messy, unpredictable, and nobody wants to touch them—even when ignoring them does more harm that good. Playing pretend isn't getting us anywhere. In this episode of At Work with The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore why we have negative feelings about big feelings and how it’s holding our organizations back from evolving into the places they could be. We're on Youtube! An extended video version of this episode (with extra Rodney and Sam moments) is available to watch there. Mentioned references: Tabea's Meet The Ready post "unconsciously protecting the status quo": Immunity to Change, 2009 book by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey "protection state": On Point of Relationship podcast episode with Frederic Laloux "complicated vs complex": Brave New Work keynote The unpaid emotional labor expected of women at work, 2024 BBC article What Rodney said at SXSW last year: BNW 162: Live from SXSW with Brian Elliott Love the show? Leave us a review and share this episode with your coworkers! We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox twice a month? Sign up for our newsletter. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].

Ask anyone about organizational silos and they’re bound to tell you they’re bad. When we run Tension and Practice exercises with clients, “We work in silos” often shows up as Tension No. 1 holding a team back. Yet like a moth to a flame, we keep gravitating toward them, building walls that are higher and more insurmountable than ever before. What gives? In this episode of At Work with The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin dive into the bottomless ball pit that is organizational silos, exploring why we think they’ll solve all our problems, how they’re actually sabotaging organizations from being effective, and why trying to build bridges between them (rather than designing something new from the ground up) is one of the worst things we can do. Mentioned references: "Ready for Anything structure episode": BNW Ep. 23 "Hollywood Model episode": FoHR Miniseries, Ep. 1 The Ready's Tension & Practice Cards "the previous episode": AWWTR Ep. 4 value stream mapping Spotify chapters and guilds video Sam promised "IDM consent-based governance": BNW Ep. 43 "movies and studios" "retro": BNW Ep. 10 with Jordan Husney We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox twice a month? Sign up for our newsletter. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.

You can’t throw a stone on LinkedIn without hitting at least one post about return-to-office policies. From CEOs to employees, from thought leaders to maybe even your mayor, everyone is taking a side, doubling down, and yelling into the void as loud as they can. Where people work is being treated as the most important issue—the existential sea change that will either make or break a company. In reality, the RTO debate is the superficial fight we have instead of addressing the deeper, tougher, and way more complex issues that really matter (think questions around purpose, trust, "productivity", and communication). And here’s a fun fact: You can’t work well anywhere (in person or remotely) if confusion and misalignment is swirling around your company. In this week’s episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin unpack why we’re still debating where people work, what that obsession costs our organizations, and how to start breaking free of the cycle. Mentioned references: BNW’s first RTO/hybrid work episode: Ep. 79 Erin Grau’s Fortune article “Flexible work is feminist” "Theory Y" Brian Elliott's previous appearances on our show: BNW Ep. 129, BNW Ep. 162, and FoHR Miniseries Ep. 9 "Return-to-Office Mandates" from Mark Ma and Yuye Ding of the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business "Lessons Learned: 1,000 Days of Distributed at Atlassian" "Basecamp": BNW Ep. 4 with Dan Kim Mural Miro Children of Time Previous episodes about retreats and in-person gatherings: BNW Ep. 64, BNW Ep. 82 with Lindsay Caplan, and BNW Ep. 94 We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox twice a month? Sign up for our newsletter. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].

1:1s (or one-on-ones) are a ubiquitous part of our daily working lives. These two-person meetings (a manager + a direct report = a classic 1:1) are meant to be a space for diving into individual challenges, fostering trust, building stronger relationships, and providing a forum for feedback and recognition. When designed with intention, they can be great. But at some point, 1:1s jumped the shark. Today, we see more and more companies with an overwhelming “1:1 culture,” where calendars are packed with a million two-person meetings (on top of lots of other meetings), leaving precious little time to get work done. Worse still, most 1:1s include our worst meeting habits: over-indexing on status updates, information hoarding, and bureaucratic theater. What gives? In this episode of At Work with The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin meet one-on-one (see what we did there?) to explore why 1:1 cultures take hold in organizations, the cost that comes with doing them poorly, how to rely on them less, and how to start making the ones you do keep count. Mentioned references: “Tear and share roll” “op rhythm”: BNW Ep. 118 A Beautiful Mind, movie from 2001 “default stack of pancakes” : At Work With The Ready Ep. 2 “Action Meeting”: BNW Ep. 80 with Sam Spurlin “retrospectives”: BNW Ep. 10 with Jordan Husney “Donut meetings” “Ali’s 1:1 article” “Lean coffee/OS Coffee”: BNW Ep. 144 We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox twice a month? Sign up for our newsletter. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.

It's January! New beginnings? Ambitious plans? Giant commitments to change? They’re on everyone’s mind. Companies included—since now’s the time when glossy PowerPoint decks are so eagerly rolled out. And those PowerPoints? They’re always brimming with promise for the year ahead. But there's a glaring disconnect between those slides (all 73 of them) and eventual success we often don’t address. Because how frequently do those meticulously crafted plans pan out? Does the new agenda account for the day-to-day running of the company? Is the plan flexible enough to handle economic curveballs? (We remember 2020, right?) The reality is that “traditional strategy” often resembles New Year's resolutions; they’re imbued with good intentions but ultimately destined for disappointment. In this episode of "At Work with The Ready," (new year, new podcast name!) co-hosts Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore our deep-rooted conditioning toward conventional planning methods (despite their shortcomings), share what a more complexity conscious approach to strategy looks like, and give you moves to start busting up the annual cycles of frustration, stagnancy, and finger-pointing. Mentioned references: "Getting Things Done and David Allen": Brave New Work Ep. 39 with David Allen "90% of leaders admit strategies fail based on implementation": Closing The Gap: Designing and Delivering a Strategy That Works - The Economist's Intelligence Unit Essential Intent Japanese pancakes, straight from Sam's Instagram algorithm Even/overs: Brave New Work Ep. 44 Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) Looping Red Teaming "Scenario planning": Brave New Work Ep. 34 with Kevin Kelly Adjacent possible Op rhythm "mango sorbet": Brave New Work Ep. 163 Check-In Round Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox twice a month? Sign up for our newsletter. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected] Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.

Whether it’s in front of clients or in front of a mic, we talk about change all day long. Having fewer, better meetings; learning to productively disagree; overhauling and evolving the HR function; exploring four-day work weeks—the podcast has covered miles and miles of transformational ground in 4 years. However we don’t often talk about how we’ve changed. And after six seasons and 162 episodes, how could we not be different? We used the show’s hiatus to reflect on where we’ve been and where we want to go—and we reached some bittersweet conclusions. But if we resisted change and all the learning and joy that can come with it, we wouldn’t be The Ready. In this very special episode, Aaron Dignan, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin talk about Brave New Work’s origin story, what they’ve learned making all these episodes (it was 162, right?), and what the show’s future may hold. Trust us, you won’t want to miss it. This episode was recorded with video, so you can see our smiling faces on The Ready’s Youtube channel. Mentioned references: Imoyoshi, home of the purple sweet potato soft serve Ira Glass The Ready's Spotify Wrapped LinkedIn post "Pop up and do less" scene from Forgetting Sarah Marshall Supermanage, from Murmur Labs The File Drawer Fields of Work The Future of HR miniseries "the Panera days": The Ready's first "office" was in a Panera near Bryant Park in NYC! Hear more about The Ready's early days in BNW Ep. 158. ------------------ Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected] Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com

In July, we began exploring what HR’s current reality looked like and how People teams could evolve into a better, brighter, more adaptive future. Thirteen episodes, three guest interviews, a record breaking AUA, and lots of unexpected hot dog talk later, we’ve reached the end. And while endings can be bittersweet, this miniseries, proudly co-hosted by two org design nerds, is transforming that feeling into a sweet retrospective. In today’s final Future of HR episode, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin look back on the three months they spent in the deep end of the HR pool and talk about they’ve learned, what’s surprised them, and where their opinions have shifted. Plus, we pull out all the stops with one of the funniest check-in rounds of the series and a little something extra at the end as a thank you for tuning in. Buckle up, brave listeners. Because this isn't really an ending; it's a launchpad for all the exciting adventures HR is truly ready for. Mentioned references: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971 film version) Kids Incorporated Kids Incorporated theme song (we listened to it, even though Sam wouldn't) The Boxcar Children School of Rock -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: When you were a child, what TV show or movie do you wish you could have been a part of in real life? 05:04 Goals of the FoHR miniseries 12:44 Reception of the miniseries from HR folks 16:51 How Rodney and Sam’s views have changed (or not) since episode 1 25:48 Convictions that are stronger now than when we started 29:52 Final takeaways: If you remember nothing else, remember this one thing 32:38 What’s next on your FoHR journey 34:42 Thank-you 35:31 Blooper + humor reel

HR departments struggle to be all things to all stakeholders while delivering on the most strategic priorities of the business. But when we dig into the OS of HR, we find a resource-constrained function that contains multitudes. Long range people priorities are deemed negotiable, HR’s domain expertise isn’t respected, and the function acts as a service-provider when it should be guiding the organization's evolution. This week, Rodney Evans sits down with HR industry giant Josh Bersin to discuss his book Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations and dig into how HR must transform itself to enable a shift to more profitable, resilient, human organizations. They explore what makes a company “irresistible,” the tidal wave that is AI, and the critical role HR plays in shifting a workplace’s culture. (Editor’s note: This episode was recorded in July, so many things Josh talks about as “upcoming” are already out in the world! Look below for a full list of current references.) Learn more about Josh Bersin on his website, LinkedIn, and Twitter (X). Learn more about Josh’s book here. Learn more about the Josh Bersin Company at their website and explore the courses offered in Josh Bersin Academy. Mentioned references: Josh Bersin’s Systemic HR model Microsoft research about employees thinking they are productive vs what their leaders think Study about managers feeling more stress than employees W. Edwards Deming The AI episode of Josh’s podcast Rodney refers to: AI Deep Dive: Three Generations of HR Tech AI Solutions in the Market (May 15 2023) -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: What’s something that you’re trying to learn right now? 03:33 Story behind the origins of Josh’s book 09:58 The shift behind “Coach, Not Boss” 16:17 Concept of “success” in Irresistible companies vs traditional companies 21:20 How irresistible companies are transforming their HR departments 30:11 HR leader Interview tips to identify an irresistible company 33:49 HR and AI and how to think about it 40:23 Where HR should start engaging with AI 43:04 Wrap up: Share this episode with your HR friends!

“Ask Us Anything” episodes are some of the most fun to make, so we knew we had to include one in our Future of HR miniseries. In the spirit of a well-meaning (but often toothless) HR feedback box, all the questions are anonymous. On today’s episode, Rodney and Sam look at what arrived in our mailbag and try to solve listener questions. But did they beat the Brave New Work record of answering more than four questions in a single episode? You’ll have to tune in to find out. Some of today’s questions include: Will Mission-Based Teams make Platform Teams feel “less than”? How do I make HR my career without any formal training? How can we change our HR department’s perception within our own company? How do I identify a toxic boss or workplace during interviews? Will Agile HR ever be a thing?!? Mentioned references: Liberty Belle, from Glow Tobias Fünke, from Arrested Development Ron Swanson, from Parks and Rec "Jets and the Sharks": Westside Story "Contracting episode" : FoHR Miniseries, Episode 3 Jason Beck, PhD, Partner at The Ready -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: What is a favorite Halloween costume of yours from the past? 03:21 Question 1 - How do you get Finance and Strategy teams to collaborate in Level 4? 07:17 Question 2 - How does HR engage with higher FoHR levels without making Platform Teams feel “less than”? How do you plan budgets for this? 13:53 Question 3 - How can we change the current perception of HR within an organization? 16:22 Question 4 - How can I sell the value of creating more transparency and inviting more non-management team members to participate in this? 21:45 Question 5 - How do you get a leadership team to truly work together if their remits are very different? 26:43 Question 6 - We’re having trouble identifying our shared work, often popping in and out of silos. Can you help us get unstuck? 30:53 Question 7 - How do you enable collaboration and drive accountability in a fast-paced matrix company? 33:47 Question 8 - We have a traditional HR team with defensive processes. How can we start to shift that into a service mindset? Will Agile HR ever be a thing? 37:55 Question 9 - I have lots of experience in operational leadership and company culture roles, but no formal training. What should I do if I want to make this my career? 41:39 Question 10 - I’m working in a toxic work environment with a bad manager and I didn’t see this during my interview. What questions should I ask in future interviews to uncover this? 46:27 Wrap Up: Share this episode with your HR friends!

Spooky season is here, so it seems fitting to share a horror story. Because there’s a monster draining time and energy from most of our organizations. This sneaky shapeshifter can take any form, show up at any time, and is one of the more destructive, chaotic forces we’re forced to deal with at work. We’re talking about the monster that is org debt—and HR has been trapped in a maze with it for decades. Worse still, the maze’s towering walls and serpentine corridors come from outdated policies and processes HR largely built themselves. And it’s historically been impossible for many leaders to find the time to clean up org debt—or even know where to look for it. In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Today on episode 10, they help you learn how to identify org debt, shine a light on its hiding places, measure what it’s really costing us, and start eliminating it from your organization for good. Mentioned references: The Ready's video about Org Debt Marie Kondo Murmur Meg's episode about centralization/decentralization: FoHR Miniseries Ep. 3 Zapier "MBT" (Mission-based Team) "MVP" (Minimum Viable Product) Ali Randel, partner at The Ready Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, authors of Humanocracy, where the org debt annual cost is attributed -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: Do you remember the first CD you ever bought, and if so, what was it? 03:20 Intro to org debt 06:41 Why companies struggle getting rid of it 13:36 Clear examples of org debt in HR 20:10 Why org debt is such an issue now 25:51 Stopping the cycle of org debt and creating capacity 33:05 Nipping new org debt in the bud 35:14 Psychological behaviors behind types of org debt 41:43 Financial costs of org debt 42:45 Wrap up: Leave us a review and share this episode with your HR friends!

We’re living in a data-rich time. Searching for a study or report on, say, the benefits of a three-day return-to-office policy? You’re mere clicks away from convincing arguments with shiny graphics and spicy pull-quotes to post on LinkedIn. But there’s also never been a worse time for data, with a glut of conflicting information being confidently shared from unreliable sources. Most frustrating, even if you find all the trustworthy data needed to craft a watertight argument for burning your performance management program to the ground, all the numbers in the world don’t seem to be enough to change a single executive’s rigid opinion, let alone an entire C-suite. HR has never had more data at their fingertips—so why does that data often feel useless? To explore this data dilemma, we brought back friend-of-the-pod Brian Elliott to unpack what’s stopping HR departments (and let’s be real, most organizations writ large) from turning this mountain of information into meaningful action. In this episode, Rodney and Brian talk about: The top headaches facing HR leaders around the globe Why change efforts for problems with clear supporting data often fail to get moving How to source and interpret external information, as well as gather it from within your company How to meaningfully engage with entrenched opinions and make change Learn more about Brian and what he’s up to on LinkedIn. Mentioned references: Future Forum Muriel Bowser, mayor of DC inaugural address (actually said in her third, not her second) Helena Gottschling, Former CHRO of Royal Bank Canada Tsedal Neely, Harvard Business School professor and author Future of HR AI episodes: Part 1 & Part 2 Brainwriting eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) Erin Figueroa, former VP, Operations at Slack Dawn Sharifan, former SVP, People at Slack Nadia Rawlinson, former CPO at Slack Boston Consulting Group Future of HR Hebba Youssef episode: Episode 6 -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: Who is your more interesting relative? 03:35 What Brian’s been up to since SXSW 04:58 Top of mind concerns Brian hears from CPOs/CHROs: #1 - Burnout, #2 - Return to Office 11:09 #3 - Generative AI 16:09 HR leaders feeling “not ready” and “too busy” to change 18:52 You can’t be a strategic partner if you don’t want to/can’t change 20:31 What keeps people from acting on data and research that contradicts the status quo 28:16 Timeline and subtlety of change and the temptation to snap back 31:06 Organizational metrics Brian keeps an eye on 33:35 Cross-functional solutions to data driven problems 39:08 C-suite not supporting HR when they do bring a data backed case for change 41:59 Sourcing and interpreting external and internal data 45:13 How HR can combat entrenched opinions with data 48:17 Wrap up: Leave us a review!

Was it ever possible for our first AI episode to not be a two-parter? Probably not. So we’re back today with more thoughts on AI and the Future of HR. In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Last week, they dove into the AI pool to begin filtering out the noise about how this coming wave will impact all of us. Today on episode 9, Rodney and Sam keep swimming around the deep end. Which reminds us: If you haven’t yet listened to last week’s episode, do that first for some important context (and jokes)! On Part 2, they discuss: How AI tools could help HR finally make progress on historically un-winnable battles What automation really means for most jobs and how we perceive our value and identity in the workplace Experiments you can run on your own if your company isn’t already playing around with AI Mentioned references: "Meg's episode" (discussion actually takes place in Hebba's episode, starting at around 44:27) HR's new future of work skill episodes: Part 1, and Part 2 ChatGPT Midjourney -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: You’re going for a walk through the forest and see a big rock and flip it over. What are you hoping to find? 02:37 HR’s historically unwinnable battles AI will help with 08:53 Facing fears over your job being automated 14:14 Being “busy” and “productive” as avoidance to doing real work 17:40 Experiments to run on your own, independent of your company 21:15 Wrap Up: Share this episode with your HR friends!

One midnight scroll through LinkedIn is all it takes to be overwhelmed with AI stories and hot takes. There’s a massive amount of confusion, apprehension, excitement, and just general noisiness to make sense of, some which is created by AI tools themselves. But as more and more AI-powered solutions promising to revolutionize HR flood the market—and as more and more employees spiral with worry that the’ll be automated out of their jobs—how are we supposed to get caught up on some AI basics? Let alone actually use these tools at work? In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Today on episode 8, they explore how AI will help the most advanced HR teams move from Level 4 to Level 5 of our maturity model—and how it can be a positive force for change if we’re asking the right questions and trying to solve the right problems. In fact, Rodney and Sam had so much to digest, this episode became a two-parter. Today on Part 1, they dig into: How cultural takes on AI are already falling into old patterns Rodney and Sam’s own personal AI journeys How to start small and begin your AI exploration in a Mission-Based Team The AI-powered upgrades that take HR from Level 4 to Level 5 of our maturity model Mentioned references: Oops! All Berries (the Cap'n Crunch cereal variant) "Betamax vs VHS" ChatGPT MidJourney Law of requisite variety ("Ashby's Law") MBTs (Mission-Based Teams) Early AI research into Go and Starcraft The DAO arc: BNW Eps. 105-107, 109-111, 113-115, and 124-125 -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------- 00:00 Introduction & Check-In: What is your favorite evidence that you have had a successful time off? 04:05 Level setting for the AI conversation 08:57 Rodney and Sam’s personal AI adventures 14:16 Exploring AI in Mission-Based Teams 20:01 Knowledge barrier to begin experimenting is low 22:12 AI and counterintuitive moves 25:41 AI’s role in the move from Level 4 to Level 5 30:59: Impact on human beings from atomized marketplace roles 32:40 AI in industrial-era org vs AI in evolutionary org 35:59 Wrap up: leave us a review and share with your HR friends

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: A company hires a change agent (think anyone with “org effectiveness,” “change management,” or “strategy and efficiency” in their title) with promises of how they’ll be the one to revolutionize the company’s future. Several months later, the change agent realizes the company is fighting them at every turn. Despite all the talk, these roles often have minimal authority and autonomy, so those lofty dreams of change? They end up unfulfilled. But for HR departments heading toward Level 4, The Marketplace, of our maturity model, these roles need to step off the sidelines and into the game as Market Designers. In this reimagined role, they facilitate a dynamic network of talent and Mission-Based Teams that enables HR to get after its thorniest and most valuable business objectives. And this transformation isn’t one-and-done: Newly empowered Market Designers continually change and evolve the company to meet new moments and challenges 🚀 In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Today on episode 7, they explore why Market Designers are ready to make the change their predecessors couldn’t realize, what their relationship with HR Business Coaches looks like, and how they’re instrumental for building the HR marketplace of the future. Mentioned references: Valve, the video game developer Haier, the appliance manufacturer “Chapter of market designers” “Volun-told” DAOs Brave New Work’s episodes on Talent Marketplaces: BNW Ep. 160 & Ep. 161 -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: What’s an award you received as a child you were prouder of than you probably should have been? 04:26 Why change agents have trouble changing the organization 07:43 Changing the org chart first usually isn’t the right move 12:25 Day-to-day of a Market Designer 15:11 Transferring skills from consultants to Market Designers 18:15 Difference between HR Business Coach and Market Designer 20:29 How many Market Designers does a company have? 24:17 Future of CPO/CHRO in Level 4 and beyond 27:56 What a healthy HR talent marketplace looks like 33:26 Sam’s adventures into DAOs and unregulated marketplaces 38:32 Why HR is ideal for a talent marketplace 40:54 Wrap Up: Send us your burning HR questions!

Since last fall, we’ve spoken/joked/laughed/cried with hundreds of HR leaders and change makers about the Future of HR and the industry’s evolutionary tipping point. And despite spending time with many inspiring CPOs and CHROs, there’s none quite like Hebba Youssef. Along with being Workweek’s Chief People Officer, she’s also the author of “I Hate It Here”, a no holds barred newsletter unpacking HR’s thorniest problems and putting into words what everyone’s thinking but too afraid to say. Plus, her GIF game? Unparalleled. This week, on episode 6 of our miniseries, Rodney Evans sits down with Hebba to talk about how “I Hate It Here” came to be, how a role often tasked with putting out one fire after another can stay focused on strategy, and why being CPO is the hardest and loneliest job in any organization. Learn more about Hebba Youssef: On LinkedIn Subscribe to the “I Hate It Here” newsletter and listen to her podcast. Join the Safe Space community. -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: What’s something that you love that is kind of embarrassing? 04:20 Origins of “I Hate It Here” 09:36 What resonates the most in the “I Hate It Here” community? 10:32 Sources of burnout in HR 15:58 Balancing strategy with the day-to-day as CPO 21:23 HR’s martyrdom complex 23:48 Isolation and loneliness in HR 30:25 The CEO-CPO relationship 34:52 HR as the organization’s doctor 40:09 Hebba’s top HR mission to solve 46:03 Wrap up: Leave us a review!

The role of HR Business Partner is often a tale of two experiences. On the one hand, HRBPs are some of the most empathetic and passionate people you’ll ever meet. On the other hand, they’re stuck on the hamster wheel of busywork, bouncing from crisis to crisis without the authority to prioritize their energy—and without the respect from leadership to make a real difference. Look up “burnout” in the dictionary and odds are you’ll find a picture of an HRBP. In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Today on episode 5, they explore how this critical role took a hard left turn from it’s intended purpose, what its future-of-work glow-up (hello, HR Business Coach) could look like, and how HR Business Coaches + Mission-Based Teaming = unlimited potential. References mentioned: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Episode 1481 "Talks about Competition" (1981). "How People Make Crayons" begins at 05:20. American Gladiators Dave Ulrich, of the Ulrich HR model -------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website. Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. -------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: What was your favorite show to watch as a small child? 04:05 Why the HRBP role isn’t working 10:41 Why Future of HR requires rethinking the HRBP 12:53 Skill overlap between HRBP and HR Business Coach 21:03 Shifting from “service mindset” to “product mindset” 25:07 HR Business Coach’s point of view 27:20 Recap of Level 3 and what’s changed 29:26 Who does the HR Business Coach report to? 34:55 Wrap up: Send us your burning HR questions!

In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Last week, Rodney and Sam teamed up with Future of HR team member Meg Saxby to explore our new maturity model, assessment, and the six key capabilities every HR department needs to learn, strengthen, and evolve to succeed in the future of work. Today, on episode 4, Rodney, Sam, and Meg finish that two-parter. Which reminds us: If you haven’t yet listened to last week’s episode, do that first for a 101 overview of our maturity model. This episode focuses on the capabilities needed to succeed in Levels 3-5 (and our secret bonus level): Facilitation and Future of Work Coaching Solution Design and Market Management Data Literacy and Automation --------------------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. --------------------------- 00:00 Intro and Check-In: What is a language you would like to speak (or speak better than your currently do) and why? 03:03 Why these are Varsity 2.0 level skills 04:31 Key Capability 4: Facilitation and Future of Work Coaching 08:04 What Future of Work coaching looks like in practice 11:34 Key Capability 5: Solution Design and Market Management 15:31 Why solution design is such a big shift for HR 18:18 Key Capability 6: Data Literacy and Automation 19:56 Big potential wins for automation in HR right now 23:32 Impact of AI on capacity planning 24:58 Holding our predictions lightly 26:51 Wrap up: Send us your burning hot HR questions!

After decades of dealing with stagnant practices, burnout, and competing agendas, HR might be tempted to trade in the old family minivan for a flashy new race car and just put the pedal to the metal. A car’s a car…right? While we’re big proponents of “start by starting”, without the skill, confidence, and ability to take tight turns or use the paddle shifters (you’re still with us, right?), you’ll run into problems. Building fluency and comfort with the fundamentals is how your HR team can level and go full speed ahead. In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Today, on episode 3, Rodney and Sam are joined by Future of HR team member Meg Saxby for part one of a two-part conversation. They dig into our new maturity model, our assessment, and the six key capabilities every HR department needs to learn, strengthen, and evolve to succeed in the future of work. Welcome to the Future of HR. This episode focuses on the three capabilities necessary for reaching Level 3: Adaptability and Experimentation Contracting and Communications User Design and Decentralization ----------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. ----------------- 00:00 Intro and Check-In: Your 20-year old self comes to work. How would we know? 04:27 Purpose of the Future of HR Assessment 07:21 Importance of the Key Capabilities 10:14 Key Capability 1: Adaptability and Experimentation 11:23 Key Capability 2: Contracting and Communications 13:42 What makes contracting hard to learn 17:40 Using contracting to combat burnout 24:27 What good structured communications look like 26:22 Key Capability 3: User Experience and Decentralization 28:37 Taking UX seriously in HR 32:00 Using MVPs to fuel decentralization 34:08 Balancing decentralization and risk mitigation 38:42 Wrap up: Send us your burning hot HR questions!

One of the toughest work tasks? Convince someone else to back your idea. And if you’re in HR, it’s exceptionally tough to get buy-in from other functions. Maybe your coworkers think they know better because you just handle “people” stuff—and how hard is that? Maybe the CFO will only open the company chest for something with ROI they can track. Or maybe the CEO is hyper-concerned with legacy or the company’s stock price and doesn’t see the value in engaging with your employee engagement survey results. If you’re wondering why so many HR change efforts fail before they even start, look no further than missing buy-in. In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Today, on episode 2, they discuss why it’s so difficult for HR leaders to get widespread buy-in, how to make the case for change, and how to manage complex relationships with the CEO and CFO from the jump. Welcome to the Future of HR. ----------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. ---------------- 00:00 Intro and Check-In: What is your most embarrassing injury? 03:36 Why buy-in is so difficult in HR 08:13 Building your case with business outcomes 12:46 Convincing your HR team 21:11 Getting the CFO and finance to the table 27:50 Dealing with the CEO 34:27 Hot take: Is Buy-in an excuse? 36:41 Wrap up: Send us your burning hot HR questions!

It’s no secret things haven’t been working in HR for… a while. When you include the last few years of navigating a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, dysfunctional hybrid work policies, rounds of layoffs, and unprecedented economic churn, it’s easy to see HR has been pushed to a breaking point. Human Resources? They feel anything but human. Trapped between competing mandates to mitigate risk while also transforming office culture and the employee experience, it’s no wonder HR can’t steward the change it so desperately wants to. But what if there was a way out? In this new miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can actually become more resilient, efficient, and equitable. Today, on episode 1, Rodney and Sam talk about why HR’s time to shine is right now, what HR leaders around the world are telling us, and preview the goodies to come on in future episodes. Welcome to the Future of HR. ----------------- Learn more about The Future of HR at our website Curious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out! Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at [email protected]. Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. ----------------- 00:00 Aaron and Rodney intro 02:47 Welcome to the show & Check-In: What’s your favorite physical activity or exercise? 06:19 Why HR and why right now? 12:20 The Future of HR in a nutshell 18:35 How to find and identify your first missions 26:03 The pill in the hotdog - Mission Based Teams (MBTs) and new ways of working 29:24 The right people, on the right team, in the right environment 32:44 Developing the FoHR 35:25 Rodney’s learnings from the development process 38:27 What’s coming up in future episodes 38:53 Wrap Up: Send us your HR questions!

Has it really been almost three and a half years since this wild ride of a podcast began? We’ve been experimenting as we go (remember Rodney’s NPR-host impersonations in the early shows?)—and after releasing roughly one episode a week throughout the entirety of pandemic, we figured it was finally time we learned how to take a proper break and give BNW some TLC. So, we’re going on hiatus and won’t be making new episodes for a while. But that just means it’s a great time to revisit our back catalog. All those hot topics swirling around the news right now (burnout, dysfunctional hybrid work models, toxic hiring practices, you name it) are things we’ve been all over since 2019—and you’ve been right there with us. Some of these conversations might be a few years old, but they’re just as relevant as ever. Plus, now you can check out our Youtube channel, where we’re uploading older episodes weekly. They’re complete with updated show notes, links, transcripts, and video chapters so you can jump to your favorite episode moments. Until we’re back, please stay in touch by following The Ready on Twitter or Linkedin, and by emailing us at [email protected]. We can’t wait to hear what you get up to while we’re gone. Now go change something.

Sometimes, Rodney and Aaron stop by other people’s podcasts to nerd out on the hits we know and love: new ways of working, self-management, breaking down the binary between chaos and bureaucracy, the future of work—the list goes on and on. So today, we’re actually bringing one of those awesome conversations right to your ears. Aaron recently joined Morra Aarons-Mele on her show, The Anxious Achiever, for an epic chat about mental health, the workplace, and disrupting the systems that can reward and reinforce unhealthy behavior. We hope you enjoy the exchange and we’ll return with a fresh episode of Brave New Work soon. To tune in for more episodes of Morra’s show, head to her website or search for "The Anxious Achiever" wherever you get your podcasts. ------- This episode originally aired on October 26th, 2022 on The Anxious Achiever with Morra Aarons-Mele, presented by LinkedIn. Aaron Dignan is founder of The Ready - an organizational transformation and coaching practice. He focuses on how to prioritize adaptivity and autonomy over efficiency and control - which you can pretty quickly extrapolate into upsides for mental health of workers and leaders. He’s also the author of the book Brave New Work - and cohost of the podcast of the same name. Host Morra Aarons-Mele speaks with him about he helps organizations and individuals realize they need to change, and how he guides them through that transformation. About The Anxious Achiever: Host Morra Aarons-Mele is on a mission to reframe how we think about anxiety and mental health in the workplace. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. We desperately need better models for leadership and a more holistic view of mental health. Our culture tells those of us who suffer from anxiety and depression that we can’t succeed, but we tell a different story — without sugarcoating the tough stuff. We feature stories from people who’ve been there and experts who can help you thrive.

You didn’t think we’d do our first-ever Brave New Work live show and let you miss the party, did you? That’s right, we’re coming in hot with a very special episode we recorded at SXSW on March 11th in partnership with our friends at Slack. Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans hit the Slack Studio Live stage with Brian Elliott (co-founder of Future Forum, an SVP at Slack, and a friend-of-the-pod) to talk about the future of work and break down several myths that keep holding us back. Plus, we kept Austin weird with one our strangest check-in rounds yet! We came prepared with our hottest takes (and not just because it was nearly 90 degrees) on these pervasive workplace myths: The person who’s always busy is the person who’s most productive. Compensation is the most important thing when choosing a new role. If you aren’t at the top, there’s nothing you can do to spark change at work. There’s no place for feelings in the workplace. You can’t build culture if you’re not IRL at an office. Bonus Content Alert! You might hear this episode and wonder…was this really recorded outside in front of a live audience?! It was (BNW tips its hat to Taylor Marvin weekly with good reason) and we have the goods to back it up. Head to our YouTube channel for the unedited version that features our faces and cheering crowds for the real-deal Brave New Work live experience. Special thanks to Sparks for recording us live! ------------------ Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected] Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com ------------------- 00:00 Walk On Stage 01:05 Intro & Check-In: Do you believe in ghosts, aliens, or both? 05:02 Myth 1: The busy person is the most productive. 09:23 Myth 2: Money is the most important thing when choosing a job. 14:38 Myth 3: Non-leaders have no power to change their work environment 26:00 Myth 4: Feelings don't belong in the workplace 42:55 Myth 5: It's not possible to build culture if your company isn't in person in an office. 50:04 Wrap Up: Subscribe and leave us a review!

Rebroadcast Note: We’re still sleeping off a taco- and margarita-filled weekend at SXSW, so we’re resurfacing one of our most popular episodes today. While two years have passed since we first had this conversation about hybrid work (and much has changed since then), it’s an inescapable fact that many companies are still struggling (some quite publicly) with this particular new way of working. We’re planning on revisiting this topic later in 2023, so email us with your hybrid horror stories and any questions you’d like answered! [This episode originally aired on July 12, 2021.] It’s a major question on many minds these days: When will the office reopen? Or rather: Will the office reopen? Different countries are in very different stages of heading back to physical workspaces (or not); in the United States, the prospect of on-premise work is inching closer as companies struggle to decide between three main models: fully in-office; fully remote; or…maybe some mix of both? In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans unpack why floppy hybrid models are doomed to fail, different flavors of creativity (that don’t rely on glass-walled conference rooms), and what the most adaptive path forward could look like. Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected] Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com

Rebroadcast Note: Some things never go out of style, which is why we resurface this foundational episode year after year. Plus, our BNW community has grown by a few thousand new listeners since it last aired! If you’ve already heard this episode, check out our back catalog, leave us a review, or email the podcast to let us know what topics you’d like us to cover this year. If this is the first you’re hearing of “Brave New Work 101,” happy listening. [This episode originally aired on September 14, 2021.] Today’s episode is a foundational survey class; we’re mapping the territory of the work we do, why we do it, what we’re all about—and why we’d love to talk to your boss. Whether you’re a systems design nerd like us or a newcomer who knows in their bones that work sucks but doesn’t have to, we’ve got answers to your big questions—about implementing self-management at your own organization; about assuaging fears of team effectiveness or brittleness; about leader’s becoming more power-literate and less ego-filled; and a whole lot more. So…how does this apply to you? We’ll put it this way: If you’re involved in a complex system with more than two human beings (spoiler alert: you are!), you’re already doing this work—and we’re here to help make it awesome. Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected] Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com

We’re back with part two of our conversation about talent marketplaces. Last week, Rodney and Aaron explored what talent marketplaces are and the types of organizational problems they can help address. (Pro tip: If you haven’t yet listened to that episode, hit pause and check it out now!) This week, they’re moving past the big picture and getting into the nitty gritty of what makes talent marketplaces work…or not. It’s not just about how to move pieces around a chess board, but rather about disrupting old-school organizational power plays. Today, Rodney and Aaron take a closer look at: What it takes to maintain a transparent marketplace that matches the right people with the right opportunities without resorting to shady, backroom dealings How traditional performance management systems penalize (instead of promote) moving talent around What experiments a company can try to give these principles a shot How compensation works when people aren’t tethered to a traditional role with clear benchmarks or boundaries ---------------- Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected] Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com ---------------- 00:00 Check-In: What are you looking forward to this weekend? 01:42 How do talent marketplaces work for people participating in them? 05:50 How traditional organizations prevent and penalize mobility 10:16 What you learn when you let people leave teams and move around 16:02 Experiments with talent marketplaces for companies to run 21:38 Compensation structures for talent marketplaces 25:08 Who pays for cross-functional teams? 27:45 Fine tuning and maintaining the system 28:54 Why these teams are the best places to learn new ways of working

We’ve probably talked about the classic, old-school, hierarchical org chart hundreds of times on the show. Not because we love it (longtime Brave New Work-ers know it’s not really our jam), but rather because it’s one of the most recognizable organizational structures out there. Despite its everywhere-ness, the boxes-and-line org chart isn’t exactly an adaptive way to design an organization. So what’s an alternative? We head to Hollywood (metaphorically) to explore a different structural model: the talent marketplace. Where org charts break, talent marketplaces bend—offering greater flexibility and resilience. In Part 1 of this two-parter, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans dig into the many benefits of talent marketplaces, the sticky problems they help solve, and what can trip up companies when they first move toward this model. Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected] Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com ------------------------- 00:00 Check-In: What is your ideal amount of novelty and rotation when it comes to your roles at work? 03:40 What is a talent marketplace? 10:27 What is the problem talent marketplaces solve? 13:39 One big winner can actually limit a talent marketplace 20:23 Managing success the rest of the system isn't ready for 24:58 The tipping point of scarcity

We’ve all been there: trying to suss out what a colleague’s crossed arms meant during a presentation; reading between the lines on a passive-aggressive message; or struggling to interpret a perplexing emoji reaction (what do pineapples have to do with the budget?). We're all just doing our best at understanding our coworkers with little to no real information. That’s where a “User Manual to Me” can come in handy. These personalized handbooks can provide a helpful framework for others to better understand our behaviors, quirks, needs, desires, and working styles—if we commit to getting real when writing our own. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans dive into how teams can make and use these manuals in a meaningful way, including: Why it’s better to be “real” versus “aspirational” when filling one out How you can dig deeper when you keep getting “polite” answers Why user manuals are living documents that should be revisited over time What we can learn about ourselves by making one Additional “User Manual to Me” Inspiration: Adam Bryant - New York Times Brad Feld - Blog Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected] Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com ---------------- 00:00 Check-in: What's the warning sign on the back of your box? 03:55 What is a user manual to me? 08:54 Benefits of making a user manual 11:07 Why people don't answer some questions honestly 13:13 Aspirational vs real agreements 20:12 Aaron & Rodney's manuals 22:03 Q1 - What do people misunderstand about you? 23:33 Q2 - How can people earn an extra gold star with you? 27:01 Varsity Q1 - What pulls you below the line? 29:34 Varsity Q2 - What are you worried about? 34:00 Facilitating user manuals with your own team