At Work with The Ready

Whether your company is fully remote, fully in-person, or somewhere in-between, work in 2023 (and beyond) will require healthy and robust digital ecosystems—because that’s where so much work takes place day in and day out. Still, wanting a first-rate digital-first workplace and having one are two different things—and there’s no one-size-fits-all roadmap to follow. Every team has different needs, so we can expect different journeys. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from each other. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans reflect on The Ready’s early years (hat tip to Panera for providing O.G. office space), sharing advice and learnings from the growing pains of yesteryear. Then, as part of our partnership with Slack, they sit down with Kelsey Stevenson, Chief Product Officer at Bitly, to talk about how the growing company is evolving its own digital-first workplace and the experiments they’re running to build trust, culture, collaboration—and a very active pets channel in Slack. Learn more about Bitly: bit.ly Connect with Kelsey on LinkedIn: bit.ly/3WX2waV 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

Why are “Ask Us Anything” episodes our favorite ones to make? Because our listener questions are never not inspiring, provocative, moving, sharp…just insert your favorite emoji here. What can we say? Y’all are the best. In today's episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans head back to the mailbag (and try to break their record of answering only two questions per episode). They offer their hot takes (naturally) and dig into: Why workplace rituals matter and how to develop ones that are legit meaningful What to do when leaders at the top say they’re hungry for change…and then block it left, right, and center How to help teams transition to new tools, especially when that adoption requires brand new skills and brand new levels of (currently non-existent) trust 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

Emojis might seem like all fun and games—but they can also speak a thousand words about a company’s culture. If they’re used, how they’re used, who uses them, whose posts always gets peppered with dozens of fire or rocket ship reactions—that’s all pretty juicy (and potentially spicy) information about an organization’s sense of camaraderie, connection, trust, agreements…you name it. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans unpack the power of those little icons at work and ask questions like: What role do emojis play in remote work? How can emojis help asynchronous teams increase efficiency and decrease friction? What can our emoji habits reveal about unspoken workplace agreements and behaviors? How do teams build bespoke emoji libraries and languages? Why can sending your boss an emoji feel like a risky move? How can emojis contribute to more equitable workplaces? Is there a secret emoji council and where’s our invite? Slack x Duolingo’s research on emoji use at work: https://slack.com/blog/collaboration/emoji-use-at-work 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

There’s a lot of “Looking for a job” energy in the world right now—but interviewing can be a nerve-racking experience. Folks on both sides of the equation want something—reliable gig, reliable colleague—and that can give way to performativity, misrepresentation, and hidden agendas. Because when an interview process doesn’t incentivize authenticity, negative patterns can pop off real quick. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans offer guidance on building better interviews, including: The importance for interviewees to self-assess skills already mastered and skills yet learned How both sides of the interviewing equation can create space for more curiosity and nuance The lies we tell ourselves about resumes and cover letters Why designing interviews that simulate real-life work are so critical The top four questions Aaron asks himself as an interviewer Do you have any cringeworthy interview stories? We want to hear all about ’em. Send us your goofs, your guffaws, and your facepalms at [email protected]. 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

Work in 2022 felt…a little messy. Or a lot messy: Back-to-office ultimatums; wages not keeping up with inflation; waves of layoffs in the tech industry; handwringing over quiet quitting. So… will this year be better, worse, or same old same old? In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans look into a crystal ball with Sheela Subramanian, friend-of-the-pod and co-founder of Slack’s Future Forum, to explore what this new year might have in store for us and the future of work. We explore many juicy questions—”Is 2023 the year we finally retire the 9-to-5? Why do executives continue to live in a separate world from their employees about building work culture? What will AI actually do to dozens of different gigs and industries?”—and offer our own hopes, predictions, and intentions for shaking up the status quo this year. Follow Sheela Subramanian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheelasubramanian/ Slack's Future Forum: https://futureforum.com/ Previous Sheela episode: Ep. 129 - How the Future Works with Slack’s Brian Elliott and Sheela Subramanian 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

Fancy clothes. Beef Wellington. Movies until midnight. We really are having lovely holiday breaks—which we’re still on! But we’d be lying if we said we didn’t miss you, so Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans are back again with another Brave New Work bonus mini-sode, the “Happy New Year!” edition. This one packs a punch because we have an exciting announcement to share: The Ready is releasing its first-ever mobile course next week! Tune in for the good stuff—like what the course is called, who it’s for, why we made it, and what participants will learn—and sign up for up-to-date launch details right here: https://thereadyacademy.ck.page/ We’re back in action next Monday with a fresh, full-length episode. See you then! Mentioned in this episode: Rodney's favorite end-of-year "carol": https://bit.ly/3v73ZzE Aaron's go-to beef Wellington recipe: https://bit.ly/3Wig29h 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

The podcast crew is taking a two-week holiday break for some R&R—but if you thought we’d say goodbye to 2022 without saying goodbye to y’all, you’d be wrong. That’s why we made this bonus mini-episode (a.k.a. a mini-sode—and yes, it’s a real thing). In our first-ever Brave New Work mini-sode, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans check out of the year with an extra-special, two-part check-in round. So slip on your fuzziest socks, grab a wintery beverage of choice, and tune into some of our 2022 reflections, highlights, and musings. We’ll be back next week—next year!—with another mini-sode. Happy holidays, everyone. Bonus check-in questions: As the next year rolls around, what are you letting go of? What’s the biggest surprise this year brought your way? What’s a lesson from this year you want to carry into the next? Fill in the blank: “In 2023, I’m looking forward to more _______________ and less _______________.” What’s the nicest gift you gave yourself this year? What's your Brave New Work highlight from 2022? What’s something you got really good at this year? 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

Being influential sounds great, even desirable. But doing influence? That’s when alarm bells go off in our brains—because we tend to imagine the act of influencing as manipulative, coercive, and 100% transactional. And sure, we’ve all had icky experiences with influence. But when we flatten its inherent complexity, we risk missing out on influence’s ability to instigate positive impact. Yale School of Management professor and author Zoe Chance believes influence is an untapped superpower; that’s why she recently published the book, Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen. And it’s why we asked her onto the show to help us break down some common misconceptions about influence, better harness its power to catalyze systemic change, and learn how to ask what she calls the “Magic Question.” 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 won’t mince words: Layoffs suck. They heap very real stress and chaos onto very real people’s lives. And as we’ve seen reported lately, big waves of layoffs are hitting several companies—and thousands of people—hard right now. This pile of not-good news sparked some questions for us, like: Why are layoffs a go-to cost-cutting lever? What pre-layoff org design decisions put employers and employees in this gnarly position? And why does every CEO letter announcing mass layoffs sound like it was written by the same robot? In today’s episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans, who’ve been on both sides of the layoff aisle, spend time with these queries and dig into: The all-around messiness of the traditional layoff process Why companies default to short-term thinking when the boom times boom Dehumanizing layoff practices we should shelve for good Creating clear containers and agreements for handling layoffs How we could design a layoff moment that’s truly people-positive Mentioned references: "RIFs" ConvertKit episode: BNW Ep. 36 with Nathan Barry "life stress inventories": Holmes and Rahe stress scale Office Space, 1999 movie Up in the Air, 2009 movie 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

“Power.” It’s a loaded word that can conjure up feelings of negativity, fear, and general ickiness. And with good reason. If our default definition of power is all about authority and control, then the less of it, the better—right? But if we tilt our head a little and instead see power as the ability to move energy through a system, then it becomes a powerful (sorry, had to) ingredient in making big change. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans invited former Ready member Larissa Conte—a coach, rites-of-passage guide, and founder of the consulting organization, Wayfinding—onto the show to help us navigate this collective head-tilt, unpack power’s many different flavors, any explore why power literacy is a critical skill in the future of work. And as a special bonus to the Brave New Work community, Larissa is offering our listeners a discount for her “Power at Work” program. Simply head to wayfinding.io/power-at-work to learn more and apply code BNWFRIENDS at checkout to receive 20 percent off. Now, go get your power on. 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

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. Rodney recently joined Jonathan Westover on his show, Human Capital Innovations, for an epic chat about adaptive organizational design and a whole lot more. We hope you enjoy the exchange and we’ll return with a fresh episode of Brave New Work next Monday. To tune into more episodes of Jonathan’s show, head to his website or search "Human Capital Innovations" wherever you get your podcasts. ---------- This episode originally aired on September 26th, 2022 on the Human Capital Innovations (HCI) Podcast with Dr. Jonathan H. Westover. In this HCI Podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Rodney Evans about adaptive organization design and the future of work. Rodney Evans is a pioneer in adaptive organization design and the future of work. With 20 years of experience in all things transformation, she has researched, developed, and taught new ways of working in dozens of complex environments including Airbnb, Cooper Hewitt Museum, Macy’s, Intuit, and Johnson & Johnson. The Ready is a self-managed change agency that helps you discover a better way of working. Rodney works with companies around the world to modernize traditional practices and bust bureaucracy. About the Human Capital Innovations (HCI) Podcast: Maximize your personal and #OrganizationalPotential with the Human Capital Innovations (HCI) Podcast! We're your source for personal, professional, and #OrganizationalGrowth and development. We share our own original #Research, explore #IndustryTrends, and interview executives and thought leaders from across the globe. Join us for practitioner-oriented content around all things #Leadership, #HR, #TalentManagement, #OrganizationalDevelopment, and #ChangeManagement.

We’ve covered feedback before on the show, because learning how to give and receive it is a key part of team growth and success. But establishing an entire system that lets different flavors of feedback flourish? That’s a different can of worms. So, how do we cultivate feedback-related agreements and norms in a self-managing culture? In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans have some solid ideas—and some spicy questions: Why creating a feedback-rich culture is hard—and why not having one is harder Why experiences in and around feedback can feel so perilous and panicky How to build containers in which intense, even critical feedback can happen safely The three different types of feedback we most often run into at work How power dynamics and personal preference play a part in this game 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

Picture it: Your company’s landed on an important and shiny new project and it needs a team to bring it to life. Cue the barrage of big questions—questions like: “So…who’s on this team? What support will they receive? When will they meet? Wait, is this extra work or something different?”Welcome to the wonderful world of cross-functional teaming. Standing up a cross-functional team is a place where plenty of organizations stumble—because it’s asking most systems to play a game they aren’t designed to play well. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans team up (see what we did there?) to answer questions like: How should cross-functional teams—as well as the projects they work on—be chartered? Should the size and scope of an idea impact how a team is designed? What level and kind of authority should cross-functional teams be given? What are the first moves cross-functional teams always need to make? How can we bake experimentation into this cake? 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

Spoiler alert: Your organization already has a Digital HQ. Because whether you’re back in an office Monday through Friday or working remotely in your fluffiest slippers, every team now operates with a mesh of digital tools and systems that constitute where real work gets done day in and day out. But how can you help your already-existent Digital HQ unlock greater team flexibility, collaboration, and productivity? Cue insights from Ali Rayl, Slack’s SVP of product management. As part of Slack’s sponsorship of Brave New Work, Ali tells Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans all about the Digital HQ: what it is, how it can incentivize more human ways of working, and how you can start intentionally building a digital-first workplace today. Visit slack.com/dhq to learn more.And if this week’s convo sparks a big question of your own, we’re all ears! Please send it to [email protected] with the subject line “Q about Digital HQs” for a chance to have your query answered in a future episode. 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

Show us a podcast that gets better questions than ours, we dare you. Listeners, you’re crushing the question game these days—so we’re heading back to the mailbag (there’s just so much mail there!) to address three juicy ones. And please keep the queries and head-scratchers coming! Because we’ve got more AUA sessions lined up for the future. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans crack into: How does resourcing work in a world of consent and participatory governance? How do we bring two opposing cultures together (think large bureaucratic behemoth buys small, innovative business to bolster their portfolio) without getting stuck in a standoff? How can an operating rhythm help support and model more org-wide inclusion? 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 often talk about complexity and work, but complexity is everywhere: at our schools, sports teams, churches, families… you get the idea. Today, we’re looking at a different kind of complex system that’s as big—and maybe as broken—as it gets: U.S. politics. With the midterm elections around the corner, we wanted to take a closer look at the OS of U.S. politics, asking how its structure is designed, what it incentivizes (and disincentivizes), which levers voters can pull to start tackling some of our toughest problems, and how organizations should participate in the political process. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans are joined by Emily Amick, a political consultant behind the popular Instagram account Emily In Your Phone, to help them ponder what we can do to implement fundamental change—and to provide some hope. 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

Odds are you’ve discussed quiet quitting with your colleagues, your friends, your barista, your aunt Barbara… you get the idea. Super-hyped-up conversations about quiet quitting are everywhere these days—but what’s the noise really about? What’s the alleged trend mean or point toward? And if we double-click on quiet quitting, what can we learn about the OS of our workplaces? In this episode on Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans turn up the volume on this phenomenon and talk about: What these conversations tell us about our ways of working and what needs to change How to start caring more about outputs and commitments and less about timesheets Why the common belief that “good performance = beating expectations” is trash How a lack of clarity stokes both the quiet quitting and quit firing fires Why we need better workflows around asking workers what they really need 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: The Ready gathers for its next retreat next week, so there’s no better time to re-air this episode from December 2021.] Wait, haven’t we already covered retreats? Yes. But if the first one explored key dos and don’ts, this one imagines the retreat as a blank sheet of paper and invites you to ask: With unlimited options, what would you do? How would you take an off-site from good to great to transcendent? What’s the space where strategy meets luxury and how can you plan a rewarding experience that includes real work? Well, we’ve got a few ideas. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans dig into the logistical, emotional, and design considerations that went into our most recent retreat to help them overhaul old habits; provoke bigger questions and bigger bets; and use fun as a guide. And regardless of organizational size or budget, you can create that time and space, too. 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

What exactly is OS coffee? It’s a specific meeting structure we use to explore topics related to our operating system (a.k.a. our OS). But OS coffee isn’t meant to be a formal, note-taking, let’s-finally-get-to-agreement-on-X kind of deal; rather, it’s about making space for different subjects to emerge and to do some shared sensemaking. In fact, it’s so casual that it’s less like a meeting and more like a gathering. In this caffeinated episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans break down how to OS coffee, including: How to keep OS coffee conversations informal yet impactful How to ground the gathering in a “Yes, and…” headspace How to stand one up inside your own system without it feeling like mandatory fun How to use default agreements to create new group norms 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

What’s going on in our brains when we have breakthroughs? Why do some of our most basic work habits and norms exhaust our minds rather than light them up? If feedback is essential for cognitive development, why can it freak us out and set our teeth on edge? These are some of the big questions David Rock, CEO and co-founder of the Neuroleadership Institute, ponders all of the time. David believes that if we can increase our ability to think well at work (since, spoiler alert, most work is thinking work) and bake more neuroscience into the workplace, we can be more effective, build better habits, and have better interactions within our teams and organizations. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans ask David all about how brains behave at work. 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

[Rebreoadcast note: This episode originally aired in September 2021.] Patagonia’s purpose is clear: It’s in business to save our home planet. And that clarity’s been present almost since day one of the iconic outdoor clothing and gear company. But how and why was that anchoring mission adopted from the jump? And how has the nearly 50-year-old organization evolved its practices to support its resolute pledge to sustainability? Luckily, there’s someone with answers to these questions: Vincent Stanley is Patagonia’s Director of Philosophy and co-author with Yvon Chouinard of The Responsible Company. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak to Vincent about Patagonia’s better-known successes, lesser-known failures, the experiments it’s had to flex during the pandemic, and what a responsible company of the future can and should look like. Learn more about The Responsible Company here: https://www.patagonia.com/product/the-responsible-company-what-weve-learned-from-patagonias-first-forty-years-paperback-book/BK233.html 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

Taking a break from work can look 1,000 different ways: You could learn how to make homemade pasta; you could visit five new countries; you could spend sunup to sundown swinging in a hammock. What constitutes a break should fit your specific context and needs. And in this way, taking a true, you-shaped vacation—for a week, a month, or even longer—dips into org design knowledge and territory. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans reflect on their recent breaks and what they learned, including: The signs and signals that tell us when it’s time to take a break Why breaks are important and how they contribute to system-wide resilience How taking time off in a self-managing system can look and feel different than in a more traditional one Parsing the key differences between a break, a trip, and a vacation How to think about and reimagine the OS of your next vacation Mentioned references: "therapy episodes": BNW Ep. 134 + 135 Muskegon Lake "gaming and music episode: BNW Ep. 128 "Gareth": BNW Ep. 5 with Dr. Gareth Holman Kuala Lumpur Arc de Triomphe Catacombs Guiding Light 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

Where do our systems for organization and prioritization come from? How do we build discipline around new workflows? When and how do we learn how to work? And what happens when our systems have to gel with others’? Answers to these questions vary from person to person—and they should. Because when it comes to managing our time and tasks, it’s worth challenging “best” practices. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans unpack their own relationships to productivity and productivity culture, exploring: What people-positive and complexity-conscious workflows can look like The difference between work that’s important and work that’s urgent Why tools should fit the shape of your work and not the other way around The connection between the techniques you use and the tensions you feel The big costs that come with having too much work in progress Why thinking about what you do and how you do it is a critical use of your time

[Rebroadcast note: This episode originally aired in July 2021.] If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times: Meetings are the worst. Instead of being a meaningful work tool to help teams strategize efficiently, meetings more often block things—anything—from actually getting done. At The Ready, we’ve got a different method: action meetings. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans are joined by longtime member Sam Spurlin, who dispenses a step-by-step guide to implementing and scaling effective action meetings, breaks down the best ways to “get people what they need,” and reveals how to keep the action-meeting train chugging along into the future. You can find Sam here: https://www.samspurlin.com/

[Rebroadcast note: This episode originally aired in September 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. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans give an overview of the new ways of working behind Brave New Work. 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

The relationship between structure and impact is an important one for organizations to explore. The same goes for social movements. The Sunrise Movement is a youth-led coalition on a mission to stop climate change—and recently, they placed their own OS under a microscope: How should the org make decisions? How should its principles evolve? How could it balance centralization and decentralization? Sunrise asked itself these questions to help design a structure capable of meeting our current climate moment. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans chat with Aru Shiney-Ajay and Dejah Powell from Sunrise Movement about the connection between internal and external change and how org design can help contribute to tackling the climate crisis. Learn more about Sunrise Movement's principles: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/principles/?ms=Sunrise%27sPrinciples Learn more about Sunrise Movement's DNA: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/campaign/sunrise-re-launch/ 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

A big frustration we often encounter in our work concerns decision-making. Folks feel like their process is too slow; too fast; includes the wrong people; excludes the right people; is too big; is too small. No matter the specific organizational headaches, the headline basically stays the same: “We know this isn’t working but we can’t fix the problem.” In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans take a deep dive into decision-making indecision, exploring: The impediments that tend to block good decision-making The “problems” traditional, top-down decision-making processes are designed to deal with The myths we tell ourselves about who can decide what and when The difference between being non-directive and being indecisive The simplest moves teams can make to up their decision-making game 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

Our ears perk up when we hear about different systems practicing self-management. That was the case with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, a Grammy-award winning group that rehearses and performs without a formal conductor. Instead, the orchestra decentralizes power and leadership among its members, who rotate in between positions and treat each other as equals. Collaborative decision-making; multi-filled roles; shared ownership; clear feedback agreements—Orpheus embodies the very practices we love to talk about. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans ask James Wilson, a cellist with Orpheus and one of the ensemble’s three artistic directors, and Alexander Scheirle, Orpheus’s executive director, about the group’s democratic underpinnings and how it’s experimented with emergence for more than 50 years. Learn more about Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at orpheusnyc.org. 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

Hey, how ya feeling? Exhausted? Stressed? Like a rubber band that’s finally snapped? Same. These days, the burnout paradigm seems to have shifted from the micro to the macro: Individual burnout has ballooned into collective burnout—into an overwhelming sense of being out of control and out of moves to help make things right. So, what can we do with those feelings? In today’s episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk about: What the underlying drivers of collective burnout are How it’s showing up inside workplaces and teams (including at The Ready) How we can start to tackle burnout as a society-wide challenge What org design can do to address the root of the problem How we’re taking care of ourselves and each other during a time of non-stop tumult 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

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the American legal landscape instantly changed. So did the business landscape, since more than half of Americans rely on their employers for healthcare—and that includes reproductive healthcare. Abortion as a critical workplace issue is now top-of-mind for organizations coming to grips with how they can and should respond to a post-Roe world. Emma Goldberg covers the future of work for The New York Times and has been asking big questions about abortion since the Supreme Court’s decision came down: “How will this decision reshape workplace policies? What influence will it have on the job market? How do employees want their employers to respond? How do consumers want businesses to respond? Why does this issue in particular feel so fraught?” This week on Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans ask Emma about the answers she’s been hearing. 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 coming at you with part two of the intimate conversation Rodney and Aaron cracked open last week. (Haven’t listened to part one yet? Go back and check out that episode now!) Today on Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans continue exploring the ups and downs of their professional partnership; why they chose to start working with a coach; the big lessons and lingering worries they both sit with; and why seeking out help isn’t necessarily a sign that something’s broken, but rather that you’re actually ready to dig deeper. 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

In part one of a very special two-part episode from Brave New Work, Rodney Evans and Aaron Dignan talk about…themselves. Specifically, their partnership and why they decided to start working with a coach. Together, they dig into: The tensions, dynamics, and patterns that prompted them to seek outside help How they picked a coach and the skills and capabilities they wanted to level up on Why org designing their way through conflict wasn’t working Why self-work is a critical part of self-management What’s scared them, surprised them, and pushed them after a few months of coaching 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

Helping big systems learn how to evolve and sustain themselves; designing for long-term endurance rather than long-term liability; disrupting the idea that unchecked growth is always a good thing; asking “What are we designing for?” to clarify tradeoffs from the jump. Those activities not only describe the organizational design work we do at The Ready, it also describes the work of Chuck Marohn at Strong Towns, a nonprofit advocating for cities of all sizes to be safe, livable, and inviting. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans chat with Chuck, author of Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town, about the similarities between our work, how we can make our cities more resilient and complexity-conscious, and how expecting more from work can translate into expecting more from our neighborhoods. 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

You keep having dope questions, so we keep offering our best answers. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans offer their two cents on some of our most recent—and most excellent—listener queries, including: What distinguishes our work from Agile and digital transformation The organizational symptoms that prompt leaders to give new ways of working a try How to stick with experimentation and avoid snapping back to old patterns when the going gets tough And how to approach at-work complexity when at-home complexity (like becoming a parent or caring for a sick loved one)—dramatically changes 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

Why does it always feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get work done? How did we come to see time as a resource we could manipulate and exploit? Why does achieving “inbox zero” come with bragging rights? And how has the belief that we can command and control time totally warped not only our personal lives, but also our working lives? In today's episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans start to tease apart a few of the brain-expanding questions with guest Oliver Burkeman, the best-selling author of Four Thousand Weeks. Together, they explore what we don’t talk about when we talk about modern time management. 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

King-size is great when we’re talking about candy bars. But when it comes to designing impactful teams, we’re on team fun-size. That’s because the best teams share a clear purpose, have high trust, and are interdependent—which can be hard to pull off when you’re rolling 40 people deep. In today’s episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans size up how we think about team size and dig into: The new questions and contexts to weigh when trying to find an ideal team size What real team interdependence feels like—e.g., “I have an interest and a stake in what every member of this group does and works on” Designing teams that get stuff done without falling prey to groupthink or social loafing How to bust up big groups into smaller teams that organize around different flavors of work The dynamism and flexibility needed to team effectively in a hybrid-work world What sports and tarot can teach us about dream team size 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

The Covid-19 pandemic marked a sea change in how most people think about work. The mind-numbing norms and deeply-rooted inequities that defined our day-to-day working lives were upended, exposed, and called out for being (let’s face it) what they’ve been all along: rigid, harmful, unacceptable, and unproductive. The good news: Many companies are acknowledging that how we work needs major upgrades—ones that enable real autonomy and flexibility. Of course, wanting a flexible work strategy and designing one that works for your organization are two different things. That’s why Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans teamed up with Brian Elliott and Sheela Subramanian—the Executive Leader and Vice President, respectively, of Slack’s Future Forum think tank—for this very special episode of Brave New Work. Together with Helen Kupp, Brian and Sheela co-wrote the new book How the Future Works, a step-by-step guide on building a flexible, inclusive, and digital-first workplace. We jam with them on the fundamental bedrock elements teams need to transform and weave future-of-work practices into their present-day lives. Link to Sheela, Brian, and Helen Kupp's book, "How The Future Works": https://futureforum.com/how-the-future-works/ Slack's Future Forum: https://futureforum.com/ Sheela Subramanian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheelasubramanian/ Brian Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belliott/ 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 can draw connections between org design at work and org design IRL all day, every day. And today's no exception, as Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans unpack what playing music and playing video games has taught them about working in complexity. In this episode of Brave New Work, they dig into: The reflex for planning and prediction that kicks in when we try something new The instincts that may run counter to working in complexity, and how to develop new heuristics that serve us better The disorientation that comes with simultaneously thinking about, learning, and trying something new The difference between noticing muscles and planning muscles Why it’s worth wading into the complexity pool with playfulness and an openness to experimentation 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

New Belgium Brewing company has been making great beer for decades. It also decided right from the jump to design a company OS that places its people smack-dab at the center of things. That core, human-powered philosophy has driven the wildly popular craft brewer’s business practices for more than 30 years. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak to New Belgium Brewing’s CEO, Steve Fechheimer, about what those practices look like on the ground; how the company adapted, pivoted, and became even more nimble during the pandemic; and why New Belgium Brewing is still on a mission to show that a human-powered business can be a better and more successful one. Hey, we’ll drink to that. Learn more about Steve and his work here: https://www.newbelgium.com/ 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

Fact: We’re self-management nerds. (And if you’ve been hanging out with us for a while, you probably are, too.) We could talk and think about the how of work all day, every day. But it turns out that for some, getting into the nitty-gritty of roles, working agreements, and governance isn’t their definition of a good time. Which begs some bigger questions: Does working in self-management demand being jazzed about org design? Is there enough support for those showing up to the self-management party with curiosity about the what of work but not about the how? And can we imagine new and adaptive ways for more people to thrive in self-management? In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans dig into these important questions and more. 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

This is the eleventh episode in a crossover mini-series between Brave New Work cohosts Rodney Evans and Aaron Dignan and Chase Chapman, builder of DAOs and host of the On the Other Side podcast. Each episode dives into a specific topic related to organizational design for Web3. Today, they talk about the strategic benefits of operating with greater role clarity, when codifying roles makes the most sense, and the teachable set of skills that help anyone with any role thrive in self-management.

This is the tenth episode in a crossover mini-series between Brave New Work cohosts Rodney Evans and Aaron Dignan and Chase Chapman, builder of DAOs and host of the On the Other Side podcast. Each episode dives into a specific topic related to organizational design for Web3. Today, they talk about hiring strategies that aren’t reliant on hoarding power, striking a balance between org-wide participation and circle-run process, and filtering for skills rather than experience to bake more equity into hiring.

The past two-plus years have been defined by uncertainty and upheaval—so it’s safe to say that we’ve been having some feels. Specifically, big feelings—feelings like anger, despair, and burnout, all of which are often pegged as “negative” or “bad.” We tell ourselves lots of stories about these emotions: that we should be strong enough to override them; that our feelings are more intense than others’; and that they have individual (versus structural) solutions. But in the new book Big Feelings: How to Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay, co-authors Mollie West Duffy and Liz Fosslien rewrite that narrative. According to them, the more we can name and understand our toughest emotions, the more we can use them to fuel larger-scale transformation. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans chat with Mollie about why becoming more feelings fluent in the workplace is critical for realizing a more human future of work. Order Mollie and Liz's book here: https://bookshop.org/books/big-feelings-how-to-be-okay-when-things-are-not-okay/9780593418239 Learn more about Mollie's work here: https://molliewestduffy.com/ 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: This episode originally aired in August 2021.] Odds are you’ve seen an article (or 20) about some company somewhere testing out a four-day workweek. And if you’ve scrolled past the story to the comments, you’ve probably spied a few cheers…and plenty of jeers. Punching in five days a week might seem like the natural working order—but it’s less a fixed and unchallengeable fact and more a human-shaped choice we can, you know, shape differently. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan asks Rodney Evans about lessons learned from her own four-day workweek experiment, how to navigate relationships with coworkers on different schedules, and why a four-day workweek is labor’s next evolutionary leap forward. 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

It’s an open secret that many organizations’ parental leave policies in the U.S. are subpar—if they exist at all. And if you ask someone why grappling with parental leave is so fraught, you’re bound to get a firehose of frustrating answers. That’s because most organizations approach parental leave as a benefit that costs the company itself rather than as a strategic opportunity for greater learning and development. Enter Dr. Amy Beacom and Sue Campbell from the Center for Parental Leave Leadership and co-authors of the book The Parental Leave Playbook. They believe the parental leave transition is the most overlooked opportunity for professional growth—and they teach organizations how to tap into its potential. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans learn from Amy and Sue about the future of parental leave policies, including: What does good parental leave practice look like? How can those transitions improve team communication and trust? How can healthier parental leave practices make way for more inclusive definitions of leave? Learn more about Amy and Sue's work here: https://cplleadership.com/ 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

Adopting new ways of working can come with a lot of excitement and buzz. It’s thrilling to move from having nothing to having something to having something that really sings. Then different questions pop up: How do you sustain the new-ways-of-working spark over time? What ingredients does a system need to avoid slouching toward staleness and mediocrity? What practices might you be propping up past their prime? It’s easy to default to complacency—to accept that what’s working is good enough. But if you want an organization that’s always leveling up, always evolving its work to feel more joyful and energized, and always sensing into the next thing, it starts with asking these questions. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk about how to stay in pursuit of what’s possible, and stay excited along the way. 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

Social networks aren’t new. Humans have always gathered together and forged communities. But deliberately organizing those networks around shared principles, shared context, and a shared purpose is a powerful way we can help address some of the world’s most complex problems. A system that brings individuals and organizations together for learning and collaborative action is what David Ehrlichman calls an “impact network,” a scaled-out (rather than scaled-up) approach to creating greater change. In fact, David wrote the book on the subject—Impact Networks: Create Connection, Spark Collaboration, and Catalyze Systemic Change—which is why we invited him onto the podcast to talk about planning for emergence, unlearning command-and-control models, and the five activities all impact networks leverage to successfully co-create at scale. Learn more about David's work and Converge here: https://www.converge.net/ 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

The world faces enormously complex and existential challenges. While specific solutions might feel elusive, it’s safe to say that in order to address the most polarizing issues of our time, we’ll need more and better collaboration—more and better tools to help us work together across deep differences and make progress. According to Adam Kahane, a director at Reos Partners, that means the world requires more and better facilitators. In his most recent book, Facilitating Breakthrough: How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together, Adam proposes a theory and practice of what he calls “transformative facilitation,” which focuses less on getting (or forcing) people to do things and more on removing obstacles to greater contribution, connection, and equity. In this episode of Brave New Work, Adam shares with Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans how he’s reimagining this work and who we think of as “facilitators” in the first place. Find out more about Reos Partners and Adam's work here: https://reospartners.com/ 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’ve talked a lot about action meetings on the show. And retrospectives. And governance. And strategy sessions. Maybe you’ve wondered, “What do these meetings have to do with one another? How do they actually interact? Do they?” We’re glad you asked. Because when woven together, they constitute an organization’s operating rhythm—or heartbeat. And sweating the design of that pulse—intentionally building the structural relationship from beat to beat—is what allows teams to unlock their most important work and make progress. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans break down an OG operating rhythm’s fundamental parts, explore how it enables a system to move work forward, and dish about the fruits (greater clarity, efficiency, and accountability to name a few) of this labor. 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

Ask 10 different people to define sustainability and you could get 10 different answers. That’s because while more and more companies are discussing their environmental impact and efforts, there’s still a lot of work to be done to meaningfully address the global climate crisis. But ask Hana Kajimura how she and Allbirds see sustainability and you get the talk and the walk: Allbirds believes climate change is the biggest issue facing humanity and aims to reverse climate change through better business. As the company’s head of sustainability, that lofty goal doesn’t rest only at Hana’s feet; it’s woven throughout the entire org as a first principle. So how does that influence Allbirds’ approach to making tradeoffs over time? How is the company innovating not only its products but its actual ways of working to hit sustainability targets more sustainably? Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans get into all of it with Hana in this episode of Brave New Work. 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