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

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