At Work with The Ready

Explore the art of workplace experimentation, focusing on how to structure and assess changes with intention. The hosts share personal victories and underscore the importance of self-care, like taking Wednesdays off for mental health. They advocate for treating decisions as temporary experiments, fostering innovation without the fear of permanence. Delve into the complexities of organizational change, emphasizing small-scale experiments' power in enhancing collaboration. Finally, navigate the challenges of building a culture of experimentation, learning from setbacks to drive growth and creativity.

It's one thing to talk about what we'd like the future of work to look like—but what about the people who'll actually make up that workforce? Wha do they want out of their work, and how do they want to shape their organizations?In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to lecturer Todd Jick at the Columbia Business School about his class on Advanced Organizational Change, and what his students want to see for the future of work.Learn more about Todd on LinkedIn and his Columbia staff profile.Learn more about the Columbia Business School on their website.Mentioned references: "Mr. Rodgers documentary" Selma Montgomery march Novartis Nucor Steel Morning Star: BNW Ep. 54 with Doug Kirkpatrick Frederick Winslow Taylor No Rules Rules by Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings "Humanocracy": BNW Ep. 47 with Michele Zanini Haier David Marquet: BNW Ep. 8 with David Marquet "systemic justice": BNW Ep. 50 with Xavier Ramey Jennifer Hirsch, Sparkworks at Janssen We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.comLooking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.comOur book is available now at bravenewwork.com

The discussion highlights how adding complexity often backfires by distancing humans from systems. A humorous tale about waitstaff tackles the absurdity of strict management scripts. Menu design is shown to directly impact customer choices, while rigid policies stifle authentic connections. Empowering employees with financial autonomy proves crucial for effective problem-solving, illustrated by the Ritz-Carlton rule. Overall, the need for empathy and collaboration emerges as a key theme to enhance organizational performance.

If there's one structure in the modern workplace that feels particularly resistant to change, it's the hiring process. For years, we've followed the same basic structure: whittle down vast pools of potential, qualified candidates down to one lucky winner. But as we consider adapting our workplaces for the future, we might consider tools to reinvent the way we hire, and thus, the way we fill out our organizations for the future.In this episode, we talk to Kelsa Summer Roidt, Chief Operating and Impact Officer at Habitus, Inc., about her particularly inspiring hiring practices.Learn more about Kelsa on LinkedIn.Learn more about Habitus and what they're up to at their website.Mentioned references: IDM process: BNW Ep. 43 Turtles All the Way Down Conway’s law Other BNW episodes about hiring practices:BNW Ep. 14 with Kate GlazebrookWe want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.comLooking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.comOur book is available now at bravenewwork.com

You’ll often hear us talking about collectivism, balance, and sustainability on this show—to the point that you may well wonder, do these socialists even care about growth and profit? We do. But not in the unchecked way that has become normal in the last half century. In this episode, we let our entrepreneurial ambition out to discuss the moral case for sustainable, humane growth, and explore why the discussion around this topic gets so politically charged.Mentioned references: "the Webflow guy" - McGuire Brannon, one of the instructors from the Webflow 101 series "Patagonia" - BNW Ep. 87 with Vincent Stanley We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.comLooking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.comOur book is available now at bravenewwork.com

It's been quite a week for the United States of America. And as Americans, we tried to do what we always do: keep working.In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans discuss the volatile, unprecedented political situation we now find ourselves in, as well as ways to take a step back and recognize that some things might just be more important than business as usual.Mentioned References: Mouse Trap the 1963 Hasbro game J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist “working agreements” - BNW Ep. 103 We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.comLooking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.comOur book is available now at bravenewwork.com

Aaron Dignan, co-founder of a consulting firm that transforms organizations, and Rodney Evans, an innovative workplace strategist, tackle the pitfalls of annual performance reviews. They argue that these outdated practices fail to benefit both managers and employees. Instead, they advocate for a shift towards tailored feedback systems that prioritize personal growth and team outcomes over rigid metrics. The duo explores how open communication and subjective feedback can empower employees, fostering a healthier and more productive work culture.

When we begin to reckon with inequality in the workplace, a useful place to start is the concept of "epistemic injustice"—what we know, how we know, and who gets to decide and influence our reality. This concept goes deeper than simply who is in the room. This is about the stories we bring with us, the ones we build together, and how bias and representation shape the possibility of what can be.In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak with Cat Swetel, a consultant specializing in data-informed coaching and increasing equity in organizations, about epistemic injustice—in the workplace and beyond.Learn more about Cat on her website, on LinkedIn, and on Twitter.Mentioned references: gaslighting Angel Street / Gas Light, 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton Judith N. Shklar, Latvian philosopher and political theorist "fishing stories" "sock puppet accounts" Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech Douglas Rushkoff episode: BNW Ep. 33 Bridgewater #oscarssowhite Research Your Own Practice, by John Mason Our book is available at bravenewwork.comWe want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.comLooking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com

While we often throw around terms like "the future of work" and "new ways of working," the reality is that much of the wisdom about how to self-organize and self-manage has been around for a long, long time. What we can learn from this is that there's really nothing new about this moment—except for the fact that more and more people are waking up to the fact that the status quo just isn't good enough.In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak with Doug Kirkpatrick, author of The No-Limits Enterprise (and many others), about his origin story at The Morning Star Company and what he's learned about self-management in the decades since.Learn more about Doug on LinkedIn, Twitter, and from reading his book: The No-Limit's Enterprise.Learn more about The Morning Star Company on their website.Mentioned references: "Everything there is a season. Turn, turn": Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds Chris Rufer, founder of The Morning Star Company Gary Hamel's famous "First, Let's Fire All the Managers" article from the Harvard Business Review The Winner Effect, by Ian Robertson Dr. Dacher Keltner, psychology processor at UC Berkeley Dr. Fernando Flores, author of "Conversations For Action and Collected Essays" Peter Koestenbaum, German-American philosopher We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.comLooking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.comOur book is available now at bravenewwork.com

It's been almost a year of working remotely due to the pandemic. And we haven't exactly been doing it right. We've just been hanging in there with too much Zoom and not enough coffee. As a result, we're a little toasty. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk about what they're seeing and feeling, and what it's going to take to make remote work... work. With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up this week in the USA, it seems like the perfect time to talk about how to recuperate, refresh, and return to work with more intention.Interesting in working at The Ready? Check current openings and apply here.Mentioned references: Seinfeld episode "The Opposite" "participatory governance episode": BNW Ep. 43 Marcus Buckingham on resiliency Steve Wozniak Google Glass Our book is available now at bravenewwork.comWe want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.comLooking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com