At Work with The Ready

Let's talk about succession. No, not the show, but the concept. How do progressive, human-centric organizations deal with succession, and role changes, and new management, all while maintaining a high level of success?In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to Michael Bungay Stanier and Shannon Minifie of Box of Crayons—about Michael stepping down and handing the reins of the organization to Shannon, the roadblocks the transition ran into, and how to go about it all without rocking the boat.Learn more about Shannon on LinkedIn, on Youtube, or by visiting Box of Crayons.Learn more about Michael on LinkedIn, on Youtube, or from listening to his previous episode of Brave New Work about 1:1s.Mentioned references: Bruce Springsteen E Street Band ABBA "Hotel California" Coaching Habit, by Michael Bungay Stanier Fierce Conversations, by Susan Scott "participatory governance": BNW Ep. 43 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

With his organization Sociocracy for All, Ted Rau is helping organizations empower their members, and put a spotlight on equity. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to Ted about his book, Many Voices One Song, consent-based decision-making, and the challenges of getting the ball rolling with large orgs.Learn more about Ted and his work: On LinkedIn Sociocracy For All Many Voices One Song Who Decides Who Decides? Mentioned references: Notting Hill, 1999 movie Jerry Koch-Gonzalez "RACI": AWWTR Ep. 10 Teal Gerard Endenburg 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

There are elephants in the room, and then there are "Moose Heads on the Table." This book, by Lisa Gill and Karen Tenelius, describes the concept as workplace taboos that are simultaneously ingrained and incredibly toxic for getting things done.In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to Lisa about how to embrace this discomfort at work, and what self-managing organizations can do to empower their employees to speak up when things aren't working.Get Lisa's book, Moose Heads On The Table.Learn more about Lisa on her website, LinkedIn, or by listening to her podcast, Leadermorphosis.Mentioned references: "Basecamp episode": BNW Ep. 71 "fuddy duddy" Reinventing Organizations: BNW Ep. 18 with Frederic Laloux "ASCATS": BNW Ep. 65 with Alastair Steward The Ready's Tension and Practice Cards Jorge Silva, from 10Pines Frederic Laloux's "Insights for the Journey" videos Liberating Structures: BNW Ep. 49 with Keith McCandless Reinventing Work's global community 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

It's not a question, but a fact: the conventional legal doctrine governing the 21st century workplace is woefully far behind.In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to attorney Jason Wiener about the incredible disconnect between current legal norms and modern business, and how he works to ensure equitable business ownership to the forefront of the conversation.Learn more about Jason on his website, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.Mentioned references: slap bracelet MC Hammer pants Blossom, TV show School of Industrial Labor Relations Clerky LegalZoom "organizational debt" "business judgement rule" DAOs: BNW Ep. 96 with Chase Chapman 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

In the past two weeks, Basecamp—a software company with a general track record of outspoken, progressive values—has lost a sizable chunk of its workforce. The reason? A memo from the company's CEO that banned "societal and political discussions" in workplace channels.In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans break down what this all means—the (impossible) concept of "separating politics from work," and the privilege inherent in assuming that's possible.Mentioned references: Parkburger Basecamp podcast Basecamp book Coinbase "DHH's memo" George Floyd "JEDI episode": BNW Ep. 40 with Sharan Bal "consent-based decision making/participatory governance": BNW Ep. 43 Murmur: BNW Ep. 67 "principles episode": BNW Ep. 37 "compensation episode": BNW Ep. 32 "membership episode": BNW Ep. 30 "mastery episode": BNW Ep. 63 Hedonic treadmill 11 Madison Park "Bill Anderson/Roche episode": BNW Ep. 68 with Bill Anderson 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

We're opening up the mailbag. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans tackle the topics of some of your most fascinating questions, from gossip to peer feedback to all-hands meetings.In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans dive into our mailbag and answer some of the top questions we're hearing from our listeners.Questions featured in this episode: Is back channeling good or bad in the workplace? How to get colleagues comfortable giving each other peer-to-peer feedback? What's a more participatory way to prioritize and commit to work? What's an all hands meeting actually good for? Talk more about self-set pay and what The Ready is experimenting with around money Mentioned references: "gossip and group dynamics" Alastair's episode: BNW Ep. 65 with Alastair Steward performance management episode: BNW Ep. 56 Kim Scott's episode: BNW Ep. 13 with Kim Scott "Shape up method" from Basecamp Theory Y Loom retreats episode: BNW Ep. 64 "essential intent" 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

Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of WIRED Magazine, has spent years documenting and photographing life in the furthest corners of the Asian continent—and in the process, he's recorded a way of living that is quickly disappearing in the face of the continent's bracing visions for the future. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to Kevin about what we, in our work, can learn from the varied and disparate cultures he's spent much of his life experiencing.Learn more about "Vanishing Asia" on Kickstarter.Learn more about Kevin: On his website On his Instagram By reading The Technium Blog By subscribing to the Recomendo newsletter. Mentioned references: Kevin's previous appearance: BNW Ep. 34 with Kevin Kelly H-Mart David Hockney Asia Grace, Kevin's earlier photography book Kodak Brownie Shenzhen Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Haier "org debt" Single's Day Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.comWe want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.comOur book is available now at bravenewwork.com

Changing the way we work is a difficult task at a company with 150 employees. But what about one with. say, 100,000? In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to Bill Anderson, CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals, about his recent work in reshaping the company's structure and processes, change at such a large scale, and the surprising challenges that come along with such a massive undertaking.Learn more about Bill and his work on LinkedIn.Mentioned references: Roche Pharmaceuticals Foundation Medicine Flatiron Health Genentech "org debt" Beyond Budgeting "reinventing organizations and Frederic Laloux": BNW Ep. 18 with Frederick Laloux SAFe VITAL Framework (see slide 8) Haier 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

Work is all about agreements—policies, processes, principles, goals, workflows, etc. So if you're starting a company from the ground up, how do you give teams the power to align on all of these things in a clear and inclusive way? What if there's already a company out there that's documented the exact policy you're looking for? And when, inevitably, that agreement needs some tweaking, how do you iterate and grow?In today's episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk about the new software startup, Murmur, which aims to do for working practices what GitHub did for code. They talk about why Aaron started the company, what the initial product will deliver, and how every new startup can agree to work better together.Learn more about Murmur at https://www.murmur.com/Mentioned references: murmuration of starlings GitHub sociocracy holacracy participatory change async work: At Work With The Ready Ep. 7 Clippy, the Microsoft Office assistant Five whys regret minimization framework 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

One of the most important aspects of organizational change and complexity is embracing fluidity. Rather than be mired in rigid lines and forced structure, we want to be dynamic, adaptive and—in a certain sense—poetic.In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to Gayle Karen Young, an organizational development consultant and former Chief Cultural and Talent Officer at Wikimedia, about how she brings poetry into the workplace, the role of spirituality in her work, and what she calls the mythic and the mundane.Learn more about Gayle on LinkedIn and on her website.Mentioned references: Guanyin kōan The Wikimedia Foundation sangha David Whyte, poet Cynefin Susanne Cook-Greuter Viktor Frankl and Man’s Searching for Meeting Balcony perspective “tyranny of the quantifiable” Barry Johnson “polarity management” ”Let American Be America Again”, poem by Langston Hughes: ”Pushing Through”, poem by Rainer Maria Rilke ”Kindness”, poem by Naomi Shihab Nye "Working Together”, poem by David Whyte Ranier Maria Rilke Mary Oliver [Traveler, your footprints], poem by Antonio Machado 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