At Work with The Ready

The stories of self-management and decentralization from evolutionary organizations like Buurtzorg, Morning Star, FAVI, Haier, and others are often told breathlessly, as if it was "happily ever after." But, the truth has to be more... nuanced, right? Indeed it is. More adaptive and human ways of working are not without their own frustrations and tradeoffs. The question is: are they worth it?In this episode of Brave New Work, (technically the first "colleague-as-guest" episode though BNW is releasing it late), Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans are joined by Yehudi Meshchaninov to talk about what it's really like to work in a system like The Ready.Learn more about Yehudi on LinkedIn.Mentioned references: self-management holacracy sociocracy "the circles" [see "circle structure" in the holacracy link above] Roundabouts from the Brave New Work talk Dungeons & Dragons meritocracy Ali Randel, partner at The Ready 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-----------------------00:00 Intro + Check-In: What is one way your work self is different than the way you are at home with your family and friends?03:11 What inspired this discussion?06:44 The hard parts of a self-managing system16:02 Ways to replenish yourself and maintain discipline about how you show up21:07 Patterns and persistent dynamics in self-managing systems29:29 Role of fear in self-managing systems36:58 Where the broader culture sits on the future of work and its shadow sides41:54 Wrap up: Leave us a review!

Any podcast that promotes busting bureaucracy and hobbling hierarchy is bound to stir up some questions. That's why this week we're going to let our listeners Ask Us Anything. For this episode, we took to Twitter and LinkedIn to find out what you're wondering about. And you came through big time. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans hear questions about check-in rounds, leadership, and the post-pandemic move back to work. If you ever feel a question percolating as you're listening, just drop us a line at podcast@theready.com and we'll include you in a future episode.Mentioned references: Arnold Palmer Maker's Mark Miranda Priestly, from The Devil Wears Prada Gordon Gekko saying "Greed is good" from Wall Street (1987) with Michael Douglas A Hitchhiker's Guide to a Permanently Flipped Workplace by Allison Baum Gates Starbucks store design 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-------------------00:00 Intro + Check-In: If you were a beverage of any kind, what would you be?03:00 Question 1 - Do check in rounds always need to be fun? Should I be making them more serious?06:26 Question 2 - Why is the type of leader who only takes and is mostly interested in themselves typically over-represented in a company’s leadership, vs those who give and focus on collaboration?14:07 Question 3 - What should leaders and teams be thinking about as they transition towards “return to office” discussions?21:58 Wrap Up: Send us your questions!

It's been six weeks since George Floyd was murdered, and activism around the Black Lives Matter movement has reached new heights. For many of us, it's triggered incredibly challenging conversations and reflections about who we are and who we want to be. It feels like now is the time for real change—but what kind? How can each of us play our part without blame or shame? And where do we begin?In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans are joined by their colleague and resident JEDI knight, Sharan Bal to talk about the peril and promise of this moment, and what change agents like us ought to do about it. We don't have all the answers, but we're starting anyway.Learn more about Sharan on LinkedIn.Mentioned references: US Climate Action Network Cornel West Tiye Sherrod-Robinson Black Lives Matter The Ready's OS Canvas "implicit bias" Frederick Winslow Taylor ("Taylorism") scientific management The Ready's hiring process: BNW Ep. 14 "the Boston Review article": How Slavery Inspired Modern Business Management (2018) Henry Gantt, creator of the Gantt chart Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, authors of the Dismantling Racism Workbook -----------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-----------00:00 Intro + Check-In: What should our listeners know about us and our social identities?04:02 What is JEDI10:04 The Ready’s position in this moment12:16 Thinking about change using the OS Canvas20:51 Is it the people or the system or both?25:29 The real learning doesn’t happen in the training. It happens in the work31:35 All “modern” work practices predate the civil Rights movement36:24 What might “different” actually look like49:29 What’s next for The Ready’s JEDI journey55:41 Wrap Up: Leave us a review!

We recorded this episode almost two months ago, and while so much has changed since then (look for an upcoming episode on DEI and BLM), the challenges we face sitting down at our computers every morning have not. They've only intensified. How are we supposed to move our work forward with everything that's going on out there in the world? And what is productivity when it's not defined by economists but by us?In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak with David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, about how to define and achieve progress in a period of chaos and distraction.Learn more about David Allen on LinkedIn and Twitter, or by reading his book Getting Things Done (2015 rev.).Learn more about the Getting Things Done at the website.Mentioned references: Brian Robertson, co-founder of HolacracyOne The law of requisite variety holacracy Ready for Anything (2004) by David Allen Marie Kondo The Organized Mind (2014) by Daniel Levitin Successful Aging (2020) by Daniel Levitin Getting Things Done Workbook --------------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

Remote facilitation has become crucial as teams navigate virtual collaboration. The hosts share personal anecdotes about long video meetings and how to keep participants engaged. They stress the importance of structured participation and suggest tools for enhancing interaction. Fun and social dynamics are explored, emphasizing the need for connection amidst remote work. The discussion includes tips for managing latecomers and the balance of video use, ensuring meetings remain vibrant and effective.

Aaron Dignan, co-founder of The Ready and a thought leader in organizational transformation, teams up with Rodney Evans, an expert in collaborative work environments. They dive into the art of crafting and applying principles that guide decision-making beyond traditional corporate values. Discussing the importance of transparency, discomfort in growth, and collective agreement on team principles, they highlight how actionable guidelines can align teams and promote positive collaboration while leaving space for judgment and experimentation.

Not that long ago, we were living in a grow-grow-grow economy where stock options in a hot venture-backed startup were what most employees coveted. Today, a profitable bootstrapped company that shares its profit with its own employees feels like a revelation. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak with Nathan Barry, founder and CEO of ConvertKit, about how his bootstrapped software company shares profit with its employees, and while we're at it, how they think about compensation more generally. Hopefully, some of our listeners will follow in their footsteps.Learn more about Nathan on LinkedIn and Twitter.You can read the thread that sparked this episode here: https://twitter.com/nathanbarry/status/1231227172238422016Learn more about ConvertKit at their website.Mentioned references: ConvertKit's publicly available financial metrics Coinbase's decision making framework (PPS and RAPIDs) Radford Global Compensation Database "Joel and the transparency episode": BNW Ep. 6 nathanbarry.com/uncertainty -----------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-----------00:00 Intro + Check-In: Share one way in which you are difficult to work with, and one way in which you are easy to work with.04:21 Nathan’s ConvertKit story05:56 ConvertKit’s profit sharing approach13:16 Walking away from tying performance intro profit sharing17:03 Calculating what profit is available to share20:20 Shadow of profit sharing24:09 ConvertKit’s transparency principles27:07 The other components of compensation33:06 Trade-offs to reach philosophical outcomes36:37 Nathan’s advice for leaders navigating this moment39:44 Wrap Up: Leave us a review!

Most of us are working remotely. But we're just treading water, we haven't really mastered it. That's why it's important to talk about remote work after the novelty wears off—when the home office is just... the office. In this episode, we speak with Sid Sijbrandij, Cofounder and CEO of GitLab, about how their 1,290 team members work remotely in support of a $2.75B business. For Sid's team, remote work is a way of life. What can we learn from them?In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans explore what happens when a company isn't forced to be remote, but actually wants to be.Learn more about Sid on LinkedIn and Twitter.Learn More about GitLab at their website or on Twitter.Learn more about GitLab’s remote work policies.Mentioned references: Y Combinator GitLab Handbook GitLab Unfiltered 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 the question that's on everyone's mind these days: "What does the future hold?" In moments like these when uncertainty is especially high, having the right lenses and mental models is the difference between being ready and being overwhelmed.In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak with Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick at WIRED and author of The Inevitable, about how he thinks (about how he thinks) about predicting the future. And we make some guesses of our own.Learn more about Kevin at his website and find him on Twitter.Mentioned references: The Jetsons Brian Eno Lateral thinking The Inevitable, by Kevin Kelly (2016) Scenario thinking Contagion (2011 film) Star Trek communicator 1984, by George Orwell (1949) ------------------------------------------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 the Ready For Anything series behind us, we're jumping right in to Season Three of the podcast! For this season, we're going to play with the format—making it shorter, sweeter, and (hopefully) even more helpful.Before the pandemic, many of our technologies, markets, and institutions had what Douglas Rushkoff calls an "antihuman agenda." Today, the limitations of that agenda are showing. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak with Douglas about how our economic and social operating systems need to change (and are changing) to meet this moment.Learn more about Douglas at his website and on LinkedIn.Learn more about Team Human at the website or by listening to the Team Human podcast.Mentioned references: Team Human - Douglas Rushkoff Get Back In The Box - Douglas Rushkoff Jack Welch, Chairman and CEO of GE Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus - Douglas Rushkoff Bullshit Jobs - David Graeber “The Bilderberg Group” Ricardo Semler's quote "mandala" Skunk Works Norman Vincent Peale and The Power of Positive Thinking ---------------------------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