After decades of dealing with stagnant practices, burnout, and competing agendas, HR might be tempted to trade in the old family minivan for a flashy new race car and just put the pedal to the metal. A car’s a car…right? While we’re big proponents of “start by starting”, without the skill, confidence, and ability to take tight turns or use the paddle shifters (you’re still with us, right?), you’ll run into problems. Building fluency and comfort with the fundamentals is how your HR team can level and go full speed ahead.In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable.Today, on episode 3, Rodney and Sam are joined by Future of HR team member Meg Saxby for part one of a two-part conversation. They dig into our new maturity model, our assessment, and the six key capabilities every HR department needs to learn, strengthen, and evolve to succeed in the future of work. Welcome to the Future of HR.This episode focuses on the three capabilities necessary for reaching Level 3: Adaptability and Experimentation Contracting and Communications User Design and Decentralization -----------------Learn more about The Future of HR at our websiteCurious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out!Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at fohr@theready.com.Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at fohr@theready.com or hello@theready.com.-----------------00:00 Intro and Check-In: Your 20-year old self comes to work. How would we know?04:27 Purpose of the Future of HR Assessment07:21 Importance of the Key Capabilities10:14 Key Capability 1: Adaptability and Experimentation11:23 Key Capability 2: Contracting and Communications13:42 What makes contracting hard to learn17:40 Using contracting to combat burnout24:27 What good structured communications look like26:22 Key Capability 3: User Experience and Decentralization28:37 Taking UX seriously in HR32:00 Using MVPs to fuel decentralization34:08 Balancing decentralization and risk mitigation38:42 Wrap up: Send us your burning hot HR questions!

One of the toughest work tasks? Convince someone else to back your idea. And if you’re in HR, it’s exceptionally tough to get buy-in from other functions. Maybe your coworkers think they know better because you just handle “people” stuff—and how hard is that? Maybe the CFO will only open the company chest for something with ROI they can track. Or maybe the CEO is hyper-concerned with legacy or the company’s stock price and doesn’t see the value in engaging with your employee engagement survey results. If you’re wondering why so many HR change efforts fail before they even start, look no further than missing buy-in.In this miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can become more resilient, efficient, and equitable.Today, on episode 2, they discuss why it’s so difficult for HR leaders to get widespread buy-in, how to make the case for change, and how to manage complex relationships with the CEO and CFO from the jump. Welcome to the Future of HR.-----------------Learn more about The Future of HR at our websiteCurious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out!Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at fohr@theready.com.Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at fohr@theready.com or hello@theready.com.----------------00:00 Intro and Check-In: What is your most embarrassing injury?03:36 Why buy-in is so difficult in HR08:13 Building your case with business outcomes12:46 Convincing your HR team21:11 Getting the CFO and finance to the table27:50 Dealing with the CEO34:27 Hot take: Is Buy-in an excuse?36:41 Wrap up: Send us your burning hot HR questions!

It’s no secret things haven’t been working in HR for… a while. When you include the last few years of navigating a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, dysfunctional hybrid work policies, rounds of layoffs, and unprecedented economic churn, it’s easy to see HR has been pushed to a breaking point. Human Resources? They feel anything but human.Trapped between competing mandates to mitigate risk while also transforming office culture and the employee experience, it’s no wonder HR can’t steward the change it so desperately wants to. But what if there was a way out?In this new miniseries, Brave New Work’s Rodney Evans is joined by friend-of-the-pod and Ready OG Sam Spurlin to dive into how HR can actually become more resilient, efficient, and equitable.Today, on episode 1, Rodney and Sam talk about why HR’s time to shine is right now, what HR leaders around the world are telling us, and preview the goodies to come on in future episodes. Welcome to the Future of HR.-----------------Learn more about The Future of HR at our websiteCurious where your company sits on our 5-stage maturity model? Take our assessment and find out!Have a burning HR question for Rodney and Sam to answer? Email us at fohr@theready.com.Ready to get started moving your HR department into the future? Email us at fohr@theready.com or hello@theready.com.-----------------00:00 Aaron and Rodney intro02:47 Welcome to the show & Check-In: What’s your favorite physical activity or exercise?06:19 Why HR and why right now?12:20 The Future of HR in a nutshell18:35 How to find and identify your first missions26:03 The pill in the hotdog - Mission Based Teams (MBTs) and new ways of working29:24 The right people, on the right team, in the right environment32:44 Developing the FoHR35:25 Rodney’s learnings from the development process38:27 What’s coming up in future episodes38:53 Wrap Up: Send us your HR questions!

Has it really been almost three and a half years since this wild ride of a podcast began? We’ve been experimenting as we go (remember Rodney’s NPR-host impersonations in the early shows?)—and after releasing roughly one episode a week throughout the entirety of pandemic, we figured it was finally time we learned how to take a proper break and give BNW some TLC.So, we’re going on hiatus and won’t be making new episodes for a while. But that just means it’s a great time to revisit our back catalog. All those hot topics swirling around the news right now (burnout, dysfunctional hybrid work models, toxic hiring practices, you name it) are things we’ve been all over since 2019—and you’ve been right there with us. Some of these conversations might be a few years old, but they’re just as relevant as ever.Plus, now you can check out our Youtube channel, where we’re uploading older episodes weekly. They’re complete with updated show notes, links, transcripts, and video chapters so you can jump to your favorite episode moments.Until we’re back, please stay in touch by following The Ready on Twitter or Linkedin, and by emailing us at podcast@theready.com. We can’t wait to hear what you get up to while we’re gone. Now go change something.

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.Aaron recently joined Morra Aarons-Mele on her show, The Anxious Achiever, for an epic chat about mental health, the workplace, and disrupting the systems that can reward and reinforce unhealthy behavior. We hope you enjoy the exchange and we’ll return with a fresh episode of Brave New Work soon.To tune in for more episodes of Morra’s show, head to her website or search for "The Anxious Achiever" wherever you get your podcasts.-------This episode originally aired on October 26th, 2022 on The Anxious Achiever with Morra Aarons-Mele, presented by LinkedIn.Aaron Dignan is founder of The Ready - an organizational transformation and coaching practice. He focuses on how to prioritize adaptivity and autonomy over efficiency and control - which you can pretty quickly extrapolate into upsides for mental health of workers and leaders. He’s also the author of the book Brave New Work - and cohost of the podcast of the same name. Host Morra Aarons-Mele speaks with him about he helps organizations and individuals realize they need to change, and how he guides them through that transformation. About The Anxious Achiever:Host Morra Aarons-Mele is on a mission to reframe how we think about anxiety and mental health in the workplace. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. We desperately need better models for leadership and a more holistic view of mental health. Our culture tells those of us who suffer from anxiety and depression that we can’t succeed, but we tell a different story — without sugarcoating the tough stuff. We feature stories from people who’ve been there and experts who can help you thrive.

You didn’t think we’d do our first-ever Brave New Work live show and let you miss the party, did you? That’s right, we’re coming in hot with a very special episode we recorded at SXSW on March 11th in partnership with our friends at Slack.Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans hit the Slack Studio Live stage with Brian Elliott (co-founder of Future Forum, an SVP at Slack, and a friend-of-the-pod) to talk about the future of work and break down several myths that keep holding us back. Plus, we kept Austin weird with one our strangest check-in rounds yet!We came prepared with our hottest takes (and not just because it was nearly 90 degrees) on these pervasive workplace myths: The person who’s always busy is the person who’s most productive. Compensation is the most important thing when choosing a new role. If you aren’t at the top, there’s nothing you can do to spark change at work. There’s no place for feelings in the workplace. You can’t build culture if you’re not IRL at an office. Bonus Content Alert! You might hear this episode and wonder…was this really recorded outside in front of a live audience?! It was (BNW tips its hat to Taylor Marvin weekly with good reason) and we have the goods to back it up. Head to our YouTube channel for the unedited version that features our faces and cheering crowds for the real-deal Brave New Work live experience.Special thanks to Sparks for recording us live!------------------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 Walk On Stage01:05 Intro & Check-In: Do you believe in ghosts, aliens, or both?05:02 Myth 1: The busy person is the most productive.09:23 Myth 2: Money is the most important thing when choosing a job.14:38 Myth 3: Non-leaders have no power to change their work environment26:00 Myth 4: Feelings don't belong in the workplace42:55 Myth 5: It's not possible to build culture if your company isn't in person in an office.50:04 Wrap Up: Subscribe and leave us a review!

Rebroadcast Note: We’re still sleeping off a taco- and margarita-filled weekend at SXSW, so we’re resurfacing one of our most popular episodes today. While two years have passed since we first had this conversation about hybrid work (and much has changed since then), it’s an inescapable fact that many companies are still struggling (some quite publicly) with this particular new way of working. We’re planning on revisiting this topic later in 2023, so email us with your hybrid horror stories and any questions you’d like answered! [This episode originally aired on July 12, 2021.]It’s a major question on many minds these days: When will the office reopen? Or rather: Will the office reopen? Different countries are in very different stages of heading back to physical workspaces (or not); in the United States, the prospect of on-premise work is inching closer as companies struggle to decide between three main models: fully in-office; fully remote; or…maybe some mix of both?In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans unpack why floppy hybrid models are doomed to fail, different flavors of creativity (that don’t rely on glass-walled conference rooms), and what the most adaptive path forward could look like.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

Rebroadcast Note: Some things never go out of style, which is why we resurface this foundational episode year after year. Plus, our BNW community has grown by a few thousand new listeners since it last aired! If you’ve already heard this episode, check out our back catalog, leave us a review, or email the podcast to let us know what topics you’d like us to cover this year. If this is the first you’re hearing of “Brave New Work 101,” happy listening. [This episode originally aired on September 14, 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.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 back with part two of our conversation about talent marketplaces. Last week, Rodney and Aaron explored what talent marketplaces are and the types of organizational problems they can help address. (Pro tip: If you haven’t yet listened to that episode, hit pause and check it out now!)This week, they’re moving past the big picture and getting into the nitty gritty of what makes talent marketplaces work…or not. It’s not just about how to move pieces around a chess board, but rather about disrupting old-school organizational power plays. Today, Rodney and Aaron take a closer look at: What it takes to maintain a transparent marketplace that matches the right people with the right opportunities without resorting to shady, backroom dealings How traditional performance management systems penalize (instead of promote) moving talent around What experiments a company can try to give these principles a shot How compensation works when people aren’t tethered to a traditional role with clear benchmarks or boundaries ----------------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 Check-In: What are you looking forward to this weekend?01:42 How do talent marketplaces work for people participating in them?05:50 How traditional organizations prevent and penalize mobility10:16 What you learn when you let people leave teams and move around16:02 Experiments with talent marketplaces for companies to run21:38 Compensation structures for talent marketplaces25:08 Who pays for cross-functional teams?27:45 Fine tuning and maintaining the system28:54 Why these teams are the best places to learn new ways of working

We’ve probably talked about the classic, old-school, hierarchical org chart hundreds of times on the show. Not because we love it (longtime Brave New Work-ers know it’s not really our jam), but rather because it’s one of the most recognizable organizational structures out there. Despite its everywhere-ness, the boxes-and-line org chart isn’t exactly an adaptive way to design an organization. So what’s an alternative?We head to Hollywood (metaphorically) to explore a different structural model: the talent marketplace. Where org charts break, talent marketplaces bend—offering greater flexibility and resilience.In Part 1 of this two-parter, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans dig into the many benefits of talent marketplaces, the sticky problems they help solve, and what can trip up companies when they first move toward this model.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 Check-In: What is your ideal amount of novelty and rotation when it comes to your roles at work?03:40 What is a talent marketplace?10:27 What is the problem talent marketplaces solve?13:39 One big winner can actually limit a talent marketplace20:23 Managing success the rest of the system isn't ready for24:58 The tipping point of scarcity