At Work with The Ready

In this podcast, they discuss the confusion and excitement surrounding AI in HR. They share personal AI journeys, ways to start AI exploration, and upgrades for HR maturity levels. They mention cultural attitudes towards AI, Betamax vs VHS, and the law of requisite variety. The hosts emphasize starting small in AI experimentation and the potential of AI for idea generation and organizational evolution.

The podcast discusses the role of market designers in organizational transformation and the importance of a healthy talent marketplace. It explores the rise of freelancing and modular workforce and the concept of creating a robust talent marketplace within large organizations.

Since last fall, we’ve spoken/joked/laughed/cried with hundreds of HR leaders and change makers about the Future of HR and the industry’s evolutionary tipping point. And despite spending time with many inspiring CPOs and CHROs, there’s none quite like Hebba Youssef. Along with being Workweek’s Chief People Officer, she’s also the author of “I Hate It Here”, a no holds barred newsletter unpacking HR’s thorniest problems and putting into words what everyone’s thinking but too afraid to say. Plus, her GIF game? Unparalleled.This week, on episode 6 of our miniseries, Rodney Evans sits down with Hebba to talk about how “I Hate It Here” came to be, how a role often tasked with putting out one fire after another can stay focused on strategy, and why being CPO is the hardest and loneliest job in any organization.Learn more about Hebba Youssef: On LinkedIn Subscribe to the “I Hate It Here” newsletter and listen to her podcast. Join the Safe Space community. --------------Learn more about The Future of HR at our website.Curious 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 + Check-In: What’s something that you love that is kind of embarrassing?04:20 Origins of “I Hate It Here”09:36 What resonates the most in the “I Hate It Here” community?10:32 Sources of burnout in HR15:58 Balancing strategy with the day-to-day as CPO21:23 HR’s martyrdom complex23:48 Isolation and loneliness in HR30:25 The CEO-CPO relationship34:52 HR as the organization’s doctor40:09 Hebba’s top HR mission to solve46:03 Wrap up: Leave us a review!

The role of HR Business Partner is often a tale of two experiences. On the one hand, HRBPs are some of the most empathetic and passionate people you’ll ever meet. On the other hand, they’re stuck on the hamster wheel of busywork, bouncing from crisis to crisis without the authority to prioritize their energy—and without the respect from leadership to make a real difference. Look up “burnout” in the dictionary and odds are you’ll find a picture of an HRBP.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 5, they explore how this critical role took a hard left turn from it’s intended purpose, what its future-of-work glow-up (hello, HR Business Coach) could look like, and how HR Business Coaches + Mission-Based Teaming = unlimited potential.References mentioned: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Episode 1481 "Talks about Competition" (1981). "How People Make Crayons" begins at 05:20. American Gladiators Dave Ulrich, of the Ulrich HR model --------------Learn more about The Future of HR at our website.Curious 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 + Check-In: What was your favorite show to watch as a small child?04:05 Why the HRBP role isn’t working10:41 Why Future of HR requires rethinking the HRBP12:53 Skill overlap between HRBP and HR Business Coach21:03 Shifting from “service mindset” to “product mindset”25:07 HR Business Coach’s point of view27:20 Recap of Level 3 and what’s changed29:26 Who does the HR Business Coach report to?34:55 Wrap up: Send us your burning HR questions!

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.Last week, Rodney and Sam teamed up with Future of HR team member Meg Saxby to explore our new maturity model, assessment, and the six key capabilities every HR department needs to learn, strengthen, and evolve to succeed in the future of work. Today, on episode 4, Rodney, Sam, and Meg finish that two-parter. Which reminds us: If you haven’t yet listened to last week’s episode, do that first for a 101 overview of our maturity model.This episode focuses on the capabilities needed to succeed in Levels 3-5 (and our secret bonus level): Facilitation and Future of Work Coaching Solution Design and Market Management Data Literacy and Automation ---------------------------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 a language you would like to speak (or speak better than your currently do) and why?03:03 Why these are Varsity 2.0 level skills04:31 Key Capability 4: Facilitation and Future of Work Coaching08:04 What Future of Work coaching looks like in practice11:34 Key Capability 5: Solution Design and Market Management15:31 Why solution design is such a big shift for HR18:18 Key Capability 6: Data Literacy and Automation19:56 Big potential wins for automation in HR right now23:32 Impact of AI on capacity planning24:58 Holding our predictions lightly26:51 Wrap up: Send us your burning hot HR questions!

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.