King-size is great when we’re talking about candy bars. But when it comes to designing impactful teams, we’re on team fun-size. That’s because the best teams share a clear purpose, have high trust, and are interdependent—which can be hard to pull off when you’re rolling 40 people deep. In today’s episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans size up how we think about team size and dig into: The new questions and contexts to weigh when trying to find an ideal team size What real team interdependence feels like—e.g., “I have an interest and a stake in what every member of this group does and works on” Designing teams that get stuff done without falling prey to groupthink or social loafing How to bust up big groups into smaller teams that organize around different flavors of work The dynamism and flexibility needed to team effectively in a hybrid-work world What sports and tarot can teach us about dream team size 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

The Covid-19 pandemic marked a sea change in how most people think about work. The mind-numbing norms and deeply-rooted inequities that defined our day-to-day working lives were upended, exposed, and called out for being (let’s face it) what they’ve been all along: rigid, harmful, unacceptable, and unproductive. The good news: Many companies are acknowledging that how we work needs major upgrades—ones that enable real autonomy and flexibility.Of course, wanting a flexible work strategy and designing one that works for your organization are two different things. That’s why Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans teamed up with Brian Elliott and Sheela Subramanian—the Executive Leader and Vice President, respectively, of Slack’s Future Forum think tank—for this very special episode of Brave New Work. Together with Helen Kupp, Brian and Sheela co-wrote the new book How the Future Works, a step-by-step guide on building a flexible, inclusive, and digital-first workplace. We jam with them on the fundamental bedrock elements teams need to transform and weave future-of-work practices into their present-day lives.Link to Sheela, Brian, and Helen Kupp's book, "How The Future Works": https://futureforum.com/how-the-future-works/Slack's Future Forum: https://futureforum.com/Sheela Subramanian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheelasubramanian/Brian Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belliott/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 can draw connections between org design at work and org design IRL all day, every day. And today's no exception, as Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans unpack what playing music and playing video games has taught them about working in complexity. In this episode of Brave New Work, they dig into: The reflex for planning and prediction that kicks in when we try something new The instincts that may run counter to working in complexity, and how to develop new heuristics that serve us better The disorientation that comes with simultaneously thinking about, learning, and trying something new The difference between noticing muscles and planning muscles Why it’s worth wading into the complexity pool with playfulness and an openness to experimentation 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

New Belgium Brewing company has been making great beer for decades. It also decided right from the jump to design a company OS that places its people smack-dab at the center of things. That core, human-powered philosophy has driven the wildly popular craft brewer’s business practices for more than 30 years. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak to New Belgium Brewing’s CEO, Steve Fechheimer, about what those practices look like on the ground; how the company adapted, pivoted, and became even more nimble during the pandemic; and why New Belgium Brewing is still on a mission to show that a human-powered business can be a better and more successful one. Hey, we’ll drink to that.Learn more about Steve and his work here: https://www.newbelgium.com/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

Fact: We’re self-management nerds. (And if you’ve been hanging out with us for a while, you probably are, too.) We could talk and think about the how of work all day, every day. But it turns out that for some, getting into the nitty-gritty of roles, working agreements, and governance isn’t their definition of a good time. Which begs some bigger questions: Does working in self-management demand being jazzed about org design? Is there enough support for those showing up to the self-management party with curiosity about the what of work but not about the how? And can we imagine new and adaptive ways for more people to thrive in self-management? In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans dig into these important questions and more.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

This is the eleventh episode in a crossover mini-series between Brave New Work cohosts Rodney Evans and Aaron Dignan and Chase Chapman, builder of DAOs and host of the On the Other Side podcast. Each episode dives into a specific topic related to organizational design for Web3.Today, they talk about the strategic benefits of operating with greater role clarity, when codifying roles makes the most sense, and the teachable set of skills that help anyone with any role thrive in self-management.

This is the tenth episode in a crossover mini-series between Brave New Work cohosts Rodney Evans and Aaron Dignan and Chase Chapman, builder of DAOs and host of the On the Other Side podcast. Each episode dives into a specific topic related to organizational design for Web3.Today, they talk about hiring strategies that aren’t reliant on hoarding power, striking a balance between org-wide participation and circle-run process, and filtering for skills rather than experience to bake more equity into hiring.

The past two-plus years have been defined by uncertainty and upheaval—so it’s safe to say that we’ve been having some feels. Specifically, big feelings—feelings like anger, despair, and burnout, all of which are often pegged as “negative” or “bad.” We tell ourselves lots of stories about these emotions: that we should be strong enough to override them; that our feelings are more intense than others’; and that they have individual (versus structural) solutions. But in the new book Big Feelings: How to Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay, co-authors Mollie West Duffy and Liz Fosslien rewrite that narrative. According to them, the more we can name and understand our toughest emotions, the more we can use them to fuel larger-scale transformation. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans chat with Mollie about why becoming more feelings fluent in the workplace is critical for realizing a more human future of work.Order Mollie and Liz's book here: https://bookshop.org/books/big-feelings-how-to-be-okay-when-things-are-not-okay/9780593418239Learn more about Mollie's work here: https://molliewestduffy.com/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: This episode originally aired in August 2021.] Odds are you’ve seen an article (or 20) about some company somewhere testing out a four-day workweek. And if you’ve scrolled past the story to the comments, you’ve probably spied a few cheers…and plenty of jeers. Punching in five days a week might seem like the natural working order—but it’s less a fixed and unchallengeable fact and more a human-shaped choice we can, you know, shape differently. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan asks Rodney Evans about lessons learned from her own four-day workweek experiment, how to navigate relationships with coworkers on different schedules, and why a four-day workweek is labor’s next evolutionary leap forward.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 an open secret that many organizations’ parental leave policies in the U.S. are subpar—if they exist at all. And if you ask someone why grappling with parental leave is so fraught, you’re bound to get a firehose of frustrating answers. That’s because most organizations approach parental leave as a benefit that costs the company itself rather than as a strategic opportunity for greater learning and development. Enter Dr. Amy Beacom and Sue Campbell from the Center for Parental Leave Leadership and co-authors of the book The Parental Leave Playbook. They believe the parental leave transition is the most overlooked opportunity for professional growth—and they teach organizations how to tap into its potential. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans learn from Amy and Sue about the future of parental leave policies, including: What does good parental leave practice look like? How can those transitions improve team communication and trust? How can healthier parental leave practices make way for more inclusive definitions of leave? Learn more about Amy and Sue's work here: https://cplleadership.com/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