At Work with The Ready

Whether it’s in front of clients or in front of a mic, we talk about change all day long. Having fewer, better meetings; learning to productively disagree; overhauling and evolving the HR function; exploring four-day work weeks—the podcast has covered miles and miles of transformational ground in 4 years. However we don’t often talk about how we’ve changed. And after six seasons and 162 episodes,...

In July, we began exploring what HR’s current reality looked like and how People teams could evolve into a better, brighter, more adaptive future. Thirteen episodes, three guest interviews, a record breaking AUA, and lots of unexpected hot dog talk later, we’ve reached the end. And while endings can be bittersweet, this miniseries, proudly co-hosted by two org design nerds, is transforming that fe...

HR departments struggle to be all things to all stakeholders while delivering on the most strategic priorities of the business. But when we dig into the OS of HR, we find a resource-constrained function that contains multitudes. Long range people priorities are deemed negotiable, HR’s domain expertise isn’t respected, and the function acts as a service-provider when it should be guiding the organi...

“Ask Us Anything” episodes are some of the most fun to make, so we knew we had to include one in our Future of HR miniseries. In the spirit of a well-meaning (but often toothless) HR feedback box, all the questions are anonymous. On today’s episode, Rodney and Sam look at what arrived in our mailbag and try to solve listener questions. But did they beat the Brave New Work record of answering more...

Spooky season is here, so it seems fitting to share a horror story. Because there’s a monster draining time and energy from most of our organizations. This sneaky shapeshifter can take any form, show up at any time, and is one of the more destructive, chaotic forces we’re forced to deal with at work. We’re talking about the monster that is org debt—and HR has been trapped in a maze with it for dec...

We’re living in a data-rich time. Searching for a study or report on, say, the benefits of a three-day return-to-office policy? You’re mere clicks away from convincing arguments with shiny graphics and spicy pull-quotes to post on LinkedIn. But there’s also never been a worse time for data, with a glut of conflicting information being confidently shared from unreliable sources. Most frustrating, e...

Was it ever possible for our first AI episode to not be a two-parter? Probably not. So we’re back today with more thoughts on AI and the Future of HR. 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, they dove into the AI pool to begin filtering out the noise...

One midnight scroll through LinkedIn is all it takes to be overwhelmed with AI stories and hot takes. There’s a massive amount of confusion, apprehension, excitement, and just general noisiness to make sense of, some which is created by AI tools themselves. But as more and more AI-powered solutions promising to revolutionize HR flood the market—and as more and more employees spiral with worry that...

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: A company hires a change agent (think anyone with “org effectiveness,” “change management,” or “strategy and efficiency” in their title) with promises of how they’ll be the one to revolutionize the company’s future. Several months later, the change agent realizes the company is fighting them at every turn. Despite all the talk, these roles often have minima...

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 H...

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 th...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 Achiev...

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...

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’...

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...

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 marketpl...

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 wh...

We’ve all been there: trying to suss out what a colleague’s crossed arms meant during a presentation; reading between the lines on a passive-aggressive message; or struggling to interpret a perplexing emoji reaction (what do pineapples have to do with the budget?). We're all just doing our best at understanding our coworkers with little to no real information. That’s where a “User Manual to Me” ca...

Whether your company is fully remote, fully in-person, or somewhere in-between, work in 2023 (and beyond) will require healthy and robust digital ecosystems—because that’s where so much work takes place day in and day out. Still, wanting a first-rate digital-first workplace and having one are two different things—and there’s no one-size-fits-all roadmap to follow. Every team has different needs, s...

Why are “Ask Us Anything” episodes our favorite ones to make? Because our listener questions are never not inspiring, provocative, moving, sharp…just insert your favorite emoji here. What can we say? Y’all are the best. In today's episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans head back to the mailbag (and try to break their record of answering only two questions per episode). They offer...