At Work with The Ready

Our ears perk up when we hear about different systems practicing self-management. That was the case with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, a Grammy-award winning group that rehearses and performs without a formal conductor. Instead, the orchestra decentralizes power and leadership among its members, who rotate in between positions and treat each other as equals. Collaborative decision-making; multi-fille...

Hey, how ya feeling? Exhausted? Stressed? Like a rubber band that’s finally snapped? Same. These days, the burnout paradigm seems to have shifted from the micro to the macro: Individual burnout has ballooned into collective burnout—into an overwhelming sense of being out of control and out of moves to help make things right. So, what can we do with those feelings? In today’s episode of Brave New W...

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the American legal landscape instantly changed. So did the business landscape, since more than half of Americans rely on their employers for healthcare—and that includes reproductive healthcare. Abortion as a critical workplace issue is now top-of-mind for organizations coming to grips with how they can and should respond to a post-Roe world. Emm...

We’re coming at you with part two of the intimate conversation Rodney and Aaron cracked open last week. (Haven’t listened to part one yet? Go back and check out that episode now!) Today on Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans continue exploring the ups and downs of their professional partnership; why they chose to start working with a coach; the big lessons and lingering worries they both...

In part one of a very special two-part episode from Brave New Work, Rodney Evans and Aaron Dignan talk about…themselves. Specifically, their partnership and why they decided to start working with a coach. Together, they dig into: The tensions, dynamics, and patterns that prompted them to seek outside help How they picked a coach and the skills and capabilities they wanted to level up on Why org de...

Helping big systems learn how to evolve and sustain themselves; designing for long-term endurance rather than long-term liability; disrupting the idea that unchecked growth is always a good thing; asking “What are we designing for?” to clarify tradeoffs from the jump. Those activities not only describe the organizational design work we do at The Ready, it also describes the work of Chuck Marohn at...

You keep having dope questions, so we keep offering our best answers. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans offer their two cents on some of our most recent—and most excellent—listener queries, including: What distinguishes our work from Agile and digital transformation The organizational symptoms that prompt leaders to give new ways of working a try How to stick with ex...

Why does it always feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get work done? How did we come to see time as a resource we could manipulate and exploit? Why does achieving “inbox zero” come with bragging rights? And how has the belief that we can command and control time totally warped not only our personal lives, but also our working lives? In today's episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan...

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...

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—...

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...

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 Brewi...

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 bei...

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...

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 particip...

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 other...

[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...

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 learnin...

Adopting new ways of working can come with a lot of excitement and buzz. It’s thrilling to move from having nothing to having something to having something that really sings. Then different questions pop up: How do you sustain the new-ways-of-working spark over time? What ingredients does a system need to avoid slouching toward staleness and mediocrity? What practices might you be propping up past...

Social networks aren’t new. Humans have always gathered together and forged communities. But deliberately organizing those networks around shared principles, shared context, and a shared purpose is a powerful way we can help address some of the world’s most complex problems. A system that brings individuals and organizations together for learning and collaborative action is what David Ehrlichman c...

The world faces enormously complex and existential challenges. While specific solutions might feel elusive, it’s safe to say that in order to address the most polarizing issues of our time, we’ll need more and better collaboration—more and better tools to help us work together across deep differences and make progress. According to Adam Kahane, a director at Reos Partners, that means the world req...

We’ve talked a lot about action meetings on the show. And retrospectives. And governance. And strategy sessions. Maybe you’ve wondered, “What do these meetings have to do with one another? How do they actually interact? Do they?” We’re glad you asked. Because when woven together, they constitute an organization’s operating rhythm—or heartbeat. And sweating the design of that pulse—intentionally bu...

Ask 10 different people to define sustainability and you could get 10 different answers. That’s because while more and more companies are discussing their environmental impact and efforts, there’s still a lot of work to be done to meaningfully address the global climate crisis. But ask Hana Kajimura how she and Allbirds see sustainability and you get the talk and the walk: Allbirds believes climat...

Why can it feel tough to get people hype about self-management and the Brave New Work-ness of it all? How can we build buzz and momentum around new ways of working to get folks excited about playing and committing to an entirely different game? How can we meaningfully communicate these ideas to overcome the fatigue and fear that often accompanies big change? In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaro...

This is the ninth 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 how DAOs are thinking about leadership and why expanding the definition of leadership means expanding...