At Work with The Ready

Editor's note: While we're on hiatus we're revisiting some of Rodney and Sam's favorite episodes of the show, starting with this one about RACIs, and how other accountability matrices promise certainty they can never deliver and other ways to start thinking about accountability at work.

Get all the links mentioned in this episode, and the full transcript here: https://www.theready.com/podcast/episodes/awwtr10-why-raci-doesnt-fix-decision-making-and-what-does?

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We've spent the last few months talking about organizations that are built to benefit from change. But change gets extra hard when people leave, especially when that person is your friend and a big part of what makes a job worth getting up for in the morning. It’s hard to balance being happy for someone moving on to their shiny new thing and still grieve the hole they leave behind. Well, the same goes for podcasts and we're a bit in our feels today: after three years behind the mic, Sam has decided it's time to move on to new adventures.

In this episode, Rodney and Sam throw a mini celebration for Sam's last episode as co-host: why now's the time, how the world of work has shifted during his run, a look back at a few of their favorite episodes, and what’s coming next for the show in 2027.

Get all the links mentioned in this episode, and the full transcript here: https://www.theready.com/podcast/episodes/awwtr-58-sam-spurlin-final-episode

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In some organizations, the knowledge isn't in a wiki or a handbook…it’s trapped in people's heads and travels by hallway storytelling. A listener wants to know: how do you build a culture of knowledge sharing and async communication in a place where writing things down has never been the norm?

In this mini episode, Rodney and Sam dig into why the oral tradition persists. From the power dynamics of hoarding knowledge to the fear of having receipts for decisions that went sideways, they share examples of how to lower the cost of sharing until working in the open becomes the path of least resistance.

Get the links mentioned in this episode and a full transcript here: https://www.theready.com/podcast/episodes/aua-how-to-get-institutional-knowledge-out-of-peoples-heads

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Ready to change your organization? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Let's talk.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coupe Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Organizations are absorbing more change than they were ever built for, and that change always comes with a lot of feelings. Whether it's a layoff, a reorg, a promotion, or handing off a project you built, we're constantly having to shed hopes and dreams and stability and start over. But most companies are built to avoid those feelings, not process them, so they just accumulate. Leaders skip straight to the "let's get excited about the future!" phase, everyone's feelings go underground, and teams get trapped in a game of pretend that grinds work to a halt.

In this episode, Rodney sits down with Molly Graham, founder of Glue Club and host of TED's WorkLife, to crack open the chestnut of identity, change, and grief at work. They explore the consequences that come with fusing who we are with what we do, the unintentional harm caused by leaders who pretend everything's fine when it's not, and why every big change needs a "funeral" before everyone can finally move forward.

Get all of Molly's links, references mentioned in this episode, and the full transcript here: ⁠https://www.theready.com/podcast/episodes/awwtr57-grief-identity-and-change-at-work-with-molly-graham

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Ready to change your organization? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Let's talk.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Every organization is postponing something painful they don’t want to face. The CEO’s strategy that’s stopped working, the layoffs that have become unavoidable, the promising prototype that’s not delivering results. But even when what has to be done is clear, nobody wants to be the one to be the one to do it.

In this episode, Rodney and Sam respond to a listener asking about how companies can get better at ripping off the Bandaid. They explore ways to put a clock on hard decisions, shrinking the impact of the rip, and share an example of how The Ready has approached their own hard choices.

Get the full transcript and resources mentioned in this episode here: https://www.theready.com/podcast/episodes/aua-how-to-make-the-hard-call-and-shut-something-down

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Once a year a small group goes offsite, argues for three days, and comes back with a deck. Goals get written. Functions map their OKRs to the slides. Then the market moves, and everybody spends the next eleven months executing against assumptions that stopped being true in February. Most people in the building read that document and can't find themselves anywhere in it, which is how a strategy quietly becomes a story about a company nobody actually works at.

In this episode, Rodney Evans and Sam Rothkopf close out the “Built to Benefit From Change” arc with the piece that underpins everything. They make the case that strategy is what you're executing right now, sort out what belongs at each altitude of the organization, and walk through the four meetings that keep a strategy alive after the offsite ends.

Get the full transcript and resources mentioned in this episode here: https://www.theready.com/podcast/episodes/awwtr56-your-strategy-is-a-work-of-fiction

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It happens gradually: a leader makes one call that should have been decided by one of their reports, then another, until the whole team has quietly stopped deciding anything without “checking in” first. By the time the bottleneck is discovered, it feels like just how things are now and any change feels uncomfortable for everyone.

In this week’s AUA, Rodney and Sam answer a listener’s question about how to catch yourself before you become that bottleneck, navigating the discomfort when handing decision rights back to where they belong, and the “freedom and consequences” philosophy behind delegating tough choices.

Get the full transcript and resources mentioned in this episode here: https://www.theready.com/podcast/episodes/aua-how-leaders-stop-being-the-decision-bottleneck

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Ready to change your organization? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Let's talk.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coupe Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Most of us were told to find the one thing we're great at and ride it. Build the team around your gaps, get good at your specialty and let someone else cover the rest. That advice built a lot of careers, and it also built a lot of leaders who only have one move, right at the moment when the ground under their organization keeps shifting.

In this episode, Rodney Evans and guest co-host Sam Rothkopf get into what leadership looks like inside an organization built to benefit from change. They cover why stewards have to keep firsthand contact with the market, the balance between connection and courage that every working relationship depends on, and one of the deepest truths in all of change work: you can’t change a system without changing yourself along with it.

Get the full transcript and resources mentioned in this episode here: https://www.theready.com/podcast/episodes/awwtr55-leadership-built-to-benefit-from-change

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Ready to change your organization? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Let's talk.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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04:20 What kind of leadership does an organization built to benefit from change need?

05:44 Why you can't outsource contact with your own market

09:30 The higher you rise, the less you resemble your customer

14:08 Find the spark, then test it: how to research without boiling the ocean

16:12 Curiosity requires leaving your ego at home

20:41 Work is existential for your employees. It isn't for you

25:47 Should you double down on your strengths or become a generalist?

31:49 The shrinking half-life of your experience

34:35 You can't hide from the work

41:56 When you're a hammer, everything looks like decision rights

44:51 Connection or courage: which one do you drop?

52:06 Nobody gets to be one thing anymore

Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coupe Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Most organizations run on two default modes of deciding: build consensus until everyone's exhausted, or debate until the boss makes the call. Both feel normal and both quietly stall the work, so how do you introduce something better without triggering resistance?

In this mini episode, Rodney and Sam trade their favorite on-ramps. Rodney starts small: be the person who asks "wait, have we actually decided?" Sam makes the case for a bigger palette of decision types, from the advice process to IDM-lite. And both land hard on the power of the proposal, even a scrappy single paragraph beats another meeting of casting about, and bringing two counter-proposals takes your ego out of the game entirely.

Get the full transcript and resources mentioned in this episode here: https://www.theready.com/podcast/episodes/aua-decision-making-takes-forever

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Hard truth time: your executive team sets the ceiling on how fast everything below it can move and most of them aren't built for that job. Decisions pile up on the CEO's desk because nobody's clear who owns them. Board prep swallows whole weeks. One person quietly absorbs all the coordination nobody designed for. Then a real change arrives, and the team soft-pedals it out through their functions until eight executives are telling eight different stories and nothing’s getting done.

In this episode, Rodney Evans and guest co-host Sam Rothkopf explore the merits of running an ELT Reset to get a leadership team clear on what it owns and how it runs. They unpack the problems that show up on nearly every executive team, the value of leaving your functional hat at the door, and the non-negotiables of any successful C-suite.

Get the full transcript and resources mentioned in this episode here: https://theready.com/podcast/episodes/awwtr-54-resetting-your-executive-leadership-team

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Ready to change your organization? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Let's talk.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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04:40 Why even reset your leadership team

07:09 Switching hats to think like a “first team”

10:07 The chartering conversation everyone skips

11:53 Three problems of every leadership team

15:13 Being clear about what hear you’re wearing

18:55 Red flag: one person holds all the decisions

19:44 The backstop and blame game behind dysfunctional ELTs

22:15 Founder-led resets vs. professional CEO resets

27:07 Building an adaptive op rhythm for your ELT

30:43 Who belongs on an executive leadership team

35:52 The two polarities every ELT swings between

39:09 Learning from Sam’s C-suite experience

42:04 Knowing the signs when it’s time to reset

45:41 Your ELT is essential to investigate and decide

45:40 Investigate, decide, move

Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coupe Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.