At Work with The Ready

By Rodney Evans and Sam SpurlinBusiness Entrepreneurship Management

At Work with The Ready episodes

March 21, 2020Brave New Work 21. Ready For Anything: Purpose
This is the second episode in a series devoted to teams in transition due to the Novel Coronavirus. It's about more than simply adapting to remote work—it's about adopting (in the midst of this chaos) a way of working that will make you ready for anything.
Today's episode digs deep into the area of purpose and the role that will play in navigating this uncertainty.
This Brave New Work miniseries with Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans is based on The Ready's OS Canvas which is featured in Brave New Work.

References mentioned:
The Ready's OS Canvas
Mira Shani, Rodney's yoga teacher

Send the questions you'd like to see answered in this series to [email protected]
Does your team need help navigating this moment? Email us at [email protected]
23 min
March 19, 2020Brave New Work 20. Ready For Anything: Introduction
This is the first in a series of short episodes devoted to teams in transition due to the Novel Coronavirus. It's about more than simply adapting to remote work—it's about adopting (in the midst of this chaos) a way of working that will make you ready for anything.
This Brave New Work miniseries with Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans is based on The Ready's OS Canvas which is featured in Brave New Work.

References mentioned:
The OS Canvas

Send the questions you'd like to see answered in this series to [email protected]
Does your team need help navigating this moment? Email us at [email protected]
31 min
March 17, 2020Brave New Work 19. The Secrets for Better One-On-Ones with Michael Bungay Stanier
The one-on-one meeting, often between a manager and their "direct report" is among the most common and popular meetings in existence. But it may also be the most harmful.
In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans debate and discuss the best and worst ways to hold this meeting. Later, they're joined by the author of The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier, to figure out how to show up to one-on-ones as a coach rather than a boss.

Learn more about Michael and his work on LinkedIn and his website.
Learn more about Box of Crayons on their website and on Youtube.

Resources mentioned:
The Ready's Tension and Practice Deck
"Radical candor": Episode 13 with Kim Scott
"Dunbar's number"
"First 90 days of self-management": Episode 11 with Doug Seacrist
"Rockefeller Habits": Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish
The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by Ronald Heifetz
Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey

Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com
We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]
Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com
59 min
March 16, 2020Brave New Work 18. The Impact of Reinventing Organizations with Frederic Laloux
It's been many years since the release of Frederic Laloux's groundbreaking book Reinventing Organizations. In some ways the world is different—more ready, more radical—and in other ways, not much has changed. More adaptive and soulful ways of working are still fringe. The way forward isn't clear.
In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak with Frederic about where we stand, where we're heading, and why this moment feels like the last gasp of authoritarianism, extractive capitalism, and all the other -isms.

Learn more about Frederic and Reinventing Organizations at his website and his Youtube video series.

Mentioned resources:
Ken Wilber, specifically stages of development, orange and teal organizations, and Spiral Dynamics
The work of Parker Palmer
Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan (if you haven't read it yet, now's your chance!)
Brian Robertson's theory of "evolutionary purpose"
Ricardo Semler, CEO of Semco and author/speaker
Taylorism
Douglas McGregor, management professor and author of The Human Side of Enterprise

Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com
We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]
Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com
52 min
March 13, 2020Brave New Work 17. What We Can Learn About Org Design from the Coronavirus
Facing a pandemic, many of the world's institutions are finally giving remote work, agility, responsiveness, and basic human decency some deep consideration. Meanwhile, it's becoming clear that organizations who have already been prioritizing adaptivity and humanity at work are surprisingly well prepared to face this challenge.
In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans explore what we can learn from a moment like this, and why creating a culture built on autonomy, transparency, and decentralization makes sense with or without a crisis. In this moment of disruption and anxiety, it felt good to sit down and focus on what we can do, rather than second guessing the past, or predicting the future. Stay safe out there people.

Mentioned resources:
"Enabling and governing constraints" from Dave Snowden's Cynefin framework
"Learn by Doing episode" - Ep. 9 with Ben Kaufman
"Tom's episode" - Ep. 16 with Thomas Thomison

Get more information about COVID-19 from the CDC and the WHO.

Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com
We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]
Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com
37 min
March 09, 2020Brave New Work 16. Embracing Uncertainty: Navigating Future Tension with Thomas Thomison
Our job is to keep the organization safe, right? And in order to do that we need to predict the future, see around corners, and avoid unnecessary risk. We need to be able to list all the ways the idea we're considering can go wrong. Or... do we?
In this episode, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk about a concept The Ready calls "future tension," which is what happens when we let our worries about the future hijack the present.

Later, they’re joined by Thomas Thomison, founding partner of Encode.org, who takes us deep into the origins of the concept and teaches us how to overcome it.

Learn more about Thomas on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Thomas' work at Encode.org, HolacracyOne, and PowerShift Capital.

Resources mentioned:
David Allen and "Getting Things Done"

Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com
We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]
Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com
1 hr
March 02, 2020Brave New Work 15. Unauthorized Change: How to Break the Rules with Sarah Devereaux
The most common question we hear is, "What can I do if I'm not the one in charge?" So many of us—including leaders and managers—want to eradicate bureaucracy. But, we're not the head honcho.
In this episode on Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk about the simple moves anyone can make to start moving toward a better way of working. Because we have a lot more authority than we think we do. And the power we don't have can be enlisted.
Later, they're joined by Sarah Devereaux from Google, who shares what she's learned about sparking change after more than fourteen years inside Google.

Learn more about Sarah on LinkedIn.

Mentioned Resources:
Episode 8 of Brave New Work feat. David Marquet

Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com
We want to hear from you. Send your guest ideas and feedback to [email protected]
Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com
51 min
February 24, 2020Brave New Work 14. Inside The Ready's Hiring Process with Kate Glazebrook
The Ready has a habit of disrupting the established way of doing things, but we've never really looked at our hiring process... until now. In the last few months, we've radically overhauled the way we making hiring decisions by asking questions like, "Can we design a process that reduces bias and homogeny? Can we design a process that focuses on what we want rather than what we don't?"
In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk about the inner workings of The Ready's new system, the rationale behind it, and what early results are telling us about the work ahead to make it better. Later, they're joined by Kate Glazebrook, cofounder of Applied, who deepens our understanding of the biases and cognitive gymnastics inherent in hiring, while making us feel a little better about our struggles thus far. If you make hiring decisions, this one is a must.

Learn more about Kate on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Learn more about Be Applied and their approach at their website.

Mentioned Resources:
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Iris Bohnet, author of What Works: Gender Equality by Design

Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com
We want to hear from you. Send your guest ideas and feedback to [email protected]
Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com
1 hr 4 min
February 17, 2020Brave New Work 13. The Future of Feedback with Kim Scott
Are you open to some feedback? Gulp. That one word is enough to send most of us packing. Why? Because we've endured far too many "conversations" that were infrequent, impersonal, critical, and one-sided. But, is it possible to do feedback right?

In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk about three different waves of feedback at work, and why it's so critical to question our assumptions and reinvent this pervasive practice. Later, they’re joined by Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor, who teaches us how to balance caring personally and challenging directly.

Learn more about Kim on her website, LinkedIn or Twitter.
Learn More about Kim's book, Radical Candor, on the web and on Youtube.

Resources mentioned:
"Ego and identity" - Episode 5 of our podcast!
15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman and Kaley Warner Klemp
Lie 5: People Need Feedback by Marcus Buckingham
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com
We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]
Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com
1 hr 10 min
February 10, 2020Brave New Work 12. Ask Us Anything No. 1: Talent Calibration Minefields and Building Your Future of Work Bookshelf
Any podcast that promotes busting bureaucracy and hobbling hierarchy is bound to stir up some questions. That's why this week we're going to let our listeners Ask Us Anything.
For this episode, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans took to Twitter and the Brave New Work Wednesdays newsletter to find out what you're wondering about. And you came through big time. We plan on doing this every twelve weeks or so from here on out, so if you ever feel a question percolating as you're listening, just drop us a line at [email protected]

Resources mentioned:
The Peter principle
Essentialism by Greg McKeown
Organize for Complexity by Niels Pflaeging
The Little Book of Beyond Budgeting by Steve Morlidge
Drive by Dan Pink
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B Rosenberg
Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
We the People by John Buck and Sharon Villines
Many Voices One Song by Ted J Rau and Jerry Koch-Gonzalez
Unboss by Lars Kolind and Jacob Bøtter
9 Lies About Work by Marcus Buckingham
John Cutler's Twitter account

Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com
We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]
Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com
33 min

About At Work with The Ready

From the publisher's feed

Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin have helped teams around the world adopt more modern ways of working and on At Work with The Ready they’re sharing the inside scoop with you, too. Whether you’re…