At Work with The Ready

The workplace is a wealth of knowledge. Each member of an organization is a master in their own specialized field, and in the 21st-century workplace, we're often exchanging knowledge, teaching and learning by equal measure. But in a future where self-management is key, how do we ensure this is done in a healthy way?

In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans discuss how to cultivate mastery in a world of knowledge workers.

Mentioned references:

• Second Empire/Mansard roof
• Baroque revival
• "Yehudi's episode": BNW Ep. 42 with Yehudi Meshchaninov
• "Mastery episode of Ready for Anything": BNW Ep. 31
• Dr. Akilah Cadet
• Chapter or community of practice / The Spotify model
• The Dunning-Kruger Effect

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

Leaders in the workplace often talk about experimenting within the existing structures. But in the excitement and flurry of change, we often forget the goal of experimentation: to make it a real learning practice.

In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans discuss how to plan, structure, and assess change experiments with the right intentions, and for the best outcomes.

Read the article based on this episode here.

Mentioned references:

• Supernatural
• Foreshadowing Rodney's 4-day work week episode: BNW Ep. 81
• Doug Kirkpatrick and Morning Star: BNW Ep. 54 with Doug Kirkpatrick
• Action Meeting episode: BNW Ep. 80 with Sam Spurlin
• Retrospectives episode: BNW Ep. 10 with Jordan Husney
• IDM (integrated decision making) episode: BNW Ep. 43
• Fitness landscape from evolutionary biology
• "emotional experience of change": AWWTR Ep. 6

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

It's not a question, but a fact: the conventional legal doctrine governing the 21st century workplace is woefully far behind.

In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to attorney Jason Wiener about the incredible disconnect between current legal norms and modern business, and how he works to ensure equitable business ownership to the forefront of the conversation.

Learn more about Jason on his website, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Mentioned references:

• slap bracelet
• MC Hammer pants
• Blossom, TV show
• School of Industrial Labor Relations
• Clerky
• LegalZoom
• "organizational debt"
• "business judgement rule"
• DAOs: BNW Ep. 96 with Chase Chapman

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

There are elephants in the room, and then there are "Moose Heads on the Table." This book, by Lisa Gill and Karen Tenelius, describes the concept as workplace taboos that are simultaneously ingrained and incredibly toxic for getting things done.

In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans talk to Lisa about how to embrace this discomfort at work, and what self-managing organizations can do to empower their employees to speak up when things aren't working.

Get Lisa's book, Moose Heads On The Table.

Learn more about Lisa on her website, LinkedIn, or by listening to her podcast, Leadermorphosis.

Mentioned references:

• "Basecamp episode": BNW Ep. 71
• "fuddy duddy"
• Reinventing Organizations: BNW Ep. 18 with Frederic Laloux
• "ASCATS": BNW Ep. 65 with Alastair Steward
• The Ready's Tension and Practice Cards
• Jorge Silva, from 10Pines
• Frederic Laloux's "Insights for the Journey" videos
• Liberating Structures: BNW Ep. 49 with Keith McCandless
• Reinventing Work's global community

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

Prior to the 1940's, the word priorities (plural) was rarely used. Because the word priority means that which comes before anything else. It's one thing! But these days, it's not uncommon for leaders and boards to demand multiple, often contradictory outcomes at the same time. We want faster output AND higher quality. We want to grow market share in our core category AND open three new categories. We want to hit the impossible target AND have work life balance. But as the saying goes, if everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. What we need is a way to make tradeoffs explicit and strategic. And that's exactly what "over" statements and "even/over" statements do. They ask us to put one good thing even over another good thing.

In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans discuss how to create and leverage even over statements, and how they can help any team at any level focus on what truly matters now.

As promised, we've also included three of our even/over statements for the Brave New Work podcast here in the show notes:

• Authenticity e/o Polish (We keep it real, including the occasional curse word)
• Depth e/o Breadth (We'll do a whole episode—or five—on prioritization)
• Brevity e/o Freedom to Roam (We try to keep it snappy and we ask guests to do the same)

Read our article on even/overs on Medium.

Mentioned references:

• Tom Thomison: BNW Ep. 16
• HolacracyOne
• The Cheesecake Factory menu
• Patagonia's "Don't Buy This Jacket" ad
• "Essential Intent"
• "Governance episode": BNW Ep. 43
• "Teal context" - Teal organizations
• "Episode about hiring": BNW Ep. 14

----------

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

----------

00:00 Intro + Check-in: What’s a difficult trade off that you’ve made and did it pan out for you?

04:49 What are even/overs and where did they come from?

09:33 More is not always better

11:14 Examples of good even/over statements

19:25 Even/overs don’t necessarily mean you won’t get the second thing

21:13 Using even/overs around Brave New Work principles

29:30 Facilitating a team to get good even/overs

35:00 Using even/overs when all decisions look like the right one

39:20 Good even/overs can be counter-intuitive

42:45 Wrap up: Leave us a review and send us your favorite even/overs!