At Work with The Ready

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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00:00 Intro + Check-In: What's a risk you took everyone thought was a bad idea?
04:08 How to handle the pressure of a big new Lego
08:40 How your identity gets fused with your job
12:24 How identity shifts across career phases
15:18 How capitalism fuses your work and your life
20:00 The fear-driven meta-narrative around AI
23:17 How we should actually be talking about AI at work
33:06 Why we're so bad at handling feelings and grief at work
40:47 Moving leaders from "shit umbrella" to "shit filter"
44:16 Why grief doesn't care about your deadlines
47:47 What responsibility do companies have for worker wellbeing?
52:05 Why the worker-employer contract is breaking

Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coupe Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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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Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coupe Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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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Ready to change your organization? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Let's talk.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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00:00 Intro + Check-In: What's your favorite work of fiction?
04:38 Why strategy is cooking, not the recipe
10:08 Why strategy should read like nonfiction, not fiction
11:51 How much of your strategy should different levels understand?
16:38 Why strategy describes now, not a future plan
18:38 Where vision belongs if not in your strategy
22:23 Why strategy should keep changing, not stay stagnant
25:22 What's essential for a good strategy
32:37 The hard trade-offs hiding in your strategy
39:20 Why the strategy document should take 5% of your time
41:37 Strategy rhythm essential: Retrospectives
44:44 Strategy rhythm essential: Resource allocation meetings
48:05 Strategy rhythm essential: Prioritization meetings
50:06 Strategy rhythm essential: Decision meetings
52:01 Why new strategy execution takes time to pay off

Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coupe Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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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00:00 Intro + Check-In: Who is an inspirational leadership example for you?

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.