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At Work with The Ready: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin
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 struggling with a carousel of ineffective meetings, annual strategy sessions that go nowhere, or decision-making churn that never ceases, they’ve seen it all and are here to help. In each episode, they'll break down common workplace challenges and show you the moves—both big and small—to start making real, lasting change. (Formerly “Brave New Work” with Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans)
Latest Episodes
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- 3 weeks ago49 min
[Rebroadcast] RACI is The Wrong Answer To The Right Question
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? -------------------------------- Ready to change your organization? Let's talk. Get our newsletter: Sign up here. Follow us: LinkedIn Instagram ------------------------------ Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.
- Oct 5, 202628 min
58. The One Where Sam Says Goodbye
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 -------------------------------- Ready to change your organization? Let's talk. Get our newsletter: Sign up here. Follow us: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In 04:08 Why now's the right moment for Sam to leave 08:55 Rodney and Sam's highlights from their years together 13:30 Rodney and Sam's all-time favorite episodes 17:28 Sam's parting thoughts and appreciation 20:30 How to stay in touch with Sam 22:52 Blooper reel Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.
- Sep 28, 20269 min
AUA: How to Get Institutional Knowledge Out of People’s Heads
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 -------------------------------- Ready to change your organization? Let's talk. Get our newsletter: Sign up here. Follow us: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.
- Sep 21, 202659 min
57. Your Company Wasn't Built to Grieve with Molly Graham
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 -------------------------------- Ready to change your organization? Let's talk. Get our newsletter: Sign up here. Follow us: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- 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.
- Sep 14, 202614 min
AUA: How To Make the Hard Call and Shut Something Down
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 -------------------------------- Ready to change your organization? Let's talk. Get our newsletter: Sign up here. Follow us: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.
- Sep 7, 202655 min
56. Your Strategy is a Work of Fiction
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 -------------------------------- Ready to change your organization? Let's talk. Get our newsletter: Sign up here. Follow us: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- 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.
- Aug 31, 20268 min
AUA: How Do Leaders Stop Being The Decision Bottleneck?
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 -------------------------------- Ready to change your organization? Let's talk. Get our newsletter: Sign up here. Follow us: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.
- Aug 24, 202654 min
55. Your Org Can Be Built to Benefit From Change. Can You?
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 -------------------------------- Ready to change your organization? Let's talk. Get our newsletter: Sign up here. Follow us: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- 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.
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About At Work with The Ready
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 struggling with a carousel of ineffective meetings, annual strategy sessions that go nowhere, or decision-making churn that never ceases, they’ve seen it all and are here to help. In each episode, they'll break down common workplace challenges and show you the moves—both big and small—to start making real, lasting change. (Formerly “Brave New Work” with Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans)
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