18. If You Won’t Make Changes, That Employee Engagement Survey Is a Waste of Time

While exploring bad meetings a few episodes ago, Rodney and Sam hit on something that doesn’t often get a lot of air time: the power of good habits and the discipline to care about the small things. Because when we’re trying to change companies on an atomic level, it can feel like small potatoes to focus on check-in rounds, or writing Slack messages, or how we compose to-do lists. But you can’t run toward the future of work at full speed when your shoes aren’t properly tied. Here’s what we know: High-performing teams—from ice hockey to symphony orchestras—all prioritize the fundamentals. So why don’t we do that in the workplace? In this episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin dig into why building strong work habits are more important than you might think and the mundane but fundamental practices they start with. (Producer’s note: We had a tech mishap during recording, so this week’s episode might sound a little different. We blame Rodney’s lake house ghost (more on that in the SXSW episode). We’ll be back to our usual sound next episode.) -------------------------------- Interesting in hearing more about the zones of the ocean? We've got stuff coming soon! Sign up here for first access: https://theready.ck.page/newvision Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram -------------------------------- Mentioned references: "op rhythm": BNW EP. 118 "all work is now meetings": White-Collar Work Is Just Meetings Now, from The Atlantic, 2024 John Madden (the hockey one) John Madden (the football one) John Wooden, UCLA basketball coach Atomic Habits, book by James Clear Sunsama 80/20 rule "5:1 praise to criticism": The Ideal Praise-to-Criticism Ratio, HBR, 2013 action meeting: BNW Ep. 80 with Sam Spurlin retrospective meeting: BNW Ep. 10 with Jordan Husney check-in rounds "don't say hey website": https://nohello.net/en/ inspired by https://www.nohello.com/ "Amazon memo meeting" "silent meeting"

No burying the lede this week: Employee engagement surveys are broken. We expect them to tell us everything about a workplace’s culture—but they often miss the mark, capturing just a sliver of what's going on and usually only symptoms instead of underlying causes. As leaders try to make sense of the data, there’s frequently a lot of smoke chasing, but nobody can tell where the fire is, or if there’s one at all. Add to that employee distrust around anonymity, spun-up initiatives to make changes that never go anywhere, and the fact that most surveys don’t even ask the right questions, and it’s no wonder everyone, from the C-suite to the frontline worker, suspects these surveys do more harm than good. In this episode, Rodney and Sam explore what “engagement” actually means, what organizations should be measuring instead and why, and how to truly understand the health of your organization. -------------------------------- Interesting in hearing more about the zones of the ocean? We've got stuff coming soon! Sign up here for first access: https://theready.ck.page/newvision Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery: LinkedIn Instagram ------------------------------- Mentioned references: RACI episode: AWWTR Ep. 10 performance management episode: BNW Ep. 56 The Ready's OS Canvas "complication" vs "complexity" "state" vs "trait" Marcus Buckingham

We talk a lot about the importance of emergence—of being more comfortable with being uncomfortable. However, it’s hard to practice what you preach… especially for a podcast with a tight schedule. Normally, when one of two hosts is out of commission, you don’t record. But when this recently happened to us, we asked “How might we?” and took a big ol’ step into the unknown. We’re glad we did, because this week’s guest is Dr. Jason Fox, a self-proclaimed wizard-philosopher, best-selling author, and senior leadership advisor to Fortune 500 companies around the world. In classic wizard-philosopher fashion, he and Sam throw out the script for a far-reaching conversation about the importance of rituals, the roles we play when we’re at work, and how embracing uncertainty is where the magic truly happens. Learn more about Jason: On his website On LinkedIn Read How to Lead A Quest or The Game Changer Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: Game Frame, book by Aaron Dignan Brave New Work, book by Aaron Dignan James Carse, author of Finite and Infinite Games Rodney's "I am CEO vs I hold the role of CEO": AWWTR Ep. 14 Lands of Lorecraft, series of articles by Venkatesh Rao Jevons Paradox "rivalrous dynamics" "multipolar traps" "operating rhythm": BNW Ep. 118 Creativity, Inc., book by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace basilisk "GTD": BNW Ep. 39 with David Allen John Keats and "negative capability" Antifragile, book by Nassim Taleb "Metacrisis" The Ministry for the Future, book by Kim Stanley Robinson Children of Time, series by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Expanse, series by James S.A. Corey The Culture, series by Iain M. Banks

It’s mailbag time! We’ve been diving into specific problem areas every episode—and turns out if you go deep, your audience will go even deeper. Listeners, the questions you send us are getting hard! The ones that feel extra complex and extra tangly? We take those to the airwaves to unravel them live and share our knowledge back with you. On today’s episode, Rodney and Sam tackle another batch of our audience’s thorniest questions. Questions tackled: How to combat business speak in the workplace? How do we use new ways of working and psych safety in an arena that relies on older practices as part of its identity? What are your thoughts on how to divide up total compensation for employees? How much is salary vs health care vs perks? Is there a size threshold to organizations? What do companies do that have gotten too large and it’s hurting their operations? What are the trends around new ways of working, and what motivates organizations to engage with The Ready? How can orgs unlock real collaboration, not just sharing information? Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: Junior Mints Jets Pizza Detroit style pizza Maslow’s hierarchy Span of control "rule of 7" Dunbar’s number W.L. Gore Adaptive strategy ”Hail Mary” pass ”Jamnado”: AWWTR Ep. 7

Planning a corporate workshop or off-site often feels like making a burrito. So many options—and so many opinions on what should go in it. A presentation rodeo on the next quarter’s objectives? Absolutely. Time for a key initiative to get the spotlight in front of the C-suite? Yes, please. Extra scoops of mandatory team-building to strengthen your culture? Why not. Everyone likes fun, right? But when it’s time to actually chow down, it quickly becomes clear you’re dealing with an overstuffed, leaky, $20,000 mess. And everything the workshop was supposed to accomplish? Yeah, that didn’t happen—so you’re back at square one come Monday. In this episode, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore why our workshop eyes are often bigger than our workshop stomachs; standard off-site practices we need to offload; and how to design new experiences that are actually meaningful and productive. Interested in hearing more about the sunshine, twilight, and midnight zones? We’ve got stuff coming soon! Sign up here to get first access. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: spinning top game "Skittles" "meetings episode": AWWTR Ep. 12 "strategy stack": AWWTR Ep. 2 "even/overs": BNW Ep. 44 "essential intent": BNW Ep. 90 with Greg McKeown working agreements: BNW Ep. 103 Topgolf Liberating Structures Ball Point game Brainflakes

It’s an unspoken truth in most knowledge work that summer is a wasted season. From late May to early September, many teams face reduced numbers and it’s nearly impossible to spin up anything new. The director you need approval from? On a cruise. The graphic designer you need for that new marketing campaign? Camping with the kids. When people just aren’t around, it can sometimes be easier to keep the lights on during the vacation relay race and run out the clock until fall. The two most common sense solutions: take vacation yourself or focus on different things when people are away. But actually doing either of those things? Way harder than you’d expect, especially when modern work is tuned to overwhelm mode 24/7/365. In this episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin talk about why summer is where organizational progress goes to die, and how we can stop spending those months doing business as usual and instead live a hot employee summer. Interested in hearing more about the sunshine, twilight, and midnight zones? We’ve got stuff coming soon! Sign up here to get first access. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: "Vacation OS episode": BNW Ep. 142 "async episode": AWWTR Ep. 7 "medieval peasant vacation time": all articles point back to Juliet B. Schor's 1993 "The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure" "workshop episode": will be released Monday, July 22nd! "work as a paycheck discussion": AWWTR Ep. 11

The world is changing faster than ever. But leadership teams seem a little… stagnant. Sure, there’s plenty of changeover as one CEO is replaced by another, or as new C-suite roles pop up, but the way leadership teams operate is largely unchanged from the 1950s. That model? It’s antithetical to the change that’s needed for the rest of an organization to become more adaptable and resilient. In this episode, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore the ways in which leadership teams are holding their organizations back from the future. They’ll dig into how leaders can shift from defense to offense, set the right expectations for their teams, and recognize what their “real work” actually is. Interested in hearing more about the sunshine, twilight, and midnight zones? We’ve got stuff coming soon! Sign up here to get first access. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more org design nerdery! Got an idea for future episodes or a thorny workplace question you need answered? Shoot us a message to [email protected]. Mentioned references: "totchos" management science servant leadership The Ready's OS Canvas Functional Analytic Psychotherapy Made Simple, by Gareth Holman Gareth's podcast episode: BNW Ep. 5 with Gareth Holman "Closing Time" by Semisonic Mural

It seems everybody’s up in arms about meetings these days. “There’s too many! They ones we have suck! We have meetings to prepare for other meetings! They keep me from doing my actual job!” We get it, and we hear you. In fact, between BNW and our current show, we’ve devoted 9 episodes to meetings! What more could there be to say in a tenth? Turns out, a ton. There’s so much intertwined with modern meeting culture that we’re often doomed to failure before we even get in the room. From the trap of the status meeting to leaders hogging all the stage time, Rodney and Sam dissect where most meetings go wrong and give you the tools to rewrite the script for how to start holding meetings that matter. If you’re looking to make your next meeting better, make it a huddle! Learn more about how huddles can bring side-by-side collaboration and creativity to your remote teams at Slack.com. Interested in hearing more about the sunshine zone and the twilight zone? We’ve got stuff coming soon! Sign up here to get first access. Prefer to watch rather than listen? Check out the extended live cut over on Youtube. Want future of work insights and experiments you can try? Sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on your favorite platforms for more org design nerdery! LinkedIn Instagram Youtube We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Mentioned references 1:1 meetings: BNW Ep. 19 with Michael Bungay Stanier; AWWTR Ep. 4 retrospective meetings: BNW Ep. 10 with Jordan Husney OS Coffee meetings: BNW Ep. 144 an operating rhythm of meetings: BNW Ep. 118 action meetings: BNW Ep. 80 with Sam Spurlin "RACI episode": AWWTR Ep. 10

In the nearly five years since launching this podcast, our inbox has received one type of question more than any other: “If I’m trying to change a system that just doesn’t want to change, how do I keep going? When should I admit defeat and leave?” As people who function as “professional resistance” in organizations all over the world, this questions always hits us hard—because change itself is hard and often can lead to burnout. So we’re finally having this conversation out in the open to tackle why the people who care the most are the ones who leave. Rodney and Sam dig into why burnout is so common among change agents, how to identify signs of meaningful progress, and when individuals and leaders should see the writing on the wall and throw in the towel. Oh, and we're on Instagram now! Check us out there for fun behind the scenes stuff and extra things you won't find anywhere else. To see the video version of this episode, head on over to Youtube. Mentioned references: "orthogonal" "wasta" "emotional labor of change": AWWTR Ep. 6 "Sisyphean" "the maze and the mouse" "see through The Matrix" Mission-Based Team: FoHR Ep. 1 "the yips" Rick Rubin EMDR Therapy Basecamp scandal: BNW Ep. 71 Want future of work insights and experiments you can try? Sign up for our newsletter. We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.

The RACI matrix (as well its cousins DACI, DARCI, etc.) aims to neatly categorize stakeholders into roles—who’s responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for every decision your team makes. We spend a lot of time filling out those RACI boxes, because it’s supposed to give us order and predictability—a single source of truth for all future choices. We’re all about achieving real clarity, but we often see RACIs treated as a one-and-done exercise, rather than something that evolves with a team. People end up in the “R” or “A” space without having the actual authority to execute a role, and then we make those roles the fall guy for a system never set up for them to succeed. In this episode of At Work With The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore the good intentions that lead us to make RACIs in the first place, where they fall flat, and why decision making is always more complicated than what can be captured on a chart. Interested in learning more about The Ready’s ocean metaphor? Sign up here to find out when it’s time to dive in. Mentioned references: Responsibility assignment matrixes (such as RACI, DACI, and DARCI) DARE model MacGuffin DRI (Directly Responsible Individual) SPOA (Single Point of Accountability) "traditional consulting ep": AWWTR Ep. 8 "future tension": BNW Ep. 16 with Thomas Thomison "scenario planning": BNW Ep. 34 with Kevin Kelly Want future of work insights and experiments you can try delivered to your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter. We’re on LinkedIn! Follow Rodney, Sam and The Ready for more org design nerdery and join the conversation around episodes after they air. We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected]. Read the book that started it all at bravenewwork.com.