Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore why summer is where progress goes to die in our organizations and what to do about it.
#atworkwiththeready #futureofwork #organizationdesign #theready #vacation #timeoff #vacationmode
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.
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Mentioned references:
-"vacation OS episode": • 142. What's Your Vacat...
-"async episode": • 7. Sync or Swim: Ridin...
-”Medieval peasant vacation time”: all articles cite back to Juliet B. Schor’s 1993 “The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure” www.amazon.com/Overworked-Ame...
-"workshop episode": AWWTR Ep. 15 (Check back in 2 weeks when it’s live!)
-"work as a paycheck": • 11. The Ones Who Care ...
00:00 Intro + Check-In: What’s your vacation vibe?
07:05 People don’t know what to do with summer vacation season and your org grinds to a halt
11:32 We’re running down the clock during the summer instead of doing meaningful work or actually resting
15:57 Work is now relentless year round, and ignores seasonality and natural rhythms
23:32 The toxic American mindset towards vacation and the unwillingness to change
26:04 Unpacking the fusion of work and identity that leads to guilt around time away from work
29:33 Taking vacations builds organizational resiliency
35:07 Using vacation season to do different work than business as usual
36:58 Lower stakes for trying new things with your remaining colleagues
38:59 Design a summer strategy and plan for your organization
40:48 Make progress with whoever’s around
43:26 Closing Round: Rodney and Sam’s takeaways
46:19 Wrap up: Leave us a review and share the show with your friends!
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Season 7 - Episode 14
This episode originally aired on July 5th 2024.
1 авг 2024
