6. If You're Faking It, You Won't Make It

At Work with The Ready

Every time something changes at work, someone’s bound to be upset. Digital transformations take resources from analog teams; restructuring a department can take authority from one group and give it to another; removing a step from a workflow can eliminate a role altogether. Any change, including those meant to make things better, will create winners and losers and that’s bound to kick up a hornet’s nest of feelings.

Here’s the puzzling part: Despite years of research showing us that surfacing and processing these feelings is key to unlocking a company’s ability to be adapt, many workplaces often treat emotions as taboo. They’re messy, unpredictable, and nobody wants to touch them—even when ignoring them does more harm that good. Playing pretend isn't getting us anywhere.

In this episode of At Work with The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore why we have negative feelings about big feelings and how it’s holding our organizations back from evolving into the places they could be.

We're on Youtube! An extended video version of this episode (with extra Rodney and Sam moments) is available to watch there.

Mentioned references:

• Tabea's Meet The Ready post
• "unconsciously protecting the status quo": Immunity to Change, 2009 book by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
• "protection state": On Point of Relationship podcast episode with Frederic Laloux
• "complicated vs complex": Brave New Work keynote
• The unpaid emotional labor expected of women at work, 2024 BBC article
• What Rodney said at SXSW last year: BNW 162: Live from SXSW with Brian Elliott

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