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Brave New Work

Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?

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Brave New Work

By: Aaron Dignan
Narrated by: Aaron Digan, Aaron Dignan
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Brave New Work written and read by Aaron Dignan.


The way we work is broken. It takes forever to get anything done. Meetings and emails are incessant. Bureaucracy stifles talent and creativity. After decades of management theory and multiple waves of technological and societal change, is this really the best we can do?

Aaron Dignan teaches companies how to eliminate red tape, tap into collective intelligence, and rethink long-held traditions that no longer make sense. In Brave New Work, he shows you how to revolutionize the way your company works forever.

Using stories from companies at the cutting edge of organizational transformation, Brave New Workwill show you how to transform your team, department and business from the inside out, making work more adaptable, abundant and human. It is packed with new tactics and tips for updating your company's operating system: the simple rules and assumptions so deeply embedded that you don't even think to question them. Learn how to reignite passion and energy throughout your organization and to build a company that runs itself.

 Forecasting & Strategic Planning Management & Leadership Organisational Behaviour Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Workplace & Organisational Behaviour Business Management Leadership

Critic Reviews

This is the management book of the year. Clear, powerful and urgent, it's a must read for anyone who cares about where they work and how they work (Seth Godin)
If you're trying to create a world-changing culture, reading Brave New Work should be your next move. Aaron's simple, counterintuitive approach will help you get out of your own way, eliminate bureaucracy, and awaken the humanity within (Scott Harrison)
Complexity conscious. People positive. These words from Aaron's book keep ringing in my ears as I work. He reframes the way we see companies and the way we see each other inside them, and gives us practical tools to transform ourselves and our environments. Whether you lead a company, work at one, or imagine yourself founding one someday, read this book immediately and start an evolution (Miguel McKelvey)
We tend to look for answers by looking reflectively backwards - it's what we've all been taught in school. But Dignan insists that the 'best practices' of the past no longer work because the bureaucracies of existing organizations have been defeated by new technologies. Instead we can only find those answers by 'living in the now' the way a new breed of organization is already beginning to master (John Maeda)
I am now a convert. Aaron sums up all the crazy ideas about how to create teams and companies that maximize their potential by decentralizing their power-a once idealist notion that is now possible and essential. For a book that might start a revolution, it's surprisingly practical and undogmatic. There's no fluff-it's all meat, and real news. I could think of dozens of people I know who I now want to read and study it (Kevin Kelly)
This book is a breath of fresh air. Aaron Dignan offers a bold, ennobling vision for a world of work that enhances our dignity and freedom rather than degrading and constraining us. Read it now, and make sure your boss does too (Adam Grant)
The one-size-fits-all monoculture is a thing of the past. Brave New Work shows us how to embrace the oh-so-human complexity of our organizations-and discover a new way of working that makes room for the many styles, perspectives, needs, and gifts trapped inside them (Susan Cain)
Human beings can't thrive in a work culture that uses burnout and 'being always on' as proxies for dedication and success. In Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan shows us that, in fact, workplaces that empower people to take care of themselves are far more likely to deliver sustainable performance and happiness (Arianna Huffington)
I really never believed in any of this organizational stuff until I saw Aaron Dignan at work. He can help almost any dysfunctional group find common purpose, discern the simple patterns underlying the most complex situations, and guide wayward organizations back to their core values. Most impressively, he can translate all that into language even a businessperson can understand and enjoy (Douglas Rushkoff)
All stars
Most relevant
Great great great.

Some is confirming. Some is reframing. Most is a revelation- well at least for me. Started to put small practices into place before I’d even finished the book. I feel as though I missed heaps on the first read. Going back for the second immediately

Thoroughly enjoyed

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Very clear, practical, compelling, useful. Can be readily applied in any organisation.
Try an experiment!

Great for change agents

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a few good ideas and plenty rehashed from more interesting books. he seems to miss the point that the org structure needs to reflect what the org does, its unlikely everyone in every business would want to work with the ideas presented. worthwhile introduction to them none the less

some decent ideas

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