[Rebroadcast] RACI is The Wrong Answer To The Right Question

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hi, I'm Molly Graham, host of Worklife, a podcast from TED. The most important lessons about work usually aren't the ones anyone teaches you. They come from experience, from uncertainty, from figuring things out as you go.

On this show, my expert guest and I explore how careers really unfold. Through change, through doubt, through the decisions that shape who we become over time. Because those moments aren't the exception, they are the work. Listen to Work Life wherever you get your podcasts.

Sam Spurlin (0:35)

We want to indulge in the what if-ness. Great. Now we're scenario planning, and that's an actual thing that is valuable. Not just rubbing our worry beads about what might happen.

Rodney Evans (0:48)

You're very funny today, Sam.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the show. I'm Rodney Evans, and that guy in the best shirt in America is Sam Spurlin.

Sam Spurlin (1:00)

Rodney, you're just giving me a hard time because apparently, I've already worn the shirt on multiple podcast episodes. So we've just decided it's my podcast blouse.

Rodney Evans (1:09)

It's because it's the best shirt.

Sam Spurlin (1:10)

It makes me feel confident, and I need to feel confident when I'm here recording podcasts with my friend Rodney.

Rodney Evans (1:17)

That's your special shirt to make special episodes. Welcome back to At Work with The Ready, a podcast about modernizing organizations as the future of work meets the present moment.

Sam Spurlin (1:27)

And each episode, we turn our attention to one common organizational pattern that we think is worth digging into either because it's awesome or because it's garbage. And we pull it apart, we propose solutions for what to do instead.

Rodney Evans (1:40)

Today, brought to you especially by our friend Sam, we're going to talk about RACIs. And if you're like, I already know everything about RACIs, that's fine. But we're going to we're going to shed on a bunch of other stuff while we're at it. So stick around. And before we do that, let's check in, eh?

Sam Spurlin (1:58)

Let's check in in this now strangely Canadian themed podcast episode. Yeah, it took a Canadian turn at the end. That's fine. We love our friends to the north.

So check in question, something in your physical space around you, tell us what it is and like why you have it nearby.

Rodney Evans (2:17)

Oh my gosh. There's so much stuff around me, Sam.

Sam Spurlin (2:21)

Well, this should be easy.

Rodney Evans (2:23)

I'm going to show you something because we're going to talk about this in the episode today.

So we've been cooking on a metaphor about organizations and how they work. And when I was really deep in the thinking before I had talked to anybody about it, I made this with watercolor pencils that my mom gave me.

Sam Spurlin (2:43)

Okay. Rodney's holding up.

You want to describe it for our audio only listeners?

Rodney Evans (2:47)

No, they have to go to YouTube and see it.

It's a watercolor of the ocean. And I didn't make it because I'm an exceptionally good watercolor artist. I made it because sometimes as I am trying to figure hard things out, doing something that is visual and creative and related to those things, helps get me out of my like too left brained, too rational thing and into a different space where there's more possibility.

Sam Spurlin (3:19)

I love that. And you know where that's going to look good?

Rodney Evans (3:21)

Where?

Sam Spurlin (3:22)

Photo of it in the back of your next book. A book that you're probably going to write about this shit. Probably.

Rodney Evans (3:29)

Probably, eventually.

Sam Spurlin (3:31)

It'll be like original drawing by the author 10 years before the thing was written.

And then you could maybe sell it. Yeah. Exactly.

Rodney Evans (3:41)

I love that. I'm also going to tell my mom that I used her special. She's always giving me things to relax. She's always like, here's a Buddhist waterboard. Here's a coloring book for adults. She's always like, why don't you calm down?

Here's a tool for your birthday that's slightly judgmental.

Sam Spurlin (4:00)

I mean, I don't have children, but it seems like a similar strategy for like calming down like a toddler. Like, here's some drawing tools. Go nuts.

SPEAKER_1 (4:10)

Why don't we do crayons for a little bit?

Sam Spurlin (4:14)

Good for every age. All right, I'm going to stand up to grab my thing.

Rodney Evans (4:17)

Yes. In your new office coming at you from New York State, it's Sam Spurlin.

Sam Spurlin (4:24)

That's right.

Rodney Evans (4:25)

He took it off a wall, folks.