One of our former freelance writers Tim Casasola recently joined us full-time at The Ready. Here’s why he joined us, how hip hop culture has shaped him, and why organizations might need to be more proactive.
What were you doing before joining The Ready?
Before joining full-time at The Ready I was just scratching the surface of figuring out how to be part of the organizational design/future of work space. Previously, I was a freelance writer for FLOX, a former publication by NOBL. I have these folks to thank for giving me my first shot at contributing to this type of work.
While I was getting my feet wet in organizational design, I was doing a lot of academic research as an undergraduate. I did a senior honors thesis on positive emotions and job performance, which I was able to present at two academic conferences — one of them being the world’s biggest social psychology conference. I served as the lab manager of a psychology lab called the Stress, Emotions, and Physical Health Lab at the University of California Irvine, where I was finishing my Psychology and Social Behavior degree. I was lucky enough to even take a couple of doctoral statistics classes, too.
How did you find your way to The Ready?
I was doing all of this research work because at the time I was committed to entering a PhD program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology in 2017 and becoming a full-time consultant after. I then found out about Undercurrent through my then-acquaintance-slash-Twitter-friend Sam. Like many others, I was enthralled by Undercurrent’s work and read everything there was about their thinking.
Keeping a keen eye on Undercurrent was how I eventually found out about The Ready. I deeply admired The Ready’s philosophy and ambitions and it’s funny to me that I still admire the company even now as a core member. Thanks to Sam and Aaron I was offered a shot in January to contribute to the publication as a freelance writer. When I got the offer I remember immediately deciding to make freelance writing a priority over my academics as it was the opportunity to really show The Ready that I wanted to work with them. I was inspired by the fact that they want to be the best at helping organizations be better and I wanted to learn from the best. In March, I sent a (probably excessively long) Slack message to Aaron and Sam letting them know I was interested in working full-time with The Ready after I graduated in June. To my luck they eventually decided to take me on.
What pulls you to organizational design work?
Back then I thought I/O had the complete picture of what it takes to make work better, but in retrospect I realize my perspective fell a bit short.
There are many lenses through which we can make work better, I/O being just one of them. I think organizational design does the best job of helping organizations through many different approaches — from network/complexity science, to design thinking, to biology, to technology, to even psychology. Organizational design isn’t limited to just one way of thinking but takes from many different ways of thinking to come up with a truly novel solution.
The other reason I’m drawn to organizational design is that it challenges the way I think. Remember how I had a set plan to go to grad school and become a full-time consultant after? I’m a very plan-oriented and structured person. But a big belief in this field is the idea of continuous steering. In our rapidly changing world, the long-term planning that organizations typically do isn’t as effective of an approach as it was before. Now organizations must be good at sensing and responding to the changes in the market and world. I’m learning that it’s not too far of a stretch to think that this idea directly applies to future professional and personal plans. There wasn’t a need for me to have this immovable projected career path. Why shouldn’t I just have a rough idea of where I’m going and change directions if needed? Ultimately the big problem I want to help solve is work and organizational design seems to be the most effective way to do this.
What are some of the biggest influences on your thinking?
If I were to boil this down to two people they would be Cal Newport and Adam Grant.
I used to be a geek about personal productivity and I think Cal had the best thinking in the category. He gets extremely tactical and ruthless when challenging the status quo. Most of my old blogging on productivity was directly inspired by his work.
Adam Grant is also a big influence because he’s an organizational psychologist who is wicked smart and seemingly super genuine. He’s equally prolific in the mainstream, academic, and business worlds alike and gives organizational psychology a huge spotlight.
I would even say hip hop culture has made a huge impact on me. As someone who has been a competitive b-boy (the original term for breakdancer) for over nine years, hip hop has become my outlet for creative expression. Though the media portrays hip hop as just about drugs, sex, money and fame, it’s much more than substantive than that. Those true to its roots believe that its a subculture that was created from nothing. It was (and still is!) a platform that allows anyone to express themselves honestly. It might sound cheesy but through hip hop I’ve learned the importance of being authentic and true to myself — whether I’m dancing or at work.
What’s one thing that people aren’t talking about in regards to how to make organizations better?
We in the organizational design community have made a very strong case that organizations need to be more responsive to changes in the world and market. Even those outside of our space have caught onto this wave.
I think there is an equally important discussion to be had around the idea of organizations being proactive. Peter Drucker has a great quote about this, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” In our VUCA world where it’s nearly impossible to predict the future, I wonder if this quote is still true. Organizations should be responsive to unpredictable situations, but shouldn’t they be the forces creating these situations, too? Can organizations be both proactive and responsive? And if they can, are they more effective? Perhaps the two ideas aren’t as opposite as they might seem.
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