Osio Labs

March 2025 Newsletter

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0400

This "episode" is the audio version of our new Osio Labs Community newsletter. You can read the newsletter and leave comments on our new community site, https://community.osiolabs.com/.

If you would like to receive the written version of the newsletter by email, you can sign up for our mailing list at https://mailchi.mp/36f93644f9be/osio-labs-newsletter.

You can get in touch with us to ask questions, leave comments, or provide suggestions on our website, https://osiolabs.com/.

Osio Labs is tinkering with Open Source Inside and Out. We’re on a mission to empower anyone to build websites using open source tools, and to create an open and sustainable business.

We're Back and We Have Plans

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 08:00:00 -0500

This is a short episode to share where we've been the last year and what's coming up for us this year. We're getting ready to launch a new learning community focused on self development and leadership for building communities. Catch up with us.

Work Schedules for Humans

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 22:00:00 -0500

In this episode Blake and Addi talk about work schedules and how they do or do not match with human and natural cycles. We've had a standardized work week for over a century and it comes from a long history. How does that actually fit the lives we live? What are ways we can reconsider work schedules so they flow better with the humans trying to conform to them?

Links:
Article: 40-Hour Work Week: Its History And Future

Book Chat: Dare to Lead

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 08:00:00 -0500

This episode is taking a look at another Brené Brown book, Dare to Lead. From previous discussions about leadership on the team and some folks being exposed to other Brené books, everyone on the team wanted to read this one and be in on the podcast. We have the whole team on the podcast for the first time!

This book takes Brene’s work about shame, vulnerability, and bravery and focuses it on applying the lessons specifically towards leadership, and in particular in the classic sense of leadership at work. She summarizes research and takeaways from her other books and presents four Skill Sets of Daring Leadership:

Rumbling with Vulnerability
Living into Our Values
Braving Trust
Learning to Rise

Stick with us as our team shares their thoughts and takeaways from the book.

Book Chat: The Gifts of Imperfection

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 06:00:00 -0400

This episode, with Ashley and Addi, is a book chat about The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown. This was her third published book and is the one she recommends for people to start with on her work. It’s about embracing who we are versus who we think we’re supposed to be. She calls it an invitation to the wholehearted revolution. In her words, “choosing authenticity and worthiness is an absolute act of resistance”.

Join us as we talk about our takeaways and which of the ten guideposts in the book most resonated with us and why.

What is Leadership?

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 06:00:00 -0400

The word “leadership” is thrown around a lot. We’ve been talking about it a fair amount on this podcast as well. But what does that mean? For many people, it means a formal position or title, but is that really leadership? We’re going to look at what leadership means to a couple of people at our company who have different roles and experiences to see what we can find about the ways we think about leadership.

Book Chat: Who Do We Choose To Be? Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 05:00:00 -0400

In this episode Addi and Amber talk about Margaret Wheatley's book Who Do We Choose To Be? Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity. The title is a mouthful and the content lives up to the big name. It's a pretty sobering look at the failure of civilization around us, and it also shows a path forward for creating "islands of sanity" through brave and compassionate leadership.

In each chapter you get some science and history to set the stage, and then a breakdown of the topic from the perspectives in the title: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, and Restoring Sanity, which lays out her ideas on the path through it all.

Long COVID with Sarah Maurer

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 02:00:00 -0400

In this episode we have special quest Sarah Maurer join us to talk about Long COVID and how that affects people’s lives, especially when it comes to work. What is it? What does it do? What do businesses need to be aware of to help their Long COVID employees?

Sarah is a certified breath worker, hypnotist, and integrative life coach. She is an ultra runner who is recovering from Long COVID and the creator of the forthcoming program FIREWALK, a support and education circle that frames Long COVID and other chronic illness as a shamanic initiation.

Resources

Book Chat: Beloved Economies: Transforming How We Work

Tue, 04 Jul 2023 02:00:00 -0400

In this episode our team (Ashley, Blake, Joe, and Addi) talks about our takeaways and recommendations from the book Beloved Economies by Jess Rimington and Joanna Levitt Cea. We also dig into what changes we could be making in our own company.

In the book there is a quote explaining the title. “A beloved economy comes from treating with care and reverence “the autonomous power of everyone’s story,” and from each of us being able to contribute to, and access, abundance….”

The core concept in the book to achieve this is to distribute rights to design. "Rights to design are what we exercise when we imagine, decide, and build together". Our current system has these rights to design held by a few, which consolidates wealth and power in a reinforcing pattern that keeps this wealth and power within a small group.

To distribute rights to design and build a beloved economy, they share 7 practices:

Share decision-making power
Prioritize relationships
Reckon with history
Seek difference
Source from multiple ways of knowledge
Trust there is time
Prototype early and often

Book Chat: Wolfpack by Abby Wambach

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 03:00:00 -0400

A lot of classic business culture uses the lexicon of competitive conflict; a lot of terms derive from war and sports. These are considered classic examples of leadership and the analogies and metaphors are thick. So it’s interesting to read Abby Wambach’s Wolfpack, where she takes lessons learned from the top echelons of competitive soccer to turn classic leadership rules on their heads. In this episode Blake and I share our takes on the book.

Here are her 8 rules, in summary:

Create your own path.
Be grateful for what you have AND demand what you deserve.
Lead now — from wherever you are.
Failure means you’re finally IN the game.
Be FOR each other.
Believe in yourself. Demand the ball.
Lead with humanity. Cultivate leaders.
You’re not alone. You’ve got your Pack.

Business for Humans

Tue, 30 May 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Starting a podcast is its own special journey. I’ve hosted podcasts in the past, but this is the first time I started one from scratch. It’s been a little bumpier of a road than I anticipated. In this short episode I thought I’d share the experience, as well as talk a little more about why I started all of this to begin with, and how someone stole our original name out from under us.

Check out the Business for Humans podcast.

Are Company Values Good for Anything?

Tue, 16 May 2023 02:00:00 -0400

Welcome to the first episode of our podcast. You'll get to know a few people on our team and a bit about what we're doing as we explore company values. A lot of companies talk about values, but what are they really for, and how do company values relate to our own personal values? We share our own stories and thoughts about it.

You can read our values in our public Osio Labs Employee Handbook.