{"podcast":{"title":"Design Better","slug":"design-better-58582","podcast_index_feed_id":58582,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/designbetter","website_url":"http://designbetterpodcast.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/5c7f5f0a-37c0-11ee-b4ef-e736dc77755f/image/d9388f8e30c83625a7a26fcedbaa3b74.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"The Curiosity Department","episode_count":259,"summary":"Design Better co-hosts Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter explore the intersection of design, technology, and the creative process through conversations with guests across many creative fields, helping you hone your craft, unlock your creativity, and learn the art of collaboration. Whether you’re design curious or a design pro, Design Better is guaranteed to inspire and inform. Vanity Fair calls Design Better, “sharp, to the point, and full of incredibly valuable information for anyone looking to better understand how to build a more innovative world.”","last_synced_at":"2026-09-02T22:23:13.471687+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/design-better-58582"},"episode":{"title":"Clay Parker Jones: author of \"Hidden Patterns\" on why your team isn't really a team","slug":"clay-parker-jones-author-of-hidden-patterns-on-why-your-team-isn-t-really-a-team","published_at":"2026-08-28T22:42:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/design-better-58582/clay-parker-jones-author-of-hidden-patterns-on-why-your-team-isn-t-really-a-team","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/design-better-58582","url":"https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/clay-parker-jones","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/p.podderapp.com/1794982497/chrt.fm/track/1C4248/prfx.byspotify.com/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/211/traffic.megaphone.fm/MLALE1798115796.mp3","summary":"We all know that there is something fractured about the workplace, that makes it inefficient, and at times inhumane. If only someone was thinking deeply about those problems, and how to address them… Visit our Substack for the full episode: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/clay-parker-jones That’s what Clay Parker Jones is working on right now. Clay has spent close to two decades on this problem — first at the consultancy undercurrent, and today as Head of Org Design and Development at Airbnb. He advocates for investment in creativity and humanity at work, something you might think would be obvious for any company, but sadly is eclipsed by short term thinking. His new book, Hidden Patterns: A Playbook for More Human Workplaces, is one of the most cohesive philosophies of organizational structure we’ve come across. And his diagnosis of what’s broken is simple: there aren’t enough real teams. Most of us work in what he calls “co-acting groups” — people who convene for a meeting and then scatter back to their actual work. In this conversation, we get into why psychological safety stays a platitude until you make it structural, what rule of law looks like inside a company, and how to break a manager’s job into atomic pieces and hand away the parts you’re bad at. We also chat about why the org chart is a design problem that designers should be at the table for. Bio Clay Parker Jones leads Organizational Design & Development at Airbnb, refining how a creativity-first company learns and ships new ideas. A former Chief Strategy Officer at Black Glass, co-founder of August, and transformation lead at R/GA, his work has been recognized by B Lab and profiled in a Harvard Business School case study. A former bike mechanic with a BA in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Oc…","meta_description":"We all know that there is something fractured about the workplace, that makes it inefficient, and at times inhumane. If only someone was thinking deeply a…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1419,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/design-better-58582/episodes/clay-parker-jones-author-of-hidden-patterns-on-why-your-team-isn-t-really-a-team/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/design-better-58582/clay-parker-jones-author-of-hidden-patterns-on-why-your-team-isn-t-really-a-team.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}