Rethink work.

black & white photo of Tara McMullin

Tara McMullin

I think about work all the time.

That’s not as boring (or neurotic) as it sounds.

I think about how we can work less, why our relationships to work are changing, and what conditions we need to do remarkable work. I’m curious about how social, economic, and political systems impact how work informs our identities.

If we want a more inclusive, sustainable, and life-affirming approach to work, we must rethink work from the ground up.

We must practice work in a way that empowers us to:

Respond to uncertainty, surprise, and new situations with patience

Learn to solve problems and make sense of complexity with intention

Embrace ambiguity and flexibility without sacrificing our needs

Adapt to changing information with care and compassion

Courses For The Future of Work

For workers of all kinds—including freelancers, micro business owners, and creators

Approach work in a way that builds you up instead of breaking you down.

Rethink Work is an 8-week program for examining these outdated beliefs about work.

This course aims to reveal, brick by brick, how our beliefs about work and our identities as workers create the work reality we exist within so that we can tear those bricks down and build something better.

Each week, we’ll look at the social and structural roots of a particular belief about work. Then, we’ll unpack how that belief plays out in our day-to-day lives. And finally, we’ll look at practical and concrete ways to apply your updated thinking so you can make meaningful, lasting changes to the way you approach work.

By the end of our 8 weeks together, you’ll see your work in a whole new light.

For managers, coaches, trainers, and leaders of all kinds

Work In Practice is a 12-week training program in which we think deeply about work and how it shapes us.

With Work In Practice, you gain not only a new perspective on work, culture, and identity for yourself—but also a coaching toolkit to supercharge your work with clients or team members.

During the program, we’ll cover:

  • The root causes of habits like overwork, overdelivering, and over-functioning (hint: they’re not personal failings)
  • The tell-tale signs of harmful stories and assumptions in the way people talk about work (because career development and self-help guides are full of them!)
  • The frameworks that can help clients or team members understand their relationship to work—and how to change it
  • The systems—cultural, economic, and political—that shape how we identify as workers and what we expect of ourselves
What Works book by Tara McMullin

A Radical New Approach to Goal-Setting

What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting

Nuanced, rigorous exploration. What Works is a thought-provoking antidote to the overhyped productivity narratives keeping us stuck in shame and validation spirals. This book, and Tara’s oeuvre more broadly, serves as a brilliant guide for emphasizing presence and process over rigid metrics and external markers of success. A rich, hearty meal for the mind, I was only sad to put this book down when it ended.”

— Jenny Blake, podcaster & author of Free Time and Pivot

Be a part of What Works

Together, we can catalyze a more humane, accessible, and just approach to work. One that doesn’t define us by what we do or how much we achieve. Get the free newsletter that imagines a new paradigm for work.

What Works podcast with Tara McMullin

Think Differently about Work, Culture, and the Economy

It’s easy to lose your way in the 21st-century economy. The world of work and business is changing so rapidly that you might be focusing more on how to keep up than how to live a meaningful life. What Works is a podcast for entrepreneurs, independent workers, and employees who don’t want to lose themselves to the whims of late-stage capitalism. Tara offers a distinctly interdisciplinary approach to the discourse around business, work, and personal growth.

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