Category: BRAIN SCIENCE

How do you promote core values in your company?

YFS Magazine (Young, Fabulous and Self-employed) ran an article not too long ago on “100 Core Values from 15 Winning Companies.” They looked at a range of companies, including Zappos, Toms Shoes, Whole Foods, Accenture, Teach for America, Rackspace, A Weber, Barnes & Noble, Google, American ... Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share

Taming distractions: How Fidget toys can productively use "floating attention"

More and more is being written about the science of WHY we fidget. From articles in Fast Company magazine, the Huffington Post, and Sunni Brown‘s TED talk on doodling, we better understand the prevalence and utility of fidgeting and doodling, especially for folks with ADD and ADHD.  But I&... Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share

The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard – the power of longhand notes

Pam A, Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer (from Princeton University and University of California, respectively), studied the impact of taking notes longhand versus on a computer. Writing Notes Is Better! Here’s what they found and published in the Psychological Science journal: “Taking n... Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share

Survey says . . . attendees prefer toys!

Several years ago, Garry Platt, a Learning & Development Specialist at EEF Ltd.,  posed the question. He presented two training tables–one with a smattering of fidget toys; and one without.  He asked, simply, “A or B?” then posted his results on LinkedIN – A or B?. The ... Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share

Motivation is motivation . . . no matter what your age

Engagement is such a hot topic these days that I’ve been reading a great deal on what motivates us at work. When I read Kim Marshall‘s succinct synthesis of Kathleen Cushman’s article “Eight Conditions of Motivated Learning,” I was struck by similarity to the current t... Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share

Ron Gutman and the Hidden Power of Smiling

Over 25 years ago, I joined the circus as a clown and did my best to make people smile and laugh. About 5 years ago, my dad and then business partner wrote an article about the benefits of smiling. In 2013, I launched Office Oxygen, so that people could smile more at work! So, when… Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share

Learning and the Brain – Tips

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a workshop on Learning and the Brain.  It’s fascinating to learn from the brain scientists who study both the brain and its evolution over millions of years, to understand how we can make teaching and learning more effective.  Following ... Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share

The Value and ROI in Employee Recognition

I came across this joint report by the Human Capital Institute, FORUM for People Performance Management and Measurement, and IRF Incentive Research Foundation, which examines the correlation between employee recognition and improved job performance. Among the facts highlighted, this one stood out to... Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share

Stress and Learning

I always get excited when I find hard research that substantiates the use of stress-free learning.  This time I hit a jackpot when I found JW Wilson’s, Cracking the Learning Code.  JW Wilson is the Executive Director of The Advanced Learning Institute, an organization which researches, devel... Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share

The 10 Biggest Breakthroughs in the Science of Learning

Hazel Taylor, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, wrote and published this article on onlinephdprograms.com. It’s a great collection of articles and reports about how the brain learns.  The headlines include: More information doesn’t mean more learning The brain is a hig... Read More

• 
• Comments
• 
  Share