for W3c validation

Friday Faves is our weekly blog series highlighting a few select pieces from the REG team’s reading lists. You can catch up on past Friday Faves on the archive. 

Here’s what learning to juggle does to your brain

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Anne says: When was the last time you tried to juggle? Not the multi-tasking type of juggling work, Zoom meetings, family needs, homeschooling, lockdown restrictions, pets and everything else! The type of juggling with balls (please don’t try this with knives!). It’s quite possible it was recently. Many people have been attempting to learn new skills, or revisiting past attempts, during lockdown periods.

This article about juggling is of particular interest to me (as I have also had many not particularly successful attempts at juggling) as an article that focuses on the learning processes. How your brain needs specific conditions, motor skills and repetition, and… not thinking about it!!

As adult learners, we’re constantly thinking about how we’re learning. What’s the process, what’s the best way, the right way, how can I learn as quickly as possible, why isn’t this working, it can’t be that hard, and on and on. There’s an insightful description of the process, layered with explanations of how the brain is processing the learning, including the importance of muscle memory. It reminds us of how many complex tasks we can achieve and under different situations, applying contingency thinking and adjusting our actions.

I’ve always recommended people start a new activity every year, something that takes you right out of your comfort zone, but at the same time provides you with the experience to be a beginner again, and to experience the feeling of success as small progress towards accomplishment is achieved. Now, reflect on your 2020 (sorry, I know that may not be pleasant), think about the number of times we had to develop new ways of handling tasks under difficult circumstances. Perhaps you even had time to develop new skills – Instagram was full of people sharing their achievements, like baking sourdough!

Why is this important? And why now?

It’s important because once you understand how your brain approaches new learning experiences, you will have the ability to manage your learning more effectively and take on new challenges with a sense of excitement. Specifically, it provides a framework for understanding how to adapt to new ways of working as distributed teams and facing challenges that move us beyond our comfort zones. These are not only juggling skills, these are lifelong learning skills and can enable you to confront a wide range of new experiences.

Read: https://www.wired.com/story/heres-what-learning-juggle-does-your-brain/

10 takeaways from the winter 2021 Digital Workplace Experience conference

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“We are capable of change and are able to adapt in the midst of some really difficult situations,” Prokopeak said in the opening keynote of the Digital Workplace Experience. “But the changes aren’t over.”

Jakkii says: Sounds about right, doesn’t it?

This piece is a good overview of some interesting takeaways (from the author’s perspective, of course) from the recent Digital Workplace Experience conference, held online. As the article notes, all of the sessions are available to watch for free online, however, if you don’t have time to view all of them make sure you’ll get a feel for the views shared during the event from the article.

Though the headline suggests 10 takeaways, there’s really 7 with the 7th being broken down into three broad points.

1. The case for moving work upstream

2. We nailed digital transformation in 2020

3. Employee onboarding kicked into high gear

4. Face down the fear of change

5. More diversity, more voice of the employee

6. More digital dexterity

7. On the path to employee listening

   1. Experiment to validate

   2. Customised listening creates a direct path to action

   3. The right tools matter

Some interesting headings there, for sure. I think number 2 grabbed my attention immediately – and my scepticism, to be honest. It’s a little misleading in my opinion, as what the section is referring to is a report finding a considerable step forward in digital workplace maturity in 2020 – I’d hardly say that means we’ve ‘nailed’ digital transformation on that basis.

It’s worth having a read through each takeaway though for the detail which provides a basis for reflection and consideration as to how your organisation’s experience fits with these takeaways and hopefully offers some thoughts about where to from here in 2021.

Read: https://www.reworked.co/digital-workplace/10-takeaways-from-the-winter-digital-workplace-experience-2021-virtual-conference/

Friday Fives

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Hybrid workplace

• The hybrid workforce, reimagined

• This is how I encourage teamwork in our hybrid workforce

• Interview: Hyland takes the hybrid work model to heart

• These are the skills you need to be successful in a hybrid environment

• Offices and healthcare have been upended by the pandemic. Here’s how they’ll look in the future

Remote work

• The art of the impossible: International collaboration during COVID

• Challenges of keeping remote teams connected

• Cisco CEO: employees are having WFH fatigue

• 3 organizational rules key to building a healthy remote company

• Working from home becomes part of the permanent employment landscape

Communication, engagement, and culture

• 2020 reminds us that leadership matters

• Virgin Australia HR lead on flexible working: ‘Genuine human connection is pivotal’

• Research: how companies committed to diverse hiring still fail

• Employee-centred engagement tools vital or businesses risk being left behind

• The corrosive impact of disengaging leaders

Community management and moderation

• The 2021 community industry report

• Can anyone moderate podcasts?

• What online communities can learn from conversation pits

• How to hire the ideal community manager

• What Tristan Lombard teaches us about community building

Privacy and data

• A day in the life of your data

• This is how we lost control of our faces

• Intelligence analysts use U.S. smartphone location data without warrants, memo says

• How your boss can use your remote-work tools to spy on you

• TikTok could be facing some serious GDPR charges

The great Australian Facebook stoush

By turning off news sharing, Facebook has turned attention away from flawed government legislation and on to its own reckless opaque power – The Guardian

• Even for a company that specialises in PR disasters, Facebook has excelled with its Australian blackout

• Why Facebook banned news in Australia

• Facebook calls Australia’s bluff

• Facebook news ban could backfire as media publishers draw communities and advertisers away

• Opinion: As a former Facebook chief, here’s my verdict: It’s a shameless demonstration of corporate might

Social media

• 2021 social media industry benchmark report

• Can pro-vaccine influencers win Instagram?

• Foreign brands have a new fast-track into China’s market: the addictive app Red

• Brace your ears – Twitter rolls out audio DMs in Brazil, India and Japan

• Reddit’s transparency report shows a big spam problem and relatively few government requests

Extras

i love contactless delivery they just throw the slop at your door and i run out like a little pig

— oatmeal influencer (@acechhh) February 11, 2021

This is interesting: In 2021, the Sundance Film Festival found art in Zoom, Instagram, and VR theater

Things that make you go hmmm: Thought-detection: AI has infiltrated our last bastion of privacy

Space: If Planet Nine exists, why has no one seen it?

Podcast: Amazon Narratives — Memos, Working Backwards from Release, More

Friday funny: 8 year old stumps everyone with Zoom trick to play hooky from school ‘permanently’

Sydney Business Insights: The Future, This Week Podcast

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This week: we’re back with a breaking news special as Facebook goes nuclear, banning all news from its Australian platform.

Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Disruption Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week.

The stories this week

Facebook opts for nuclear option in reaction to proposed news code

Other stories we bring up

• More commentary on the ban

• And even more commentary

• Google is paying for news in Australia

• This law is the wrong answer to the problem

• Facebook’s push to video cost thousands of jobs in journalism

• Tim Berners-Lee thinks new media code undermines the of the internet

Listen: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/facebook-and-the-media-code-on-the-future-this-week/