No longer limited to dev ops and project management teams, agile ways of working have now proven their worth across multiple industries. The past two years have shown the scale of benefits that agility and adaptability can bring to the workplace. However, the destabilizing nature of agile work environments can sometimes negatively affect employees’ mental health and wellbeing.

So, how can we maintain the positive aspects of agile environments into the future of work while minimizing the impact on employee stability and workplace mental health? 

Smarter work design is essential to make a potentially disruptive work culture psychologically safer for staff.

Essentially, this includes planning to be able to throw your plan out the window.

The modern working world, particularly in the technology and digital service industries, involves a relentless rate of change. While start-ups continue to prove their capacity to disrupt industries and norms with lightning speed and confidence, traditional organizations are often left slowly playing catch-up. 

Maintaining a seat at the table requires a focus on fostering disruptive abilities and authentic connections with your customers and employees. 

Disruptive ability is the capacity of a team or workplace to rapidly prioritize new focuses, shift activities, and turnaround solutions. This capacity is strengthened by a clear purpose, autonomy, and a culture of continuous learning.

Henna Inam, Forbes contributor and author of Wired for Disruption, notes that ‘as the future is unpredictable, we create the future by learning in the present moment.’  

Research from a BetterUp leadership coaching program recently revealed a strong correlation between mental fitness improvements within management (lower stress, higher purpose, and higher resilience – each up by 25-30% on average) and attaining organizational growth goals. 

Contrary to outdated notions, putting money towards improving the mental fitness of your employees will strengthen, not detract, from organizational growth. 

As mentioned before, a culture of ‘continuous learning’ is crucial for agile teams in the future world of work. This involves providing sufficient and ongoing mental health and wellbeing education. The latest McKinsey Global Survey on reskilling found the proportion of companies addressing empathy and interpersonal skills doubled in 2020. 

Between 71 and 90% of companies who have undertaken skill transformations say it had a positive impact on four company outcomes; 

The ability to realize company strategy 

Skill transformation strategies, particularly those addressing the wellbeing of employees, will not only impact growth but also positive employee engagement.

As highlighted in The Agile Leader (available through Blinkist on the Go1 Smarter Work Design learning playlist), the success of a team relies more on how they behave towards each other than the collective level of talent.

A team with high levels of trust is 9 times more agile than one without. This is understandable when you realise the high-trust environment that agility, and autonomous working, requires. 

For a team to adapt or create rapidly, they need to lean heavily into autonomous decision making and trust in each other's capabilities. 

Leading and supporting teams in the future of work can feel overwhelming, particularly if you're unsure where to begin. To help navigate these waters, we have developed the Humans at Work guide in partnership with AP Psychology.  

This auditing and planning tool will guide you in finding the right learning for your team, so they can turn up to work authentically themselves and thrive. 

If you are a current Go1 customer, you can complete the guide in partnership with your CSM, and they will add a Humans at Work learning plan into your current learning structure. 

If you are not currently a customer and are interested in elevating your workplace's mental health and wellbeing learning, we would love to help. 

Download the Humans at Work guide now to start moving towards psychologically safer workplaces. 

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Agility has been crucial over the past few years. But how can we make agile ways of working sustainable for the future of work?

How agile and adaptable are your team?

Agility has been crucial over the past few years. But how can we make agile ways of working sustainable for the future of work? 

What does it mean to be an emotional human being? And, how do our systems interact and work with one another so that we can show up and not only be better learners and leaders, but also better humans as a whole? 

All is revealed in episode 24 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, where our host David William Hastings is joined by Learning Scientist Lauren Waldman and host of The Healthy Mind F*** podcast Dr Chris Lee to continue the education around all things neuroscience, cognitive load and learning in the workplace.  

Check out some of our favourite highlights below. 

For many people over the past 18 months, it has been quite difficult to have a sense of consistency and certainty in their worlds, let alone setting aside some hours to learn.  

To kickstart the podcast, Lauren and Dr Lee explore the critical things that can help organisations better support employees, firstly through establishing trust and consistency.  

Dr Chris Lee on learning and the nervous system

In this highlight, Lauren begins to uncover the role social learning plays in the workplace today. Touching on the importance of giving employees the opportunity to explore, challenge, measure, and receive feedback, Lauren explains how the social factor of learning can benefit our mental health and put us in a more favourable position to learn.  

Social learning in the workplace

To add to Lauren’s point, Dr Lee describes how our brains can change in response to a number of external inputs, ultimately shaping the way we perceive ourselves and others. This is especially important when it comes to co-regulation and social learning. 

The influence of our external environments

According to Dr Lee, one of the most powerful things for leaders to learn is the ability to create a safe space for people to express themselves. He explains: 

“The capacity for your team to express creative potential is their capacity to express, period. If they have a container to feel, to express all these different emotions, to have a non-judgmental circle, creativity will be a by-product of that.” 

To do so requires a high level of self-regulation and self-awareness - two traits Dr Chris has observed in some of today's most powerful emerging leaders. 

Fostering creativity in the workplace

To wrap up the podcast, David highlights that in order to make any change, it must first come from within. To be able to help others, we need to understand how to regulate ourselves and co-regulate with others. 

It all starts with the self

“All you owe yourself every single day is 1% change. What's that 1% thing that you can do today? Is it writing this on a sticky note, or putting a reminder to come back and be present, or learning something that you had today? What's that one small thing that you can do? That's what you owe yourself. And this is again, a leadership tactic that we see. It's not that they have these like, sprint rest, sprint rest. It's consistency, right? Just 1% every single day.” 

“I'll keep it short and sweet and end with YARR. In my world, as some know, that stands for ‘You Are Really Ready’. And whether you are really ready to just drop to the floor and cry right now, or have a good laugh, or go order a pizza, or start a new learning journey - whatever it is, you've got this.” 

This stimulating conversation not only touched on humanising the workplace, but also on mental health and physical wellbeing, learning, and all the science that supports it. If you haven’t already, listen to the full podcast here to learn more.   

We look forward to continuing the rest of the series with L&D professionals already scheduled to join us from Italy, Cyprus, Eqypt, Oman, Finland, The Netherlands, Australia, USA and many more. Stay tuned!    

Want to hear more? Browse the full Learning with Go1 podcast library on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify to help expand your knowledge of all things L&D. And hear how other organisations are navigating through this ever-evolving landscape.  

All is revealed in episode 24 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, where our host David William Hastings is joined by Learning Scientist Lauren Waldman and Dr Chris Lee to continue the education around all things neuroscience, cognitive load and learning in the workplace.  

Preparing your brain for learning and new habit-forming 

All is revealed in episode 24 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, where our host David William Hastings is joined by Lauren Waldman and Dr Chris Lee to continue the education around all things neuroscience, cognitive load and learning in the workplace.  

Now that 2022 has well and truly begun, it is the perfect time to reflect on some of the biggest L&D trends of the year so far, and look ahead to what the rest of the year may have in store. 

While the year races by and clashing priorities pull you in different directions, it’s easy to lose track of the latest industry developments. What has been trending? How has it affected the L&D industry? What exciting developments can we have to look forward to for the rest of 2022? And, most importantly, how can your L&D team capitalise on these ongoing trends? 

At Go1, we like to think we’re on top of the latest and greatest L&D trends, so, with all these questions swirling around, we decided to look at a few of the top L&D trends for 2022. We’ll examine the trends of empowering learners, soft skills, content aggregation, and improving D&I, analysing everything you need to know to stay up to date and informed on L&D trends. 

Content aggregation has emerged as one of the biggest L&D trends of 2022. As we touched on in our article on how learning content aggregation can benefit your L&D team, aggregators have become popular in many facets of everyday life, and L&D has not been exempt. 

Content aggregation refers to the process of collecting a variety of different digital learning providers and making them available in one convenient, centralised location. For many L&D teams, this model can save the common pain point of trying to deliver suitable content to different teams and learning styles, all on tight time constraints and an even tighter budget. Usually, something has to give. 

However, a content aggregator addresses these issues by providing the breadth, diversity, and quality of content to suit diverse learning priorities, preferences, and styles. By accessing your digital learning content from a single central source, you don’t need to compromise on what to deliver again to your learners - which is why content aggregation has emerged as a top L&D trend this year. 

Empowering learners via self-directed learning 

There’s never a bad time to empower your learners. However, in 2021, we saw the trend of empowered learners go to the next level, with self-directed learning being a key factor. According to LinkedIn, 43% of Gen Z and Millennials, and 33% of Gen X and Baby Boomers, want to be empowered with fully self-directed and independent learning.

Emerald Works’ 2020 Back to the Future Report reinforces these findings, explaining that “when we empower people to ‘own’ their learning journey and see how it adds value to them and their organisation, we see increased levels of motivation, resilience, and performance.”

As Emerald Works’ research finds, the benefits of empowering your learners are almost endless. They find that agile learning organisations where “people engage with self-determined learning without prompting” are 11% more likely to enhance individual wellbeing, 24% more likely to produce a better-qualified workforce, 18% more likely to understand the principles of diversity and inclusion, and  12% more likely to increase on-the-job productivity. 

Accordingly, empowering learners via self-directed learning can have far-reaching impacts on both an organisational and individual level. 

In 2021 and continuing into 2022, many L&D teams have increased their focus on diversity and inclusion, which has emerged as one of the most positive trends of the last couple of years. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report, 64% of L&D pros globally say their executive team made D&I a top priority in 2021, while 71% of L&D teams either currently have a D&I program or are planning to implement one. Additionally, diversity and inclusion ranked second among programs that L&D teams plan to deploy, just behind ‘leading through change’. 

As a result, companies with robust D&I programs are now 22% more likely to be seen as industry leaders with high-calibre talent. 

What’s more, Emerald Works’ 2020 Back to the Future Report finds that 58% of high-impact learning cultures, which are defined as the top 10% of surveyed organisations, embed the principles of diversity and inclusion, compared to just 34% of other L&D teams. These figures show that a well-developed D&I program can take your L&D team to the next level. 

For further insights into the importance of diversity and inclusion in L&D, be sure to check out our blog series from D&I thought leader Maureen Frank. 

Finally, soft skills have been taking L&D by storm. We’ve discussed the need for employees to develop soft skills previously in our blog on closing the L&D skills gap. Developing soft skills has only become more relevant since then. 

According to a recent study of Fortune 500 CEOs, 75% of long term job success depends on people skills (soft skills), compared to just 25% which depends on technical skills (hard skills). Further, a report from IBM finds that “a shift is occurring; executives’ views regarding the priority of critical skills have taken a turn from digital and technical to behavioural.” As such, many executives now prioritise soft, behavioural skills over hard technical skills. 

On top of this, 89% of recruiters say when a hire doesn’t work out, it usually comes down to a lack of soft skills, according to SHRM. 

Perhaps most significantly, new research by HR Drive, which analysed more than 82 million job ads, found that the top five soft skills are requested 3.8 times more frequently than the top five hard skills. They also found that seven of the ten most requested skills were soft skills. Soft skills were requested in 64% of the ads analysed, while 36% of the job postings requested three or more soft skills. 

While these statistics do not mean that hard skills are dead — far from it — the demand for soft skills is certainly trending upwards, meaning they may be your key to L&D success in the future. 

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Top L&D trends for 2022 

There is no denying the dramatic shifts that have occurred to how we work. Changes around flexibility and employee wellbeing have been compounded through pandemic impacts and social justice movements. 

Organizations and employees are beginning to plan beyond the uncertainty of the past few years, and the importance of capable leadership in steering towards the future of work is becoming evident. 

Joe Whittinghill, VP of Talent, Learning and Insights at Microsoft, recently highlighted that, “as we face the biggest shift to how we work in our generation, it’s our managers who create the conditions and experiences that define what flexible work truly means.”

We are starting to see a working world where employees wield more negotiable and cultural power. From demanding flexible working arrangements, to mental health support and proof of organizational positive social impact; the new benchmarks have been set. 

Within this new working world, bad leadership just won’t last (at least not as easily). Today’s workforce are very adept at seeing through leaders who only talk the talk. 

The reality of the future of work for leaders

A lack of leadership capability is a serious barrier to organizational progress into the future of work. A recent survey from PWC name it as one of three identified significant inhibitors to progress (along with cost pressures, and organizational culture). 

For varying reasons, many leaders of today are not yet equipped to support the workforce of tomorrow. More than 50% of managers find it hard to identify when their team members are struggling with their mental wellbeing, overwork or burnout. 

With reports showing vividly how much of the workforce has struggled or still is struggling, it's critical that leaders are sufficiently trained and able to support their teams. Working hours (overtime) have increased by 14% since 2020, 49% of Americans said that planning for their future felt impossible in 2021, and 3 in 10 global workers say their physical and mental health has declined in the last 12 months. 

As the need for wellbeing support overtakes organizational structures in place, many employees may be left struggling alone. Regardless of how things may have been done in "the past", today's workforce are asking and expecting more from their leaders when it comes to mental health and wellbeing support. 

And though many leaders are doing great work here, and even more are taking steps forward, there is still a lot of 'up-skilling' needed at large. A recent Adecco Group study of 15,000 respondents across 25 countries reported that 67% of leaders are not meeting employees' expectations for how invested leaders should be in their wellbeing. 

Across industries, geographies and organizational structures it's impossible to list conclusively the work that needs to be done by leadership to prepare for the future of work. 

But as employees ask for more flexibility, support and understanding, it's enough to recognise that much of the focus should to be placed on humanising the workplace. 

Regardless of leadership archetype or ‘personality’, development in empathy, agility and workplace wellbeing should be prioritized. When workers are seen as whole humans and treated respectfully as such by their leaders, they are helped to be both mentally and physically healthier, which in turn fosters their ability to engage and work better. 

Learning to lead with a focus on the humans at work is not simple, but will rather take continual learning, as well as  some un-learning along the way. 

Workplace mental health and wellbeing can feel overwhelming to approach, particularly if you're not sure where to begin. To help navigate these waters we have developed, in partnership with AP Psychology, the Humans at Work guide. 

This auditing and planning tool will guide you in finding the right learning for your team. 

If you are a current Go1 customer, you can complete the guide in partnership with your CSM and they will add a Humans at Work learning plan into your current learning structure. 

If you are not currently a customer and interested in elevating your workplace's mental health and wellbeing learning, we would love to help. 

Download the Humans at Work guide and let's move towards psychologically safer workplaces. 

Employees are demanding more flexible, empathetic and agile leaders. But are leaders ready to step up?

Are leaders suitably trained for the future of work?

Robots are coming for your job. This prediction is both a time-honoured sci-fi trope and a valid fear that many workers hold. However, like many bold visions of the future — from flying cars and hoverboards to space colonies and robot uprisings (fingers crossed that one isn’t real) — it’s worth taking a step back to ask how realistic these predictions are. Is AI going to replace our jobs? Or, will the future of work just be different, much like the current workforce is vastly different from 30 years ago?

With these questions in mind, we’ll continue our deep dive into the future of work by asking the question on many workers’ lips: is AI really coming for your job? We'll start by asking whether you should be fearful of AI coming for your job, before looking at biases in AI and offering tips to future-proof your skills. 

To set the scene for this topic, check out our latest article on The foundational skills you’ll need in 2022 where we go into detail on the role automation will play in the future of work. 

So, are robots really poised to take over? Let’s find out. 

Predictions of job loss due to AI have varied wildly over the years. Some say that robots will take over entirely, while others believe this is an exaggeration. So, is AI coming for your job, or is it here to help?

At this stage, visions of an all-robot workforce are greatly exaggerated. Nevertheless, 49% of companies currently use AI in some fashion. What’s more, the global market for AI will reach $267 billion by 2027, while the number of businesses that use AI has grown by 270% over the last four years.

Additionally, 90% of ‘leading businesses’ have ongoing investments in AI, with a recent survey finding that 76% of respondents cite AI as fundamental to the success of their organisation's strategy. 

Expect these numbers to continue rising, as there are currently 2.25 million industrial robots in use worldwide, while the number of industrial robot jobs has increased by 14% yearly in recent times. Accordingly, 37% of workers are worried about losing their jobs due to automation.

To break this down further, the World Economic Forum finds that as of 2021, 71% of total task-hours are completed by humans, compared to 29% of total task-hours completed by machines. However, if current trends continue, these numbers will shift to just 58% of total task-hours completed by humans and 42% completed by machines within four years.

So, what does this mean in practice? One often-quoted report by McKinsey claims that by 2030 “375 million workers — or roughly 14% of the global workforce — may need to switch occupational categories as digitisation, automation, and advances in artificial intelligence disrupt the world of work.” 

Other estimates fluctuate regarding exactly how many jobs will be lost or displaced by AI. For example, one report believes that one-third of current jobs will no longer exist in 25 years. Another report places this number at 57 million jobs lost by 2030, while additional estimates suggest that automation could eliminate 73 million jobs in the US by 2030, equating to 46% of the current workforce. Therefore, while exact numbers vary, the overall consensus is that a significant number of jobs will be lost or replaced due to automation.

Thankfully, the news is not all bad. Many predictions also find that automation may create as many new jobs as it displaces. While workers will need new skills to thrive in these jobs, they will not be lost entirely. In 2020, estimates showed that AI created more new jobs than it supplanted — creating 2.3 million new jobs while replacing 1.8 million jobs. In the coming years, AI and automation may create as many as 133 million new jobs in the US alone, with similar trends expected globally. 

In fact, Zippia finds that by 2022, AI will create 58 million jobs, and by 2030, AI is forecast to benefit the economy to the tune of $15.7 trillion. Again, estimates vary on the precise number of jobs AI may create worldwide. But, the bottom line is that fears that AI will lead to total, widespread job loss seem to be overblown. There is a good chance that AI will create as many new jobs as it replaces. Of course, these new jobs may require different skills, which is where upskilling and reskilling will become vital for employees to future-proof their careers. 

Additionally, to contextualise potential job loss figures, it's worth noting that a certain amount of churn is normal, regardless of the influence of AI. In response to an estimate that automation will replace 9% of jobs, one Slate article points out that “nine percent of jobs is still a lot. But the optimal number isn’t zero. The White House automation report notes that about 6 percent of jobs in the American economy are eliminated every three months through the normal process of some businesses shrinking or shutting down as others start up and expand.” Thus, when some, more alarmist headlines claim that AI is on track to replace all of our jobs, we should remember that a certain amount of churn is normal. 

Slate provides a perfect analogy to ease fears that AI will make your job obsolete anytime soon, explaining, “machines will perform an increasing share of boring, rote tasks, and people will move to more human work. When hundreds of thousands of ATMs were deployed in the 1980s and 1990s, the number of bank tellers went up, not down, because reduced labour costs allowed banks to open more branches.”

While many depictions of AI show them as flawless, calculating decision-makers, the reality is AI are often as biased as the humans who program them. 

For instance, McKinsey found that an image search for “CEO” returned only 11% images of women, despite women making up 27% of CEOs at the time. Further, in 2018, a facial recognition tool used by the police misidentified 35% of dark-skinned women as men. On the other hand, the misidentification rate for light-skinned men was only 0.8%, as most of the people who created the tool came from this demographic. 

These unconscious biases are another reason why it is unlikely AI will take over completely. Rather, AI may automate mundane tasks, freeing humans to focus on more creative and fulfilling work. 

To read an in-depth analysis of unconscious biases in AI, check out our article on Recognising unconscious biases in L&D technology.

While it may not replace jobs entirely, the rise of AI will necessitate significant upskilling and reskilling to survive in the future world of work. As Slate puts it, “automation is more likely to change jobs than destroy them.” To find out the skills you’ll need to survive the rise of AI, see our article on Skills for the future, today. 

We’ll continue our deep dive into the future of work by asking the question on many workers’ lips: is AI really coming for your job?

Is AI really coming for your job? 

12 Months of Learning – 2022 Strategic Learning and Development Guide

It’s a new year and what better way to get things started than making a plan to help employees learn something new, every month. We are excited to introduce the 12 Months of Learning. This guide has been created specifically for learning and development specialists to help engage employees in learning all year. 

Check out our recommendations for month themes and holidays to help you craft a learning calendar.

Go1 customers can check out the curated playlists on their Go1 portal by searching 12 Months of Learning or reaching out to their CSM for more information on how to easily launch content around these topics.

What content partners should you check out to help get you started?

The advent of a new year offers a natural opportunity to set new goals, update our systems to enhance productivity, and renew our commitment to personal health and fitness. This month we are spotlighting two providers with content offerings to help us excel and thrive in 2022.

If you wish you could read all the best business, leadership, and personal development books but just can’t find the time, then Blinkist is your dream come true!

This Germany-based provider distills the best from chart-topping tomes into 15-minute audio books, allowing you to catch up on research and get actionable insights while walking the dog, resting your eyes, or commuting to the office.

With over 200 “Blinks” available in our library, Blinkist can be both an integral part of a learning program as well as a valuable employee benefit.

Check out some of their most popular titles: 

iAm Learning specializes in engaging, entertaining courses developed by subject matter experts with a wry sense of humor. Many of this UK-based provider’s titles have been reviewed and certified by professional organizations. 

Courses are typically less than 30 minutes and cover topics from Safety and Cybersecurity to Diversity and Mental Health.

If you enjoy high-quality animation and want to up the fun-factor in your suite of learning opportunities, consider these popular courses from iAM Learning:

How to Have a Conversation about Mental Health

What new content partners have we added to the Content Hub?

This exciting new Singapore-based provider offers complex gamified simulations that immerse learners in experiences designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Among the nine new courses from Knolskape are Influencing Skills for Leading without Authority, Building Business Acumen, Driving Innovation, and Agile Way of Working.

These are in-depth courses, ranging in duration from 120 to 150 minutes. 

What great new content have our current content partners added to the Content Hub?

AMC – 29 new sexual harassment prevention courses, including state-specific courses for both managers and supervisors, in addition to a suite of harassment prevention courses focused on healthcare and dental providers (US-based)

Global Ethics University – 24 new courses, including Code of Conduct, Bribery and Corruption, Non-Sexual Harassment and Bullying in the Workplace, and A Diverse Workplace with Respect and Fair Treatment (US-based)

Marcom – 58 new courses including Driving Defensively for CDL/Large Vehicle Drivers, Heat Stress in Construction Environments, Personal protective Equipment in Construction Environments, and Lead Exposure in Construction Environments (US-based)

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

The Go1 Content Insider is your first stop for all things new in the Go1 Content Hub. In this January update, find out the latest and greatest in the world of content!

The Go1 Content Insider - January 2022 edition

Before COVID, 40% of people experienced feeling isolated at work. Now, according to recent Gallup research, “nearly 85% of employees worldwide are still not engaged or are actively disengaged at work”.  

More than ever, workplaces are struggling to not only attract staff, but consistently retain, empower, and support them.

As part of our desire to provide education that fosters engaging and supportive workplaces, we sat down with Arthur Papagiannis, CEO of AP Psychology and Consulting Services. Through his leadership in delivering strategic workplace wellbeing solutions, Arthur’s expertise is invaluable. 

In this video series, he shares his insight into creating a psychologically safe workplace, the importance of education, leadership buy in, and more. 

Starting the journey

How would you describe psychological safety at work? 

Attaining workplace psychological safety can be an overwhelming process for organizational leaders. Here, Arthur summarizes key terms and strategies that his team use to break down the process and simplify the goals. 

How would you describe psychological safety at work?

Education is a powerful tool against stigma, bias, and any barriers to support within the workplace. Arthur explains the importance of not only awareness education but developing proactive skillsets at all levels of an organization. 

The importance of education

Having leadership, commitment and adequate training will always be critical when creating a psychologically safe workplace. As Arthur explains, staff can miss pathways to support and recovery if awareness programs are rolled out without leaders also receiving appropriate training on how to best guide their team.  

It starts at the top

Our global awareness of the importance of personal and workplace wellbeing has certainly risen over the past few years. We dive into how both the collective struggle during the pandemic and a mass refocus, or simplification of priorities has compounded this. 

The pandemic and workplace culture

A psychologically safe workplace is an environment where employees feel capable to speak up authentically regarding struggles, concerns, or challenges without fear of retribution or discrimination.  

Arthur explores some of the recognizable changes that can be seen when a culture begins to shift. 

What change can look like

Arthur and his team share our passion for creating simplified and accessible learning moments that help employees and workplaces thrive. To further assist you in understanding the learning needs of your workplace, we have developed the Humans at Work guide. 

Webinar recap: Translating psychological safety for L&D

In this webinar, Kelli Frey, CPTD explains the history and theory of psychological safety, how it translates to learning experiences, and how to measure and increase psychological safety in your organization.

Translating psychological safety for L&amp;D

Watch the full webinar to explore psychological safety in learning and development, including its history, measurement, and strategies to increase it.

In collaboration with AP Psychology we explore psychological safety in the workplace, how to get leadership buy in, and the importance of education.

Psychological safety in the workplace: where to begin

If you were to do a google search for the definition of habit right now, depending on where in the world you are, it might come up as “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.”

A bit simplistic for something that is actually pretty complex and makes up nearly 70% of our waking behaviours.

70% is a pretty large number, may seem like the odds are working against us. So then what can we do to create and sustain new habits and how can this help us to be better learners? Well, here’s the funny thing about that…

When you go away from the generic definition of a habit and explore it through the lens of science, neuroscience to be more exact, you can see what really underlies creating, breaking or sustaining a habit. Learning. 

Habits, from the perspective of neuroscience, are things that our nervous system has learned, and those can be both consciously and unconsciously.  

Your brain and spinal cord come together to form the central nervous system. This system relays and coordinates information and allows you to do things like think, feel, move, breath etc. 

Now that we know that it’s the nervous system is doing the learning to create the new habit, the next thing we probably want to question is, what is learning then?

Through the lens of neuroscience and the brain, learning is our ability to change, which occurs through neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is how the brain changes, reorganizes and grows in response to new experiences.  

In order to create a new habit, we need to form new neural circuits/a new pathway which will represent the habit. Like all learning and endeavours to create a new memory, time and practice are required to develop and strengthen the pathway. 

How much time? Well, that depends on the person. A 2010 study “How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world”  found that there was considerable variation depending on the person, anywhere from 18 to 254 days.  

Consider the lower number there though, 18 days. Now think about what that means in the context of learning and changing a brain. It’s not going to happen overnight and is going to require some effort. 

So how can we help the brain? What can we do that will support our abilities to learn and create those desirable habits? Three words: Sleep. Diet. Exercise.

By now it’s common knowledge that those three factors, sleep, exercise and diet are critical to supporting brain function and overall health. But why? 

There’s a plethora of research and knowledge that go into each of these factors, but for our sake, let’s keep it to the context of supporting learning. 

Gives the brain time to flush out neurotoxins that build up over the course of your day.  A brain free of waste is one that can operate more functionally and will support you in your abilities to attend to your focus. Important when it comes to sitting down to learn.

Part of the memory consolidation process takes place while we sleep, during which neural connections are strengthened. Another reason why spacing out learning is an effective method.  

Promotes blood flow to the brain and improves sleep, mood and reduces stress and anxiety, all critical factors to cognitive function while you learn. 

Releases chemicals in the brain that affect the health of the brain cells themselves, those things that will be creating the network and representation of a new behaviour. 

Your brain is like an expensive car and you want to put good fuel in it to keep it running well.  Foods that have lots of vitamins,      minerals and antioxidants not only nourishes the brain but protect it from excess waste which can damage the cells. 

Your brain also burns through an exceptional amount of calories in a day considering the size of real estate it takes up in comparison to the whole body. An estimated 20%. Having some snacks and some water around when you’re learning will definitely be to your benefit. 

So at the end of the day, how do we create great habits and be better learners? Support and take care of the thing doing the learning, those beautiful brains! 

I’ll leave you with a quote from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits and one that I referenced in the recent webinar we did with the LPI, Sebastian Tindall, Head of Learning and Development for Vitality, and David William Hastings of Go1.

“Intensity makes a good story. Consistency makes progress.”

Be strategic, be intentional, sleep well, and nourish both those brains and bodies and you’ll be well on your way to being a better learner and creating those new habits you want. 

Interested to know more? You may also like to read Lauren Waldman's article on how joining forces with our brains can help us to be more emotionally intelligent and empathetic in the workplace.

Be strategic, be intentional, sleep well, and nourish both those brains and bodies and you’ll be well on your way to being a better learner and creating those new habits you want.

Habits, learning and the brain, what science has to say about it all

Habits, learning and the brain - what science has to say about it all

The session kicks off a fresh series of engaging webinars for 2022 which will unpick the steps businesses can make in order to create more well-rounded and positive working environments for their teams.

The conversation opens with a series of questions, addressed to the audience and the panelists around new year resolutions and the progress on maintaining them thus far. The responses are mixed, with some proud of their progress, while others admit that they have not yet been able to stick to them. This leads the discussion onto the topic of habits and how long it takes to form or on the other hand, break them. Lauren Waldman quotes a scientific claim which states that 70% of our behaviour is habitual which would make it seem like the odds are against us when it comes to trying to create or forget a habit overnight. The panelists then debate on what the definition of a habit is to them - while Lauren sticks to a more scientific notion, unpicking habits from the perspective of neuroscience, each speaker is in agreement that habits need to be looked at from a learning context, be it conscious or unconscious. So what is learning? At this point in the seminar, both David William Hastings and Sebastian Tindall turn to Lauren who provides her scientific insights - she states that learning is our ability to change our brains, explaining that our brain and nervous system constantly evolves based on our experiences. Thanks to neuroplasticity, where no less than 86 billion cells are constantly growing and evolving as we create new pathways, we build new connections into our minds. Lauren reiterates that learning is not easy, it’s a timely process which cannot be rushed. Studies have shown that it can take anything from 18 to 254 days to form a habit.

Learning and our nervous system

The topic segways nicely into how this consideration should be taken into account in the workplace - the panelists discuss how it is unreasonable now for businesses to expect people to learn things in an hour and then move on, when it has been proven time and time again that in order to properly assimilate something, you need to revisit what you’ve learned, you have to entertain it. David William Hastings also points out the importance of passion in the process of learning - when you care about something, you’ll want to repeat it, apply and practice it but also share the experience and inspire others.

Habitual learning is the most impactful learning, but how can you support it and create the right environment to foster new ‘habits’? Here the speakers stress the importance of exercise, a healthy diet and, last but not least, sleep. Each will contribute to making for a healthier, and more fruitful, working, and learning environment. 

The importance of sleep for learning

Sebastian Tindall poses a challenging question - How do we cater to frontline workers, or schedule based workers - what is the best time in the day to take them away from their role?  Both Lauren and David acquiesce, stating that, though there is no one optimal time, the importance is for leadership to be mindful and compromising, making, and finding time where they can in order to support and inspire. To Sebastian, workplace wellbeing is a necessity. He is also adamant that achieving this within the workplace puts businesses at a competitive advantage which in the long run will exponentially contribute to the success of the company on all accounts. David, talks of the working culture at Go1, where everyone is able to bring their true selves to work. 

Throughout the session, David condones the preconceived idea that training needs to be profit driven, geared towards KPIs and margins etc. To him, if the library of learning is not built to help everyone, then everyone will struggle with habitual learning - he states that there is a duty of care to provide for employees and give them a safe, relatable core; a pillar of human skills as well as professional.

Lauren Waldman chief learning Scientist and founder of Learning Pirate, David William Hastings Head of Content Partnerships at Go1 and Sebastian Tindall, Head of learning and development at Vitality join forces to discuss the importance of a culture of habitual learning.