The Emerging Stronger team combines the expertise of Michelle Ockers, Shannon Tipton and Laura Overton, award winning L&D industry analysts and strategists who have been working together to empower L&D leaders to take bold action to positively influence business value. 

Over the past 18 months, Emerging Stronger has established a reputation for independent evidence based thinking through their global masterclasses, podcast and resources designed to support the post pandemic world of L&D.

Andrew Barnes, CEO of Go1, said: “We have been working with the Emerging Stronger team over the past year and we value the team’s independent evidence informed perspective.”  

“We are pleased to be involved in this publishing partnership as it aligns with our mission to bring independent content to learners around the globe, including individuals and leaders responsible for the learning of others so that individuals, teams and organisations are better equipped to adapt and grow,” Barnes said.

As a result of this partnership, the Emerging Stronger team will develop a range of resources including eBooks, tools, and research reports to support L&D leaders as they upskill their workforces today to address the challenges of tomorrow

The Emerging Stronger Team will begin their publishing partnership with Go1 with a focus on:

Developing a range of evidence-based resources (eBooks and tools)

Hosting community events that explore collective wisdom and uncover actions to increase business value

Sharing evidence informed insight to encourage and build a future proofed L&D

All to support the mission of both to support L&D leaders as they continue the work to upskill and reskill their workforces. 

Laura Overton (UK market), Shannon Tipton (USA market), Michelle Ockers (APAC market), say:

"Our sole focus is to help L&D take the bold action needed to drive better business value. We love working with Go1’s energetic teams around the globe as they realise their vision. This partnership demonstrates their commitment to independent thinking and making useful, accessible content available to those who need it."

The partnership also demonstrates Go1’s ongoing support of the Emerging Stronger Masterclass which provides an opportunity for L&D leaders to adopt transformational perspectives to drive business value. The agreement not only allows the creation of new resources to educate and inform L&D globally but also provides financial support to participants who enter the programme as a scholarship holder.

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Emerging Stronger has announced a publishing partnership with Go1, the world's largest corporate education content hub for on-demand training and resources, aimed at supporting learning and development leaders to drive better business value in the changing workplace.

Go1 enters new partnership to help L&D leaders adapt and thrive

A new publishing partnership with Emerging Stronger aims at supporting learning and development leaders to drive better business value in the changing workplace.

Go1 enters new partnership to help L&D leaders adapt and thrive 

What is your organisation doing to equip and empower employees with the right skills to succeed in the new working environment? 

In episode 19 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, Senior Learning EdTech Transformation Strategist, Lori Niles-Hofmann, shares her insights into what the leading L&D teams are doing well, and how they're transforming company performance through their learning programmes. 

Check out some of our favourite highlights from the conversation below.   

What are some of the key themes of L&D right now? 

For many people and organisations, 2021 has been described as a ‘limbo year’. A lot of people were hoping that the pandemic and the aftermath would end abruptly, that we could all move on from it and get back to normal, but that certainly hasn’t been the case. In the clip below, Lori highlights three things that L&D are dealing with right now. 

What are the key themes in L&D right now?

How are successful companies approaching digital transformation? 

“Everybody has their own nirvana, but you must understand it from the user's perspective. It's not about you. It doesn't matter what you may want as an L&D function, or even as a business function. You must see it from the other side and what is going to work for the learner.” 

Lori explains what successful companies have been doing when it comes to digital transformation below. 

How are successful companies approaching digital transformation?

When time and resources are tight, how can we identify projects that drive business value versus those that don’t?   

The Learning Triage, first developed by Lori Niles-Hofmann and Amanda Nolen, makes it easier for you to identify the business opportunities around you that deliver the best value. Lori tells us more about the Learning Triage below. 

Tell us about the Learning Triage

💡 Learn more about the Learning Triage and download your free copy here 

As we move into 2022, L&D needs to be intentional about learning. No more learning for the sake of learning. But rather, what skills gaps do you have as an organisation, and how can you provide people with real development opportunities? 

If you haven’t already, listen to the full podcast for actionable takeaways to consider for your own learning organisation.  

We look forward to continuing the rest of the series, with L&D professionals already scheduled to join us from Cyprus, Egypt, Oman, Finland, the Netherlands, Australia, the 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 organizations are navigating this ever-evolving landscape.  

In episode 19 of the Learning with Go1 podcast Senior Learning EdTech Transformation Strategist, Lori Niles-Hofmann, shares her insights into what the leading L&D teams are doing well... and not so well. 

Is your L&D team building the skills to meet company performance objectives?  

Is your L&D team building the skills to meet company performance objectives? 

International Men’s Day (IMD) is celebrated on 19 November every year and is marked in around 80 countries worldwide. 

As a day of observance, IMD is a great opportunity to take part in a global conversation about manhood, masculinity, and men’s issues. With a focus on uniting humanity, IMD encourages everyone to work together to:  

✔️ Acknowledge the contribution of men and boys 

✔️ Tackle discrimination and disadvantage 

✔️ Foster positive gender relations  

✔️ Make the world a safer place for everyone 
 

This year’s theme for IMD is Men's Mental Health and providing men with opportunities for connection, support, and education to enhance their health and wellbeing.  

Having discussions around men’s mental health is an important factor in eliminating gender inequality and practicing an inclusive workplace. On this International Men’s Day, let’s all work together to reduce the stigma and make it easier for people to talk about men’s mental health within the workplace.  

Looking for training content in this space? We encourage you to check out some of our providers and their content here.  

Having discussions around men’s mental health is an important factor in eliminating gender inequality and practicing an inclusive workplace. This International Men’s Day (IMD) lets work together to reduce the stigma in the workplace. 

Online training to support mens mental health

Having discussions around men’s mental health is an important factor in eliminating gender inequality and practicing an inclusive workplace. This International Men’s Day (IMD) let’s work together to reduce the stigma in the workplace. 

Online training to support men’s mental health 

From time to time, the question comes up: does Go1 invest in other companies? We think about that question in the context of how we achieve our mission to unlock positive potential through a love of learning.   

There is so much potential in the world, and so many opportunities to help people learn better. We see this every day in how fostering a love of learning can help people get new jobs, be more effective at their work, deliver better for their customers, and develop themselves as individuals. The world is moving quickly, and learning needs to as well. 

At Go1, the main way we’re helping to unlock that potential is by building the world’s best subscription library for corporate learning, and by opening up our technology for content creators to deliver excellent training to their customers directly. We think there’s a better way to get access to the learning and development experiences employers, employees, and citizens need, and we’re proud to be building it at Go1. 

However, we’re not the only people with amazing ideas about how to unlock people’s positive potential, and how to make learning and development better. There are lots and lots of great companies out there making products that we think are pretty great, and so wherever we can we like to help those companies succeed. 

One way we do that is by working with our content partners and our affiliate partners to help them build great businesses of their own. For content partners, that often looks like providing an additional income stream by being part of Go1 Premium. And on top of that, providing them with data and analytics to identify what the next great bit of content they should build is.  

It could also look like using Go1 Connect to deliver their content to wherever they want it to be. For our affiliate partners, that looks like providing Go1 Premium alongside their own great products to produce an amazing L&D experience for their customers. 

Another way we do that is by investing in great companies who are building amazing things we want to see in the world, and our investment can help catalyze. We’re not a VC fund, but we do like backing great companies where we think one plus one can be (much, much) greater than two.   

One example of this is News Over Audio (Noa). Noa makes it convenient for time-sensitive people to understand and know more about the news that matters, in minutes. Their editors work with some of the world’s biggest publications to curate and consciously package articles in a way that guides you through the biggest news topics. Their team of celebrated narrators then read these articles word-for-word so that you can listen anytime, anywhere. 

Why we have invested in Noa is that we see in them a company that is building a great product to make it easier for people to learn about the world around them. In this case, by putting great content into a format that is easier for people to find time to understand. We think Noa’s product is highly complementary with Go1’s own, so much so that we offer every Noa listener a Go1 learner record so they can connect up all of the things they’re learning. We also offer Noa subscriptions to all of our own staff for free. 

 Another set of examples are companies we have partnered with to co-fund the creation of amazing content we want to see in the world. Our content partners are building fantastic learning experiences, and when the right opportunity comes up for us to catalyze that content being made sooner, better, we co-fund its creation.   

A great example of this is our work with social impact organizations to help them create L&D content so that the impact of their missions can live on in the workplace. We're proud of our work with organisations like Challenge DV and Beyond Blue, that has brought learning experiences on important social topics that people can watch and re-watch at their own pace. 

So hopefully that’s given you a taste of how Go1 thinks about our mission of unlocking positive potential through a love of learning, and how investing in other companies can help achieve that mission. 

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.

At Go1, our mission is to unlock the positive of potential of over a billion people through a love of learning. The main way we’re doing that is by building the world’s best subscription library for corporate learning. But we’re also doing that by investing in other companies who we think are building amazing things.

How does Go1 think about investing in other companies?

At Go1, our mission is to unlock the positive of potential of over a billion people through a love of learning. The main ways we’re doing that is by building the world’s best content for corporate learning and by investing in other companies who are building amazing things.

Picture two co-workers. The first is busy all day, racing from meeting to meeting, replying to messages, staring down a to-do list, and barely taking a second to breathe. The second appears to have time on their side, working at a methodical pace and taking regular breaks between tasks. Who do you think is more productive? 

Conventional wisdom suggests the first person is more likely to be productive. After all, the more time you spend working, the more you’re likely to get done, right? Many of us have been conditioned to believe in this ‘work til you drop’ attitude. 

In reality, the second person, who opts to take regular breaks, is significantly more likely to be productive, as they give their brain the time it needs to reset and process information. New research by Microsoft finds that taking regular breaks decreases the risk of employee burnout while also improving focus and engagement and helping people manage stress. In this case, the old adage rings true: work smarter, not harder. 

Unfortunately, many people probably relate more closely to the first person in this scenario. You might even know the feeling: you work and work, until sometime in the afternoon after yet another Zoom meeting, you feel the tension build up in your temples or the stress pool in your stomach. This way of working is unsustainable and, ultimately, unproductive. 

We’ll dig into this new research on why our brains need breaks, looking at the case for taking breaks, as well as the benefits of breaks for productivity. 

Sometimes, ‘break’ can be a dirty word in our breakneck, fast-paced modern culture. When you’re always on the go, facing various deadlines and pressures, it feels like there’s no time to take a break. Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index report backs this up, finding that 54% of respondents feel overworked, while 39% say they are outright exhausted.

Many feel the pressure is always on to be succeeding, achieving, and boosting their productivity. There’s no time for a break — I’ll sleep when I’m dead! However, when we step back, take a deep breath, and critically evaluate this mindset, we realise it couldn’t be further from the truth.

The case for taking breaks is clear-cut. Put simply, our brains are designed for sprints, not marathons. They need time to rest, reset, and consolidate knowledge. Without this, our brains cannot function optimally. It is often during these moments when we are not actively thinking about anything that our best ideas suddenly come to us — those brilliant ‘lightbulb’ moments. 

This phenomenon is no coincidence. As Psychology Today explains, “the frontal lobe brain networks — responsible for reasoning, planning, decision-making, and judgment — work for you in creative ways when the brain is quiet, not while you are effortfully trying to find a solution to a problem. Moments of insight increase as the brain unwinds. Why? When not actively tackling a task, the brain connects random ideas and consolidates these with prior knowledge into exciting new thoughts, ideas, directions, and potential solutions.”

In other words, those moments when you’re putting in all your effort but running into a mental block often signal that you need a break. Increased effort does not necessarily correlate with increased productivity. In fact, this mindset is worth debunking. Obviously, you are more likely to complete a task if you work on it for 25 minutes than if you work on it for 2 minutes. However, as with many things in life, you will eventually reach a point of diminishing returns. For example, working on a task for 3 hours straight does not guarantee a better outcome than breaking that work up into four 30-minute increments. At a certain point, your brain will be crying out for a break. 

Numerous studies have attempted to quantify the benefits of downtime for our brain health. One such experiment, conducted by Marc Berman in 2008, saw 38 university students study lists of random numbers, then recite these numbers from memory in reverse order. Next, half the students took a walk in a botanical garden for an hour, while the other half walked the same distance through busy, heavily trafficked city streets for an hour. The students then memorised and recited the lists again. On average, students who walked through nature recalled 1.5 more digits than the first time they took the test, whereas those who walked through the busy city streets improved by only 0.5 digits. 

This study shows the benefits of downtime for our memory, focus, and attentiveness. Similar patterns have been observed in school students. A 2016 study by psychologist Karrie Godwin found that, during longer lessons, young primary school students were distracted about a quarter of the time. However, during shorter lessons, with more frequent breaks, attention and engagement skyrocketed. Ultimately, they determined that it was more effective to give students more breaks, settling on several 10-minute lessons rather than fewer 30-minute lessons. 

On a larger scale, a similar pattern is evident in studies of the 4-day workweek. One study from Iceland found that when workers reduced their hours from 40 to 35 per week, productivity stayed constant or rose in most workplaces. Likewise, Microsoft Japan tested a 4-day work week and saw productivity increase by 40%. 

While this might seem paradoxical, giving workers more breaks allows them more downtime to rest, reset, relax, and ultimately increase productivity. In these instances, less is definitely more. 

The benefits of breaks for productivity 

As anyone who has ever had to work long shifts will tell you, breaks are beneficial for many self-evident reasons: mental health, physical health, memory, and even attentiveness. Plus, who doesn’t like taking a 10-minute break to grab a coffee and a snack? When it comes to productivity, taking regular breaks is equally important. While this might seem counterintuitive to some people — how can working less be more productive? —  a recent Microsoft study analysed the benefits of taking breaks, concluding that our brains need regular breaks to maintain productivity. 

During the study, 14 people attended Zoom meetings while wearing electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment — a cap to monitor the electrical activity in their brains. On the first day of testing, participants attended four back-to-back half-hour meetings, all on different topics. The following day, these meetings were interspersed with 10-minute breaks, during which time the participants completed a guided meditation.

Following the study, researchers found three key takeaways: 

1. Breaks between meetings significantly reduce stress

Raise your hand if back-to-back meetings stress you out. Well, according to Microsoft’s research, you’re not alone.  During the study, beta waves, which are associated with stress, accumulated in participants' brains when attending back-to-back meetings. In other words, participants became increasingly stressed during back-to-back meetings. 

On the other hand, when participants took a break between meetings, beta wave activity dropped, allowing for a reset. As such, participants entered the following meeting feeling more relaxed, as beta wave activity held steady and never had the chance to accumulate.

2. Taking breaks increases focus and engagement 

We all know the feeling: you’re on your third consecutive meeting, your colleague is presenting an important slide deck, you’re trying your best to focus, but your mind keeps wandering, eventually drifting off into daydreams. Luckily, science now backs up these feelings. 

According to Microsoft’s research, participants who took meditation breaks between meetings showed brainwave patterns with positive levels of frontal alpha asymmetry, which correlates to higher focus and engagement.

In contrast, participants who didn’t take breaks had (you guessed it!) negative levels of frontal alpha symmetry, suggesting negative engagement during the meeting. 

Put simply, not taking breaks between meetings made it far more difficult for people to focus.

3. Stress levels spike when transitioning between meetings

Finally, researchers noticed that if participants didn’t take breaks, stress levels spiked when transitioning between meetings. For participants who did take breaks, stress levels decreased during this period.

According to Michael Bohan, who oversaw the research, this is because “you’re coming to the end of the meeting, knowing you have another one coming right up, and you’re going to have to switch gears and use your brain to think hard about something else.”

“Our research shows breaks are important, not just to make us less exhausted by the end of the day, but to actually improve our ability to focus and engage while in those meetings,” he adds.

Ultimately, the message is clear: to maintain focus and engagement, reduce stress, and improve productivity, breaks are vital. To function at your best, breaks should be factored in as a regular part of your daily workload; just like checking your emails, replying to Slack messages, and attending meetings. 

While old-school thinking may perceive taking a break as lazy or unproductive, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, breaks are one of the best productivity tools in your arsenal. So, next time you hit a brick wall at work, remember this breaking news: your brain needs breaks, and so do you.

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 check out our articles on scheduling breaks to increase productivity and why you need to switch off from technology during your break.

We’ll dig into the new research on why our brains need breaks, looking at the case for taking breaks, as well as the benefits of breaks for productivity. 

Why our brains need breaks to maintain productivity

Go1 and Workplace from Meta (formerly Facebook) announce the launch of a new integration that enables employees to easily access and engage in online training, all without leaving their workspace.  

With Workplace, Meta are on a mission to make work more personal, providing employees with a platform to connect, communicate, and collaborate. 

The Workplace platform is also ideal for delivering just-in-time micro-learning experiences, meaning learners no longer have to spend precious time switching between platforms – one of the biggest barriers to employee learning and productivity.  

“Meta has already revolutionized how people connect, and now with Workplace, that same technology can connect teams in a work setting. When organizations use unified communication tools, people become closer, teamwork gets faster, and culture gets stronger. Combine that with learning and development opportunities that are proven to boost retention, organizations can deliver more value to their customers,” said Andrew Barnes, CEO and Co-Founder of Go1. 

We’re also pleased to announce a partnership with Enablo, who are experts in transforming the employee experience and are a premium partner for Workplace. They’ve helped organization's (including some of the world’s largest) roll out Workplace as their communication and connection tool across their workforces. 

Go1’s integration is now live and available to all customers that use Workplace. 

Does your organization use Workplace from Meta? Request a demo of Go1 in Workplace today.  

To learn more about the integration, visit https://www.go1.com/workplace-from-meta  

Go1 and Workplace from Meta (formerly Facebook) announce the launch of a new integration that enables employees to easily access and engage in online training, all without leaving their workspace.

Go1 and Workplace from Meta announce new integration that removes barriers to employee learning

New integration between Go1 and Workplace from Meta enables employees to easily access and engage in online training, all without leaving their workspace.

Removing barriers to employee learning with Workplace from Meta

Written by Lauren Waldman, founder of Learning Pirate, and a revolutionary in the discipline of organisational learning and development. With nearly 20 years of experience as a learning professional, complemented by qualifications in neuroscience, Lauren is driving the evolution of the way individuals and organisations learn, approach learning, and join forces with their brains! 

Imagine this: you’ve been locked up at home for most of the year, balancing your home, social and professional life in a way you never have before. While that’s happening, you’re also experiencing a vast array of emotions and feelings, constantly wondering what’s to come next in the world. On top of all that, you’ve had to maintain productivity for work but have found it increasingly hard to focus.  

But we don’t have to imagine this. This really did happen, with many still living in a variation of this existence across the globe.   

Now let’s add learning. Learning that may need to be done to onboard as a new employee, or to upskill as an existing one.   

Learning in order to adjust and adapt to new protocols, policies, procedures, health standards and cultures.   

Learning that is required for people to do their jobs on shop and factory floors, to maintain compliance, keep people safe, understand new products and services etc.  

Does anyone else feel their levels of overwhelm increasing as you read this? A slight tightness in the chest as the pile of things to do gets bigger?  

This is what employees, otherwise known as humans, are experiencing all over the world when it comes to balancing workload, maintaining productivity, and trying to keep up with necessary learning at the same time. 

At a recent event (Learning Futures, hosted by iVentiv) myself (appearing as a floating virtual head), along with Nick Ramsay and David Hastings of Go1, facilitated a session with learning leaders to have some pretty open discussions about learning under the conditions of heavier cognitive and emotional loads. 

To bring this into context, let’s look at the brain and the science which helps us navigate all of this.  

First thing to know, the brain is expensive! And its currency is energy. Our brains are designed to process and send information through electrical signals (energy). As you may imagine, the more areas activated, the more energy is being transmitted. Not as much as you may think, but more than when you’re in the resting state. 

In the resting state, when you’re not actively participating in a task or being stimulated, like when you’re doing focused learning, the brain is consuming about 20% of the body’s energy. That’s a whole lot, considering its size and the amount of real estate it occupies in relation to your entire body. 

So how does knowing this help us as learning professionals - and everyday humans for that matter? 

 Having a baseline understanding of our own cognitive resources allows us to not only be more aware and understanding of the limitations of those around us, but enables us to help to protect them as well.  Allow me to explain. 

Focused learning takes a lot of cognitive energy. So making decisions on how to execute and roll out learning initiatives that still need to get done should take this into consideration.   

What else is going on in the organization that will need people’s cognitive energy?  

Are people navigating and adjusting to hybrid working conditions?  

These are just some of the things that are going to be taking up people’s cognitive and emotional energy.   

Slowing down, to take a greater look at the landscape of what’s going on across the organization, will help in making decisions on how much more you can add to someone’s plate without deteriorating their energy entirely. Don’t forget, people are also being consumed with managing their personal lives, which for many have now merged with their working lives.  

This doesn’t mean that learning has to stop, but it does mean that the way we go about it has to be much more strategic and intentional. So let me offer you some practical suggestions on how you can navigate that. 

Things you can take into consideration:  

Short-term training vs long-term learning: Do people need to know or be able to do something for a short period of time or do they need to learn something more permanently? It’s the difference between cramming for an exam the night before then forgetting everything a few days later vs taking the time to encode the learning into a long-term memory to transfer for future use. (The latter is going to take more time.) 

Environment: Where does the learning need to take place? And more importantly where does the transfer of that learning need to take place. When you ask yourself those questions you may find that the two don’t match up.     

If you’re learning something remotely that needs to be transferred into a specific environment, you’re going to want to consider the additional time and transfer activities that will be needed to do so. Just because I’m amazing at Mario Kart, doesn’t mean you should let me behind the wheel of a real car (yes, I know, an exaggerated example but it makes the point nicely doesn’t it?) 

And last in order, but certainly not in importance… 

Design of the learning itself: I realise that this consideration is completely blurred by my own professional bias, but it still stands as true. The beauty of understanding how the brain operates, even at a foundational level, is that you can be better informed on how to design to work with the operational system as opposed to against it. This allows us to manage the cognitive resources in more effective and efficient ways for our learners.  

Needless to say, there are several more things to share about this topic and many more things to consider, but allow me to save your cognitive energy for the next part of our journey.     

All great learning begins with awareness and if I’ve accomplished that then I’d say we’re well on our way to continuing the adventure. 

Take care of those brains, minds and bodies.  

YARR for now... (You Are Really Ready!) 

Keen to hear more insights from the webinar? Watch the full session.  

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

Focused learning takes a lot of cognitive energy. Therefore, the way we go about learning has to be much more strategic and intentional. Learning Scientist Lauren Waldman offers practical suggestions on how learning leaders can navigate that moving forward. 

Carrying the cognitive load of learning 

We are excited to announce a partnership with fellow Australian start-up Pursuit Technology (creators of Acorn LMS). This integration provides Acorn LMS users access to the breadth of the Go1 Content library and the ability to map this content alongside their organisation’s capability frameworks.  

Pursuit Technology seeks to unlock the potential of the workforce through providing innovative software solutions that streamline systems. They have maintained an impressive 100% retention rate since launching Acorn LMS seven years ago, working with companies of all sizes, from local business to federal government agencies.  

Pursuit Technology believe in empowering users with their functional solutions and through partnering with Go1, can significantly scale that support.  

Blake Proberts, Managing Director & Co-Founder says: 

"By empowering organisations to map Go1 content to their capability frameworks, they are given a greater understanding and control of their internal mobility. Essentially, they’ll be able to create learning pathways with this content in Acorn that address their unique skills gaps, develop a perpetual talent supply and support individual performance plan goals.” 

Basem Emera, Go1 Vice-President of Partnerships & Alliances, said the easy integration and breadth of Go1’s content hub is a boon for Acorn LMS learners. 

“Go1 is the most comprehensive online corporate learning marketplace with more than 3.5 million learners globally. We’re looking forward to a strong partnership with Pursuit Technology that will see Go1’s content hub play a pivotal role in enhancing the learning and professional development journey for Acorn LMS users.” 

Throughout the integration’s development, every precaution has been taken to ensure high data security standards have been met. Learning and people data transferred between the Acorn and Go1 systems can be obscured during transmission to ensure it cannot be intercepted.  

Get in touch if you would like to learn more about this partnership.

New partnership with Pursuit Technology will enable stronger and more aligned learning pathways

Streamlining the learning experience with Pursuit Technology

New partnership with Pursuit Technology will enable stronger and more aligned learning pathways 

Happy and motivated employees are at the heart of a well-functioning and successful business.

Research shows that when people work with a positive mindset, performance on nearly every level – productivity, creativity, engagement – improves significantly.  

As the way in which we work continues to evolve, it is important that we are working towards creating a workplace where people feel connected, have a sense of purpose, and are appreciated and recognised for their contributions. 

“When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.” 

Did you know there are scientifically proven benefits of being kind? According to the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, carrying out acts of kindness can: 

Reduce stress: kind people have 23% less cortisol (the stress hormone) and age slower than the average population. 

Reduce anxiety and depression: kindness stimulates the production of serotonin – a feel-good chemical that heals your wounds, calms you down, and boosts happiness. 

Lower blood pressure: acts of kindness create emotional warmth which releases a hormone known as oxytocin and protects the heart. 

Relieve pain: engaging in acts of kindness produces endorphins—the brain’s natural painkiller. 

Kindness is the best example of a butterfly effect. The positive effects of kindness are experienced in the brain of everyone who witnessed the act, improving their mood and thus making them more likely to “pay it forward.”  

A single act of kindness has the power to transform the world 

An act of kindness doesn't have to be a big expensive gesture. Even the smallest acts can have a great impact. Here are some easy ways you can spark a bit of joy and positivity right now: 

Find out something new about a co-worker: it can be easy to get caught in the motions of familiar conversation, especially when you see someone every day. Make an effort to learn something new about a co-worker. 

Complain less: being positive in a negative situation makes you a leader. 

Send an encouraging email: this is a sweet and simple way to boost someone’s spirits is by sending good vibes to someone’s inbox. 

Ask, "Are you okay?": This simple question can really make a real difference to anyone going through a challenging time. 

Be spontaneous: sometimes, random acts of kindness just come to you in the moment! 

Never underestimate the power of kindness 

Kindness grows in a virtuous cycle and success lies in recognising that we can influence the culture we work in by simply being kind.  

What will you do to remember kindness today? 

Kindness grows in a virtuous cycle and success lies in recognising that we can influence the culture we work in by simply being kind. What will you do to remember kindness today? 

The power of kindness in the workplace 

Whether we want to admit it or not, we’ve all experienced days where we’ve sat at our desk for what seems like hours just trying to get SOMETHING done. On those days it may feel like no matter how hard we try, the brain fog just will not shift. And distractions seem to be jumping out at us from every angle.  

This can be especially difficult when we’re trying to learn something or are required to take in and retain a lot of information. Most people will have heard the term ‘in the zone’ often in relation to an athlete trying to concentrate in a game. But what they may not know is that there’s a similar term that can apply to all of us in the workplace: ‘learning in the flow.'  

In a recent presentation, Global Industry Analyst Josh Bersin, who coined the term, discusses ‘learning in the flow’ in relation to the learning journey that comes with any job.  

“In the early part of the job, there’s a steep learning curve and then you reach a point in the job where there’s a plateau and you go through a declining learning curve where you’ve ‘got this under control’ and you need something to keep you alive and growing… so you can keep going up the curve… we want to fill in the curve with micro and macro learning offerings that are timed to fit needs depending on where you are in the curve.”  

The significant increase in the amount of discussion around the topic of learning in the workplace is undeniable. More and more workplaces are beginning to see the value of continual education for their workers. However, Bersin emphasises that, unlike in the past, “we don’t have time to get away from our office or get away from our job for weeks on end and go to courses”. 

As he goes on to say, “we also need to reinforce the fact that everybody is always reinventing themselves… humans are, by nature, learning animals.” This is just one of the reasons why learning in the flow rather than just keeping things as they’ve been in the past is so important. 

Almost more important than the education itself is that the workers participating in that learning are engaged in it and can maintain focus. Naturally, when workers are engaged in what they do, they’re likely to care more about what they do and become aligned workers. Aligned workers are those that have a clear understanding of their company’s goals, their personal goals and how the two relate to each other. A study conducted by business communication platform Slack, found that 90% of aligned workers know what they need to do to be successful. They’re therefore far more likely to be able to maintain productivity. 

While aligned workers are no doubt beneficial to a company, the Slack study found that aligned workers are more likely than unaligned workers to have over 10 meetings per day. This can often mean a lot of switching between different apps as you navigate the day, such as jumping between your emails, messages, video calls, and livestreams. 

Businesses may initially struggle to see such a strong link between the use of multiple programs and productivity. Surely, switching between apps doesn’t take that much time out of the day, right? Wrong. According to the Slack study, 64% of aligned workers spend more than 30 minutes a day switching between applications. That's a considerable amount of time when you think about it! 

This context switching (changing between apps) disrupts the flow. If we didn’t have to switch so often between apps, we’d in theory have up to 30 minutes extra per day to get things done, whether that be general work tasks or additional learning. 

In a world where so many of our industries are ruled by deadlines, this is particularly important. This is exactly the issue that Slack and other communication platforms attempt to tackle. By providing users with the ability to install and access dozens of apps all in the one, Slack removes one of the barriers that disrupts the flow - and therefore paves the way for continuous and meaningful learning in the workplace.   

Furthermore, it’s no secret that humans thrive on connection. The last 18 months, as we’ve all had to deal with the implications of a global pandemic, have forced us to look at connection and communication in the workplace in whole new ways. Workplaces have been forced to ask questions like: ‘what will work meetings look like now that people work from home?’ and ‘how can we be sure to maintain the morale that we have in office and extend it to those that work remotely?’  

Applications like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Workplace from Meta (formerly Facebook) attempt to remedy this and provide a platform that seeks to become an all-in-one solution to these questions. Whether it’s through online chat, watching livestreams or video calls, workplaces beginning to actively push for these types of platforms have opened the door to more flexibility both in learning and in the workplace in general. 

There really are infinite possibilities for the workplace when workers can learn together, then follow up that learning with discussion, all in the one place, even if they work remotely. 

At Go1, we have been keeping a close eye on this trend and believe learning should be a natural part of employees’ days. That’s why we developed our Microsoft and Workplace integrations, to decrease the switching between apps and assist with learning in the flow of work. 

Our latest solution that will also help support learning in the flow is Go1 Connect. Go1 Connect enables L&D providers to distribute content directly to the environments their customers use, whilst still allowing them to have full control. If you’re ready to learn more about Go1 Connect or have any questions, check out this page. We can’t wait to hear what you think!

Whether your workplace’s journey towards learning in the flow and minimising productivity barriers is just beginning, or you’re already well on your way, there is one major point that Bersin wants us to take home: “the more time you can learn, the better. There is no limit or saturation point to learning.” 

Most people will have heard the term ‘in the zone’ but what they may not know is that there’s a similar term that can apply to all of us in the workplace: ‘learning in the flow’.