It is Monday morning. After struggling for a few hours to get started with your day, you eventually get going with the first item on your to do list. Although it doesn’t always happen, you find yourself diving into the task, and, before you know it, a few hours have passed by. Was it pure luck or is there a reason you felt so immersed in your work? 

Although it may seem to occur at random intervals, being entirely focused on the job you are doing is in fact a state you can aim towards. In modern science, the experience is referred to as ‘flow state’, a term coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihályi in the 1970s.

Despite being a relatively new area of research, historically there are references to this sensation across the Eastern philosophies. Athletes also talk about ‘being in the zone’ when they are completely focused on their movement and immediate goals.

In Japanese culture, the first step towards reaching ‘flow state’ requires an individual to discover their ikigai, or reason for being. An ikigai could be something as simple as gardening or cooking, but it will be a task that the person is both good at, and one in which they can become purposefully engaged (1).

The first step towards finding your flow in any task is to first ensure that the assignment is within your range of capabilities. Ideally, what you are doing will allow you to confidently use skills you already possess, while challenging you to learn something new. At this point, you will be able to meet your edge, and will be far more likely to become fully immersed.

If you are able to reach this sweet spot, what you produce will also be of a higher quality, meaning you can go home at the end of the day with a greater sense of satisfaction and of having achieved something meaningful. 

As human beings, we are driven by the need to learn, grow and discover more, both about the world and ourselves. When we experience growth and learning, it can be difficult but, ultimately, the satisfaction of having completed a new challenge will outweigh the scary part of taking the first few steps towards it! We are happiest when we are both open to new opportunities and given the chance to explore. 

For managers and employees alike, this has real implications for productivity and could be used as a starting point for communication on which tasks are allocated to who.  Managers, are you setting your employees manageable tasks which enable them to find their flow?  Employees, are you communicating with your manager? Is the task too easy, or too difficult? 

Of course, in an ideal world, we would be completing tasks that engage us at all times, and it is important to be realistic. However, if you could reach ‘flow state’ even a few times per week, you are far more likely to be happy in your job.  Sometimes we need to get down to the nitty gritty and complete the mundane yet necessary tasks that every organisation requires for daily operations, but this could improve morale and make the workplace better for everybody. 

Whether you see flow as an exciting area of scientific research or a snippet of ancient wisdom, here are our top tips for working towards it, or supporting others in your team to do the same: 

Think about where your strengths and weaknesses lie.  What are you really good at?  Which areas might require a little more attention? 

Are the tasks you are being set playing to your strengths?  If not, think about ways you could communicate this to your manager and see if there is any room for change.

If being allocated different tasks isn’t an option, which areas of learning or personal development would you like to focus on? How could you apply these to your current tasks?  For example, if your goal is to communicate more clearly, you could challenge yourself to complete a course on communication skills and apply what you learn to the emails you send. 

If you really can’t connect with an activity you have been set, the chances are it is either too challenging, too easy or not interesting to you personally. If the task is too easy or uninteresting, think about how you could make it more challenging, either by checking with your manager if there is anything additional you could be doing, or setting yourself a personal goal within the task.  If the task is too difficult, you could break it down into more manageable steps or ask for further clarification. 

Sometimes, an activity will be pitched correctly but we are fearful of getting started and procrastinate.  If you think this might be a problem for you, say to yourself that you will spend 25 minutes on the task and then take a break.  More often that not, you will find that the 25 minutes flies by once you get started. 

So, next time you find your mind wandering and you can’t connect with a task you are doing, think about how you could find your flow and make everyone’s day a little bit better!

Looking for more training materials? You’ll find thousands of online courses in the Go1 marketplace. Or use our 24/7 Go1 Training Assist - the easier way to source, book and deliver training for your team. 

(1) Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles, 2016, Penguin Books, New York.

False

Finding your flow: why focus is a skill that can be learned

Check out Go1's updates on all new content provider launches and new content added from some of our existing providers! 

New providers available for our global customers 

Blockchain Collective are a leading blockchain education body, providing courses through Go1 to support the growing demand for qualified and skilled people in the application of blockchain. Blockchain Collective was the producer of the first ever Diploma on Blockchain course! 

Blockchain is a hot topic in a number of industries, and one of the most talked about technologies of the past 2-3 years, and training for it is available in Go1 Premium. Go1 offers a non-accredited version of their courses in Go1 Premium, so learners will learn all about the fundamental and foundational skills required to implement blockchain within an organisation. 

You can choose from 13 Blockchain courses:

Blockchain Fundamentals Accounting Stream - BLKEBF-A01

This course teaches a fundamental understanding of Blockchain technologies, and is designed to help you develop the ability to explain blockchain terminology, how blockchains work in practice, and the technical and non-technical limitations of blockchain. 

The course has been contextualized for individuals who are interested in the impacts of Blockchain Technologies in the Accounting and Auditing sectors.

Course: Develop operating frameworks for a blockchain network

Course: Blockchain Foundations, Innovative frameworks and Peer-to-Peer Consensis

ENI Digital Learning have launched with two courses in Premium. Their courses act as a support tool to help your employees through your company's digital transformation. 

The ENI Digital Test™ supports you in your company's digital transformation. It truly is a digital diagnostic tool and enables companies to have a clear view of each employee's strengths and the points they can improve.

The ENI Digital Test™ adapts to all types of professions and employees: the difficulty level is determined by the accuracy of the answers to the previous questions.

The EUREKA Digital Library offers a wealth of reliable information for on-demand use. With this online library your employees have at their disposal a set of resources such as videos, books and recorded lessons on the different Microsoft® Office applications: Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Teams, and Windows. They can view them according to their needs and when necessary.

This online library is aimed at any user searching informal training in Microsoft® Office applications.

Interaction Training, back by popular demand, has added 8 new courses! 

New Course: Injury prevention and management for managers and supervisors

This course provides managers and supervisors with an insight into prevention and management, including how to support workers at risk of injury, the identification of early warning signs, and the approved processes in relation to injury management. Approximately 30 minutes of learning.

New Course: Bullying and harassment for managers

This module investigates the vital role of  managers and supervisors to ensure that all our people experience a workplace environment that is positive, productive, harmonious and safe. It focuses on bullying and harassment, outlining associated fundamental and legal rights that apply to our employees and contractors, as well as those who visit our workplaces and who engage or partner in our services. 

Interaction Training is an Australian-based provider at the forefront of the self-paced learning industry. Since helping pioneer computer-based training more than 30 years ago, Interaction Training has been committed to adopting the latest technologies that have the capability of accelerating the effectiveness of corporate learning.

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.

Go1 is very excited to be attending the ATD 2019 conference in Washington D.C. on May 19-22. When you're there don't forget to join us at the Totara Theater for our micro-learning sessions covering a whole range of topics!  

Discover the freedom to learn with Totara’s Content Marketplace and Go1 Premium content introductory offer

ATD Delegates are invited to the Totara Village (#1019) to redeem a $3000 USD Premium Content voucher from Go1* (#1121) at the ATD Expo Hall. 

Simplify Learning with Go1 x Totara Content Marketplace 

The Go1 and Totara Learning partnership unlocks a new learning and administrative experience for 16+ million Totara Learn customers. Get Go1’s elearning marketplace exclusively with Totara.

Ask our team about these popular courses: 

Preventing Discrimination and Harassment for Managers 

Are you going? If so, please stop by our booth to introduce yourself, learn more about Go1's learning solutions and redeem your special offer! See you there!

VISIT Go1 AND TOTARA LEARNING AT ATD 2019 TO GET YOUR VOUCHER!

*Terms and conditions apply. This $3000 USD voucher is valid until 7/31/2019 with Go1. Only one voucher can be redeemed per organization. This offer cannot be combined with any other Go1 or Totara promotions. You must be a new Go1 customer. Voucher is non-refundable and non-exchangeable for cash value. To redeem your voucher, click here for more information.

Over the last few months, we have released a series of updates to our Early Access community, and we're excited to let you know that all new features are now generally available! Read on to find out more about the major updates. 

Now you can more easily group your content and share with your users!  

With this release, we've taken away the emphasis of the Groups feature being for discussions or notes. Now, with the updates, the feature will become more valuable for you to group relevant content items on your portal. For example, we have customers grouping content for a specific department, as well as different regions and teams. You can then assign specific learning to that group and/or share across portals. 

Ability to assign learning as well as add learning into a Group

For Admins - also experience easier management of Groups. This includes management of group creation, members,  and the sharing across portals.

You might also notice the New Groups has a different look and feel compared with other areas on the platform. This is because we are in the process of transitioning the look and feel of our platform, so you will notice more often older parts of the platform will be updated and new features will have this same look and feel!

It's inevitable that user details may need updating if they have been entered incorrectly on set-up, or simply changed over time. We've updated the Administer role permissions, so it is more convenient for you to self-manage your user-base with the ability to edit the email address and name fields for learners from the Edit User pop-up.

Note:  You can only change the email address of a user if its associated with your company domain and you need to be the Administrator across all portals they access to do that. This update applies to Admins, who can also elect for Content Managers to have the same permissions.  

You might also have spotted the Explore Search Results Page has a new look and feel. The interface of the search results page (formerly Explore) has been updated on all portals, for a more consistent search experience between different types of content. These refinements to searching will further streamline your content discovery process and create a seamless user experience across the platform. This release complements continuing updates Go1 is making to the search experience on the platform. 

Want more details? Check out the Intercom articles here!

If you have any questions about any of the updates and improvements listed above, please contact our Global team or let your Customer Success Manager know and they can help you out!

 It's been a busy few months for the Product team, so here's the round up of what's new on your platform!

Welcome back to our monthly round up of all things Go1! We've had some great articles come out in the press that you might find interesting, so we’ve put together this round up of links for you to read over. We encourage you to catch them now if you missed them earlier, or re-read them to see if there’s more you can learn! 

Go1.com raises over $30 million in Series B round led by Microsoft’s venture fund M12

Featuring Vu Tran, co-founder of Go1 via Startup Daily

Go1's Dan Fish shares his highlights from the Microsoft Future Now conference

Featuring Dan Fish, Director of Strategy & Partnerships at Go1 via Medium

Advance Queensland Recipients Go1.com reaches new heights

Stay tuned for some more amazing things to come in May!  

Let's take a look back at some of the great things Go1 has been involved with in April 2019. 

Some have labelled workplace wellbeing the new workplace health and safety. WH&S is everywhere, always monitored and managed efficiently. Right now, does your workplace wellbeing program look the same? Wellbeing is defined by Australian employees as "when they have found balance across physical, mental, social and spiritual life." 

Every dollar spent on effective mental health action returns $2.30 in benefits to an organisation. So the question is, why not start investing in your employees wellbeing today?

Mentally healthy workplaces are positive and productive. They are environments where people want to come to work. Most research points to the fact that workers who are stressed (extremely/very) about their work are 2.5 times more likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months than workers who are not at all stressed about work. By investing in wellbeing you are investing in productive staff, who are committed to their workplace, reducing your staff turnover rates and driving engagement. 

Where to begin when thinking about workplace wellbeing? 

The three core parts of a safe workplace: the environment (the space and culture), the individuals (your employees), and management that is conducive to supporting its staff wellbeing. 

Wellbeing should be at the core of every business’ health and safety policy. Ensure the physical space is conducive to success and ergonomically set-up, but also consider the culture within that workspace. A chaotic workplace environment of frequent, uncontrollable events adversely affects people’s motivation, their cognition and learning, and their emotional state. Having a general culture of competition, low collaboration and teamwork will quickly impact the health of employees 

61% identify high team morale as the greatest indicator of employee wellbeing. A culture of social support reinforces for employees that they are valued, and thus helps in a company’s efforts to attract and retain people.

Supporting a healthy lifestyle in your office can ensure your people are healthy. A good work-life balance is key to securing a good standard of mental health. You can focus on the individual's needs such as improving access to healthy lifestyle choices (food or exercise), as well as building the knowledge and skills of your staff. Effective workplace health and wellbeing will have positive impact on worker productivity and performance as well as the health and wellbeing of employees. Health and wellbeing includes the management of stress, fatigue and mental health support.  

Micromanaging is also common at work, simply because many managers are poor at coaching and facilitating others to do their jobs better. The management must be equipped with skills to support their team to succeed and build relationships that are founded on communication, so that workers don't end up feeling like their wellbeing has not been considered when making business decisions. The mismanagement of employees will discourage individuals' autonomy, decease feelings of control and then employee engagement will plummet. 

The right management practices characterised by open communication can decrease the likelihood of unrealistic workload expectations, which causes stress, burnout and overall negative impact on wellbeing in the workplace. 

Go1 has an amazing variety of providers who create content to support workplace wellbeing. 

Mind Channel, one of our Premium providers who specialise in bite-sized learning items content, has various courses on mindfulness, stress management, fatigue fighting and healthy eating. Their bite-sized wellbeing courses (under 5 minutes) are in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French!  

Come back next week to find more Go1 courses available in Global Premium that address this month's topic of health and wellbeing. 

Good organisational health depends on the wellbeing of its staff.

Course category of the month - May: employee wellbeing 

There has been a pretty deep-rooted resistance to personal development programs for employees for as long as business has existed. Something about spending more money, beyond the salaries, on your employees, sends a shudder down the spines of execs and shareholders. The usual meta, in which you hire the person for the job, they do the job and you pay them for the job, is certainly satisfactorily clean-cut, but ignores all of the nuances of the modern workplace and work market. 

In particular, how an employee is viewed these days not as a cog in the machine, but as a human being with potential and a personal life. The smart companies are starting to identify the fact that employees can actually be used for more than what their job title is and are making decisions which help employees to help themselves which, in the end, helps the company. So, without any more delay, let’s take a look at what personal development can help to achieve. 

It’s not impossible that you work in an industry where you don’t care if employees quit. But most likely, it’s a pain if someone leaves. “The effect of an employee quitting is huge. Even if they give notice, their personal productivity will inevitably drop. If they don’t give notice, then the scrabble to fill the spot is an immense hassle. Before mentioning the amount of intake paperwork and preliminary training that usually comes with a new arrival”, notes Loretta Phillips, HR manager at LastMinuteWriting and Writinity. Ideally, you retain staff. Investing in them not only shows that you care about them, but it staves off any gnawing personal sense that they aren’t ‘growing’, a feeling which can drive them to seek new experiences at other companies. 

In an ironic twist in cause and effect, training your current employees to become better, in whatever field they would most like to develop in, will actually attract a better cut of employees when you do need to hire. The best candidates will go for places with the best salary normally, but in the modern era ‘lifestyle’ and ‘company culture’ are scrutinized by most candidates. The best candidates want the companies which pay good money but also which are proven to care about employees which a personal development scheme will demonstrate loud and clear.

This is a tad bit counterintuitive but makes sense when you think about it. “It all comes down to the classic ‘you have to spend money to make money’ paradigm”, writes Nathan Sutton, tech editor at DraftBeyond and ResearchPapersUk. “In order to get the best results you need happy, intelligent and up-to-date employees, which a little bit of personal development work should work to ensure.” Personal development will mean that your employees get the best results for themselves and, consequentially, for you and your company as well.  

When you begin a personal development program, your first thought ought to be, for what am I developing them. Partially, you’re looking to make them better at the job they already have. But in another sense, you are looking to develop them in a way which will help the company in the future which forces you to think about where the company will be in the future. This might lead to training in virtual reality tech, or in computer learning or something which is set to shake up your industry. By preparing your employees for this, you’re preparing your company too.

Employee engagement is another one of those things which will have a big impact on company success. Employees who like their job and actively want to be there everyday will bring so much of a higher quality of work as well as an attitude which can be infectious, leading to the improvement of the company as a whole.

So, despite the perceived negative impact of personal development schemes, companies can really benefit massively from these schemes. Hopefully this list has pointed out to you some of the biggest areas, so that you can get started without any sense of trepidation. 

Harry Conley is a content editor at Lucky Assignments and Gum Essays. He develops training procedures and manages the work flow to give writers supplemental support instruction.

Here's why investing in personal development is vital for employers

Reasons why investing in personal development is important for employers

One of the most valuable skills you need to be productive is the ability to solve problems and manage projects – clearly, calmly and effectively. New projects take more than just an idea to get off the ground – they need strategy, planning and execution to be successful. Manage and Review Projects is this week's course highlight, created by Interaction Training. 

Successful completion of projects and tasks directly depends on a productive and successful team whose members are committed to contributing, communicating and co-operating. This course focuses on setting goals that can be reviewed and measured so that project milestones and completion are clearly identifiable and achieved. Learn how to review project outcomes and processes against the project scope and plan, as well as how important it is to involve team members in the project review cycle and document lessons learnt. 

This course includes approximately 40 minutes of learning covering the following topics: 

Interaction is at the forefront of the self-paced learning industry, consistently breaking new ground in the adoption of the latest technologies that have the capability of accelerating the effectiveness of corporate learning. Interaction has partnered with Go1 to offer their range of courses in business, compliance and professional development topics.

Improve your ability to solve problems and manage projects 

Course of the week: manage and review projects

This partnership will see Go1's customer base now able to access Thomson Reuters leading risk and compliance training. 

Thomson Reuters are a leading source of intelligent information for the world’s businesses and professionals. 

With their Compliance Learning solution, employees receive practical, interactive, customizable and cost-effective training courses, which help change behaviour and build a culture of integrity and compliance. The market-ready courses are engaging and accessible via multiple platforms, allowing you to access key training from anywhere at any time. 

Take the next step and enroll in Thomson Reuters Compliance training on Go1 today!

Thomson Reuters tracks more than 1000 regulators and exchanges globally, to provide a library of compliance training courses via Go1 that reflect the latest laws and regulations. Available in Go1 Premium are 6 areas of compliance training with content applicable in regions including Globally, APAC and Australia. 

Prevention of Corrupt Practices (includes anti-bribery and business ethics)

Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorism Financing  (anti-money laundering)

Employee Conduct & Business Ethics  (codes of conduct and workplace discrimination)

Market Conduct & Fraud (consumer law, global sanctions)

Privacy, Confidentiality and Information Security (Data Privacy and Protection, GDP, Cyber Security)

TR Compliance GO1.pdf

Go1 is very excited to be working closely with Thomson Reuters and building a great relationship. Contact Go1 if you have any questions, or want to access the Thomson Reuters content via a Go1 Premium subscription. 

Thomson Reuters Compliance Learning is now available in association with Go1. 

Welcome to our second episode of The eLearning Assist Podcast for 2019!

In this episode, Go1’s VP of Marketing Scott Cooper talks to Jacque Lachmund about the importance of domestic and family violence (DFV) training in the workplace. 

Jacque is the CEO of Australia's CEOChallenge (ACEOC) - an organisation that provides domestic and family violence training for companies all across Australia. ACEOC is a recognised, award-winning charity that supports the business sector to help break the silence surrounding domestic violence. Their aim is to make sure workplaces are aware and responsive to domestic violence, and have in place a strategy to raise awareness and support their staff who may be living with violence, abuse and control at home. 

At Go1 we truly believe that workplaces can play a critical role in responding to DFV, which contributes to ACEOC’s vision of a world without violence. Last year, we partnered with ACEOC to deliver a Workplace Domestic and Family Violence Training Package to ensure that organisations are getting a succinct message, and a succinct way on how to respond to colleagues and to others. 

As Jacque says, "We're called Australia's CEOChallenge, because we challenge CEOs to address this issue and be a responsible organisation. It starts from the top." Together, we can make our workplaces safe environments where conversations about DFV can take place, without creating further stigma, shame and fear. 

Throughout the podcast, Jacque shares her tips around how to provide effective training on sensitive topics. She also touches on some general rules about what support services organisations can offer internally, as well as how as a collective, both in community and business, we can all work together to tackle this issue. 

So without further ado, let's dive in and get some valuable insight from Jacque on this important topic. Listen to the podcast here:

In this episode, GO1’s VP of Marketing Scott Cooper talks to Jacque Lachman, CEO of Australia's CEO Challenge, about the importance of Domestic & Family Violence training, and give some tips of how to provide better training around sensitive topics.

The eLearning Assist Podcast: How to provide training on sensitive topics by GO1

You can also hear more about the company’s experience with Go1 in our upcoming case study, which will feature Jacque and Scott talking more about Australia's CEOChallenge’s experience in using Go1 and how it has impacted their employee learning experience. So stay tuned for that!

Jacque Lachmund, Australia's CEOChallenge and Scott Cooper, VP of Marketing at Go1 

Don’t forget – the Go1 eLearning Assist podcast is available through iTunes, making it even easier for you to keep up-to-date with our episodes.

What’s the Go1 eLearning Assist all about?

Go1 eLearning Assist is a monthly podcast covering trending industry information.

With each episode of the podcast you’ll hear from a different member of the Go1 team or industry expert, sharing their knowledge and expertise. Through the sessions, we’ll cover all aspects of learning and development from:

With our iTunes podcast you can tune in and catch up at a time that suits you.

Subscribing to Go1 eLearning Assist is easy. Simply go to the iTunes store on your device and enter ‘Go1’ in the search toolbar. When you see this image, you’ll know you’re onto the right one!

Press 'Play' to start listening. And don’t forget to click the ‘Subscribe’ button, to stay up-to-date with new podcasts as they're released.

If you have any questions about any of the items covered in the podcast please let us know as we’d love to help you out!

Also, feel free to contact us if there are any topics that you would like to see covered in future episodes. That way, we can make sure we’re talking about things that are important to our listeners!

Our eLearning Assist podcast will feature regular interviews with industry experts. If you think you'd be a good fit to be a guest, get in touch!

The eLearning Assist Podcast: Tips from Australia's CEOChallenge around providing effective training for sensitive topics

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