Context trumps technology

As companies strive to become more meaningful, purpose-led, sustainable and connected to human well-being, they are seeing increasing value among stakeholders and customers.

To make real progress, governments, civil society, companies, and charities must come together and form an alliance.

Companies with increased growth are 72% more likely to have high diversity in their organization.

Use Learning & Development (L&D) training to raise awareness about the current state of diversity and inclusion in your work environment.

Up to 70% of trainees forget what they learn within 24 hours after training. However, it does not have to be the case for your employees.

An effective leader will implement and integrate an agile training infrastructure into their daily operations that can change quickly to keep up with the pace of innovation.

• A social infrastructure: society needs a supply of creative innovators who are willing and able to challenge their physical environment in order to better themselves.
• Social incentives: there need to be incentives in place to encourage innovation.
• Social attitude: a creative society has to be diverse and tolerant. People must be open to new ideas and individuals.

“Invention occurs at the level of the individual, and we should address the factors that determine individual creativity. Individuals, however, do not live in a vacuum. What makes them implement, improve and adapt new technologies, or just devise small improvements in the way they carry out their daily work depends on the institutions and the attitudes around them.”

As climate change, population growth and technological development bring fast and drastic changes to our world, educational programs that encourage discovery and innovation become ever more necessary.

These programs teach that discovering brings not just good grades, or a financial reward. It brings the satisfaction that one can realize dreams, and thrive, in a world framed by major dramatic questions.

In girls, frequent social-media use seemed to harm health when it led to either cyberbullying and/or inadequate sleep and exercise. 

But these factors did not seem to have the same effect on boys, and the study didn’t pick up on specific ways that social networks could be harming them.

“It’s about getting a balance between social-media use and other age-appropriate activities, and ensuring that there aren’t specific negative things happening online."

Belinda Parmar, Chief Executive Officer of The Empathy Business, believes companies will seek leaders who are able to help them rebuild the empathy we’ve lost with technical, linguistic and mathematical skills, and can understand the information that will continue to emerge. This will require a new kind of “data literacy”, which will be in short supply, and therefore one of the most important skills of tomorrow.

Vikas Pota, Chief Executive of Varkey Foundation, believes the jobs that won’t be automated will be those that require abilities like empathy (persuading and working well with others), a positive attitude (relearning and restudying) and resilience. These “soft” skills are hard to teach, thus there will be demand great teachers.

Also, automation will cause the skills needed by the economy to change which makes it impossible to predict which “hard skills” will be necessary.

The purpose of circular economy is to prevent waste while promoting sustainable economic growth. Manufacturers have to design reusable products. The model follows the production-use-recycling-production cycle.

The circular economy is more profitable and less harmful to the environment. The circular economy needs mostly innovation to promote a much-needed change in society.

Mental disorders that are unchecked and untreated in employees(and their family) often lead to reduced productivity, increase in workplace accidents, with a majority of the employees suffering from decreased concentration at work.

Treating mental health is not a big investment and employers can be the facilitators to reverse the grim scenario.

1. Becoming aware of the workplace environment and the policies that might adversely impact the employees.
2. Learn from leaders and engage in employee wellbeing.
3. Follow other companies who have taken necessary steps to curb mental health issues at the workplace.
4. Understand the unique needs and opportunities of your workforce to develop tailored policies.
5. Take practical steps like initiating training programs and facilitating the various workplace wellbeing strategies.
6. Many workers have a stigma attached to seeking help for mental health problems and need to be educated about the process while making it frictionless.
7. Remember that mental health is linked to everything, including physical and economic health.