Humans@WORK Series

Visuals can help learners absorb information by affecting their attention, perception, visualization and imagination. One job of visuals is to gain attention. Attention is concentrated or focused consciousness. Experts in the field of training and learning, from Robert Gagne to John Keller, have indicated that attention affects learning. Perception, on the other hand, can be stimulated by visual images, but it is unique to the individual because it involves unique awareness, understanding and judgment. Furthermore, perception can be based on a variety of stimuli including past events, culture, current environment and emotions. Visualization is our own mental picturing of an event or outcome. By creating a mental image of something it is possible to internalize it, and many famous studies have been done supporting the outcomes of visualization on everything from sports performance to acquiring wealth. Finally, imagination is stimulated by visualization. By using our imagination we can construct mental images, pictures, feelings and sensations without the input of our senses. Imagination is important to learning because it plays a significant role in how we determine meaning and make sense of the world. For this reason using our imagination is of paramount importance to the learning process. Learning is a complex activity, and while no one really understands exactly how we learn, there are countless theories that attempt to provide a framework for the process. I call my theory of learning "Trilogy of the Mind" because it involves the mind's affective, cognitive and conative domains. These domains encompass how we feel, how we think and how we do what we do. Because visuals can stimulate both the affective and cognitive domains, we can use visuals not only to influence thinking but to stimulate emotional connections as well. Learning can be affected by three very influential areas: prior knowledge, context and expectations. Prior knowledge provides the hooks on which we can hang new knowledge. Every thought we think is like an item of clothing you are hanging in a closet. Should you keep it? Does it go with what is already in there? Does it fit? Context, on the other hand, provides relevance. It provides a way of anchoring the new within an environment by giving importance, significance, application and weight to an experience. Last but not least, expectations are our beliefs about the future. Expectations of knowing can take the form of knowing what or knowing how. In either case expectations are established by patterns of what we believe to be true or real in our brains. Learning takes place when we expand upon or build upon what we already know. Visuals can act as stimuli that activate associations to prior knowledge, context and experiences. Most of us are predominantly visual learners. The term visual learner comes from NLP or Neural Linguistic Programming and the VAK model. The VAK model attempts to describe learning in terms of three dominant styles: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. It offers a way to present stimuli that is tailored to the ways in which an individual prefers to take in information. The jury is still out, however, as to the actual impact of learning styles on learning outcomes. Here is what I would like you to be able to do after reading this book: Recognize good visual design for learning. Create well-designed visual learning interfaces. Appreciate what makes visual design for learning special. Develop a visual strategy for your projects that supports learning.

Increasingly available new technologies and ways to connect have caused radical changes in the ways humans communicate, blurring the lines between different aspects of life. The Pajama Effect is the result of these changes. It describes a psychological and behavioral shift human beings experience when working in a physically detached and virtually connected world. This change puts them out of their element and vulnerable to a new environment, isolation and other challenges. The economics of the 21st century has inspired companies and organizations to embrace the virtual environment to both increase productivity and lower costs. Digital technologies have given us increased speed, connectivity and independence. These advances offer us a more flexible and mobile way to work and live, yet the impact of these technologies on human beings is only beginning to be understood. The digital age came upon all of us with excessive speed. The rate of change and adaption is unlike anything we have ever seen, and that rate of change is increasing. The online world has little respect for time, space and place. The 9-to-5 day no longer applies in a 24/7/365 world. It is difficult to know when work stops and play starts, or when to call it a day and say, "Enough is enough." People work from home, cars, hotels, and just about anywhere in increasing numbers. Telecommuters and workshifters have grown in number to more than 50 million workers and that is probably an underestimation. This also impacts learning, schools and training. Almost no industry is impervious. Even if you are a landscape contractor, with teams of people digging in the dirt, chances are you connect remotely and use technologies to accomplish some of what you do. The tools that connect us, and how we use them, are limited only by our imaginations. This ability to connect from anywhere with anyone is now part of our social fabric. We are all becoming a part of a technologically connected global culture that blends work, play and learning online. This affects every facet of our lives. We are more connected and we are more mobile. We have access around the clock to colleagues, friends, family and shopping. All of this connecting has increased distractions. People are texting when driving, in meetings and in the checkout line. We need many conversations about what is appropriate and when, yet those discussions seem to be missing from our daily lives. The same scenes play out in restaurants, meeting rooms and homes: instead of focusing on being out to dinner with our significant other, we are on a cellphone, responding to a client; instead of listening during a meeting, we are texting our kids; instead of relaxing on the sofa, we are checking work emails. Thanks to these technologies, the norms governing how we interact with coworkers, friends, family and society are also changing. The Pajama Effect has altered the expectations and approaches that came with us from the industrial age. There are conscious and unconscious elements at play in the virtual world. It is quite possible for virtual workers to be more productive, more relaxed and more in control of their lives but it is also possible for the exact opposite to occur. It all depends on how each individual thinks and behaves – on the ability to respond and not just react. Distractions abound in the virtual environment, from advertisements, websites, social media and video everywhere to family obligations and love. The virtual environment can pull you off task and out of your element. To be successful working and leading in this new environment, you need to possess certain abilities. There will still be only 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week, and 365 days in a year.

Most people who work virtually love it. More people are demanding this as an option. Despite the efforts of companies like IBM, Yahoo, Bank of America, and Aetna to try to reverse course and pull the virtual workers back into the office, virtual work is a trend that will not roll back. Mostly for control issues and out of desperation, companies try to turn back time. Workers are having none of it. Smart companies are not either. Depending on the source, 40% or more of the workforce is currently working virtually. The number of days, hours or some other criteria often qualifies this. What is undeniable though is that this number is growing. In 2015, IBM boasted that 40% of its work force was virtual and that it had the tools and systems to support this trend. Surveys conducted by Gallop support 20% of the workforce works virtually full time and about 43% works virtually some of the time. Many giants like United Healthcare, Salesforce.com, American Express and Amazon support a virtual workplace. Virtual work is desirable, improves the quality of life and allows for work-life balance and autonomy. Do not interpret this incorrectly, it has its challenges. Nevertheless, consistently, it cuts cost for both the employee and the employer, increases employee satisfaction and retention, and broadens recruiting circles. The bigger picture is that most companies do not know what to do with the virtual workforce. They are not sure how to lead, inspire, or measure performance. With a workforce spread across the globe and teams in different time zones and on different continents, synchronous and asynchronous communication is critical. The tools currently available and coming are making virtual work more accessible to more people. The tools are getting better but a company's ability to provide these tools varies. They help employees communicate with new paths and easy access. Virtual employees can travel in the same connection circles, like walking down the hall to the old water cooler. Organizations that support virtual workers tend to be flatter (less hierarchical), more inspiring and more inclusionary. They are more open to innovation and more interested in results.

This book explores the impact of artificial intelligence on the workplace, human performance, and learning and development. AI is all around us. It has become an everyday thing. It helps us, it frustrates us and sometimes it makes us laugh. It impacts how we work, where we work and what we do at work. After years of "the robots are coming," the bots have arrived. It's hard these days to talk to a human in customer service. Barriers to entry kept AI at bay for decades, then it all changed. Google knew your birthday and Alexa and Siri were making recommendations for songs to listen to and recipes for dinner. AI and workplace disruption has only begun. Society hasn't really felt the impact of this technology yet. Not like it will in the next few decades. Disruption of this magnitude will shake up how we work, learn and play on every level. It's time to start thinking and planning for a new way of life. Let's not get caught in the same traps we did when the Internet opened up data, privacy and a hole other can of worms.   AI will be bigger, more impactful and disrupt our lives even more quickly than the Internet did. Terms like deep learning, machine learning, big data, and little data are part of everyday conversations. The engineering of AI has begun. Now is the time to ask questions. What do we want AI to do? How can it help people? How might it hurt people? How will it reframe business processes? AI took a long time coming but now that it is here, it demands our attention and respect. Because without our respect, humanity is in trouble. This technology is powerful. More powerful than any other we've ever known.

This book explores the impact of #WFH (work from home) on regular people, everyday lives and the way we work and feel. A pandemic started in China in early February 2020 when cities like Huanggang and Wuhan sent workers home and the province of Hubei went on lockdown. China is where COVID-19 originated and in China working from home was almost unheard of prior to the pandemic. But once the government shut everything down and encouraged workers to stay at home, millions of Chinese started to experience the pros and cons of working from home for the first time. Much like the scenes in New York that were to follow, early on the streets in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were spooky and quiet. Videoconference platforms took the place of conference tables and WeChat, DingTalk and Zoom were being used everywhere. Workers around the globe have had to adjust to a new way of working. Bosses have had to adjust to a new way of trusting. Individuals have had to reconsider what and how they focus: are they distracted by family members and finding it difficult to concentrate or are they enjoying the experience and improving their productivity? Everyone has been forced to adapt. It always comes back to trust and control. When employees respond to emails or texts late, or take time for personal things, or miss a meeting, it can make administration feel uneasy. Weekly meetings, daily meeting and impromptu meetings can make them feel like they are more connected, and everyone is on the same page. Daily reporting on what employees have done, what they plan on doing tomorrow, and what they are doing today is also often required. These are evidence of the "trust gap." Often, it might make administration feel better, but it doesn't usually work out well with employees. More time in meaningless meetings cuts into time for real work. Reporting daily achievements and tomorrow's tasks takes time. Workers think it decreases efficiency and increases unnecessary time. Most companies have the essential technologies for working from home but it's not about that. It's about decreasing the office rent expenditure and long commute time, increasing time with family and quality of life. For working from home to be successful, the remote worker has to learn how to effectively balance work and life. Often people initially feel more stressed both mentally and physically. Once people adjust, they tend to like working from home; balancing work and life can be rewarding and decrease stress. More traditional industries, production floor workers and teams that require a high degree of coordination will still be averse to working from home. The new normal is helping people see that it's time to change and open up to new possibilities. Old habits are difficult to change but the old style of management is becoming less popular. Companies are focusing more on what employees need and how they can contribute. #WFH has forced companies to examine relationships and elevate their culture to include trust and to care more about employees.