Why we created Emphasis 360 - Emphasis

Why we created Emphasis 360 Why we created Emphasis 360 Our courses are transformative. Its the norm for participants to leave the training room full of confidence and buzzing with ideas. This is true even for people who were initially sceptical. (In fact, they often end up as our biggest advocates.) But even the best training can only go so far. New skills stay in the memory only for so long, especially if you dont use them. It takes effort to practise them. And under pressure from deadlines and other work, old habits may re-emerge. What people need is regular, expert help to apply those skills. Weve been discussing this a lot at Emphasis over the last few weeks. But its proved a tough nut to crack. The challenge has been to work out how to provide dedicated help – or regular, ongoing training that embeds new skills and builds new ones – without it costing the earth or requiring you to release entire teams for training every week. Tough, but not impossible. Because I think weve cracked it. As I write this, my team are building a follow-up learning system unlike any other. In fact, it may well be unique not just in business-writing training but in the training world full stop. Were calling it Emphasis 360, and it will make good writing a strong, permanent habit in the people who report to you. It will embed the writing skills that your people learn on our in-company courses – to make them permanent – and it will teach them new ones. It will create confident business writers and develop them into highly skilled communicators. And it will do this without straining your budget or taking up hours of study time that your team simply dont have. Sounds great, you say, but how are you going to do that? Read on to find out. Weekly, interactive learning sessions All members of Emphasis 360 will have access to a website dedicated to developing their writing skills. Every week, well be uploading a fully interactive learning session to that site and emailing members to encourage them to use it. Once each lesson is uploaded it will be available on demand, so your team will be able to access it in their own time. Not that theyll need much time, as were designing each so they can complete it in the space of a coffee break. Thats because we want to make sure they do complete it, and because short, regular practice is the best way to build good habits. The sessions will feature TV-standard videos, produced in our studio by our own film-maker, Jay Bartlett. (If youve seen our Writing better email e-learning course, youll know how good these are.) And your team will learn from doing as well as watching: the sessions will include comprehensive e-learning. As well as video, theyll feature quizzes and interactive exercises – even audio. In other words, well be covering the full range of learning styles, so that everyone can study and learn effectively. Your team will also be able to track their progress – as will you. Global better-writing resource library Week by week, well be adding special support resources to the exclusive members site. The resource library will include best-practice checklists, how-to guides and great-looking templates. Over time, it will become a truly unique resource covering every aspect of written communication in the workplace – from handling complaint letters to pitching for contracts worth millions. Ultimately, we want it to include everything you could ever need to produce excellent business writing, and all in one place. We believe that this alone will be a world first. Dedicated, priority helpdesk Even with the best initial training and resources, your team may still stumble when trying to apply their new skills. So we want to help them with that too. As you may have noticed, weve been trialling a special helpdesk system recently. It works a bit like an IT helpdesk, except that its staffed by our writing experts (and we speak in plain English). It includes a ticketing system so that you (and we) can track your query. With the launch of Emphasis 360, were adding more resource to that helpdesk, so we can give members priority access and give them more detailed help. Their queries will go straight to the front of the queue, where one of our specialist advisers will be ready to help them. Combined with our courses, this will create the most effective training weve ever provided. Emphasis 360 will cost  £150+vat per person for a years subscription. But you can gain access for your entire team at no cost. Thats because, to celebrate the launch, weve decided to offer membership as a free add-on to every course booked in May or June this year. Thats  £1,500 of extra value on a course for ten people. We’ve never made an offer like this before. And we won’t be making this one again. It will be available only for courses booked to run in May and June. And our trainer availability means we can only run another 22 courses in that time. (Forty per cent of dates have already been taken by regular clients.) Once we’ve used up our capacity, that will be it. So youll need to hurry. We’ll be opening up registration for just two days this week, starting at 5pm today, Wednesday 6 May, and ending at 5pm British Summer Time on Friday 8 May. Once it’s open, you’ll be able to register your interest in company courses. We’ll then call you on a first come, first served basis to secure dates for your course and access to Emphasis 360 for your team. (If you only have two or three people to train, or the course is for you, dont worry. You can also book places on one of our courses for individuals and well add Emphasis 360 membership for you.) Remember, we’re designing this to fix your team’s writing problems permanently, so that they can reach their potential – and you can get on with your job. Dont miss your chance to get a years training for your team for the price of a days course. Registration closed on 8 May, but you can still gain access. Image credit: laptop and stethoscope by jfcherry, used under CC BY-SA 2.0

Introduction to Concept of Mental Health Essay Example

Introduction to Concept of Mental Health Essay Example Introduction to Concept of Mental Health Essay Introduction to Concept of Mental Health Essay When an individual hears the term â€Å"Emotional Health† his or her mind instantly goes blank trying to surmise what this means. It is without a doubt that emotional health is something that the average human being deals with everyday, and it is as important as any other form of health. People do question that emotional health has a â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad† effect, and yes it is true, but they are never able to distinguish the difference. That difference is how severe â€Å"bad† emotional health is, also what it could lead to, and what results come with mental or emotional illness, which is the main focus. Moreover a good definition for emotional health is your overall psychological well-being. It includes the way you feel about yourself, the quality of your relationships, and your ability to manage your feelings and deal with difficulties (Smith, 17-19). For emotionally healthy people they have the ability to deal with stress and bounce back from adversity, can balance between work and play, rest and activity, etc. and most importantly, are self-confident and have high self-esteem. Even though these characteristics are good the difference is that people with good emotional health have an ability to bounce back from adversity, trauma, and stress. This ability is called resilience. People who are emotionally and mentally healthy have the tools for coping with difficult situations and maintaining a positive outlo ok. They remain focused, flexible, and creative in bad times as well as good. On the contrary many things that happen in your life can disrupt your emotional health and lead to strong feelings of sadness, stress, anxiety, and depression. In any case this is classified as â€Å"bad† emotional health. If ever, have you experienced a hardship or heartbreak, or even a life changing experience that has changed your perception on life? If yes, then this can affect an individual’s perspective, also you will physically feel change. Your body responds to the way you think, feel and act. This is often called the â€Å"mind/body connection. When you are stressed, anxious or upset, your body tries to tell you that something isn’t right. For example, high blood pressure or a stomach ulcer might develop after a particularly stressful event, such as the death of a loved one (familydoctor. org editorial staff7-9), which can be an indication of â€Å"bad â€Å"or poor emotional health. Following this further, Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory of Dev elopment perfectly interprets emotional health, in the sense that it relates to actions later progressing into changes in mental operations. Also his theory equally relates to emotional health because his concept of â€Å"schemas† describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing which relates to the â€Å"mind/body connection† for emotional health. On the other hand when a person is suffering from poor emotional health there are many factors that come along with it. Usually most people would ask their doctors the cause of there depression lately or why they have been so stressed, it is because stress and depression falls into the emotional health category . Though a lot of people think they know what stress is they do not. Stress is a mental, emotional, or physical strain caused, e. g. by anxiety or overwork. It may cause such symptoms as raised blood pressure or depression. Likewise depression is the same as stress ,except depression deals with psychiatric disorders showing symptoms such as persistent feelings of hopelessness, misery, poor concentration, lack of energy, inability to sleep, and, sometimes, suicidal tendencies. In this case people suffering from depression or stress either likely to commit suicide or hurt people that they care for. It is important to know how these disorders can really affect you. To begin low energy or fatigue , feeling worthless or guilty for no reason, significant weight change, difficulty concentrating, loss of interest in favorite activities are the major outcomes of depression.

The Nature-Culture Divide

The Nature-Culture Divide Nature and culture are often seen as opposite ideas- what belongs to nature cannot be the result of human intervention and, on the other hand, cultural development is achieved against nature. However, this is by far not the only take on the relationship between nature and culture. Studies in the evolutionary development of humans suggest that culture is part and parcel of the ecological niche within which our species thrived, thus rendering culture a chapter in the biological development of a species. An Effort Against Nature Several modern authors- such as Rousseau- saw the process of education as a struggle against the most eradicated tendencies of human nature. Humans are born with wild dispositions, such as the one of using violence to achieve one’s own goals, to eat and behave in a disorganized fashion, and/or to act egotistically. Education is that process which uses culture as an antidote against our wildest natural tendencies; it is thanks to culture that the human species could progress and elevate itself above and beyond other species. A Natural Effort Over the past century and a half, however, studies in the history of human development have clarified how the formation of what we refer to as culture in an anthropological sense is part of the biological adaptation of our ancestors to the environmental conditions in which they came to live.Consider, for example, hunting. Such an activity seems an adaptation, which allowed hominids to move from the forest into the savannah some millions of year ago, opening up the opportunity to change diet and living habits. At the same time, the invention of weapons is directly related to that adaptation- but from weapons descend also a whole series of skill sets characterizing our cultural profile, from butchering tools to ethical rules relating to the proper use of weapons (e.g., should they be turned against other human beings or against uncooperative species?). Hunting also seems responsible for a whole set of bodily abilities, such as balancing on one foot as humans are the only primates that can do that. Now, think of how this very simple thing is crucially connected to dance, a key expression of human culture. It is then clear that our biological development is closely tied to our cultural development. Culture as an Ecological Niche The view that came to be most plausible over the past decades seems to be that culture is part of the ecological niche within which humans live. Just as snails carry their shell, so do we bring along our culture. Now, the transmission of culture seems not to be directly related to the transmission of genetic information. Certainly the significant overlap between the genetic makeup of humans is a premise for the development of a common culture that can be passed along from one generation to the next. However, cultural transmission is also horizontal among individuals within the same generation or among individuals belonging to different populations. You can learn how to make lasagna even if you were born from Korean parents in Kentucky just as you can learn how to speak Tagalog even if none of your immediate family or friends speak that language. Further Readings on Nature and Culture The online sources on the nature-culture divide are scarce. Luckily, there are a number of good bibliographical resources that can help out. Here is a list of few of the more recent ones, from which older takes on the topic can be recovered: Peter Watson, The Great Divide: Nature and Human Nature in the Old World and the New, Harper, 2012.Alan H. Goodman, Deborah Heat, and Susan M. Lindee, Genetic Nature/Culture: Anthropology and Science Beyond the Two-Culture Divide, University of California Press, 2003.Rodney James Giblett, The Body of Nature and Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Managerial Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Managerial Decision Making - Essay Example t six months our company had a serious problem when we failed to capture the international market in face of stiff competition from rival companies and lack of interest in our products among the international customers. The problem faced by our organization was the prospect of huge loss in our international market as our decision to expand offshore was more of an intuitive one, rather than one being based on a rational decision making process (Thagard P., 2001). We took the success that our products had achieved within the US in terms of popularity and marketability for granted with enough evidence of customer acceptance, backed by our strict quality control division. These factors mislead us to believe that we could achieve similar results abroad, without considering the peculiar cultural, geographical and market practices in foreign countries. The necessary spade work of preparing a customer base and marketing in foreign lands, which should have been done in consultation with pertinent agencies, prior to the venture, was the major mistake we made. After identifying the criteria, decision to redesign international marketing should be made on the basis of rational criteria and available alternatives should be put into practice irrespective of the intuitive opinions of the management. The decision making should be fact based as a rational model is logically expected to lead to an optimal result. All identified criteria are ranked according to the peculiar situation of a country and local help is sought to enable marketing in the traditional way which is common in that country after setting up rational financial goals which are ultimately beneficial for the company. This leads to putting different marketing strategies into practice which are unique for a region or country. As a wide variety of inputs will be obtained while collecting factual information from foreign countries, the interpretation criteria which is still in the hands of the same management may

How the Internet Has Changed How We Consume and React to News Essay

How the Internet Has Changed How We Consume and React to News - Essay Example There really was not a good way to fact check the media, nor understand the stories which were not covered in the media. Moreover, as Neil Postman (1984) states, the news shows were focused upon trivialities, superficialities and fluff. The news anchors who disseminated the news had the same mirthful expressions when they were reporting tragedies and comedy. The news presented issues in the same 45 second format, which makes even the most important issues seems trivial. Now, however, with the Internet, in particular the citizen bloggers and the satirical shows, there is a way to not only uncover buried information about stories that the mainstream media does not deem fit to cover, but there is also a way to fact-check the media and hold them accountable. This, perhaps, is the most important way that the Internet has changed how the audience perceives and consumes the news. Citizen Bloggers and Satirical Shows, and How They Help the Viewer Discern News One of the major changes in the way that the public understands news events is that these events are often filtered through what Hayes (2008) refers to as â€Å"citizen press critics† (p. 1). These â€Å"citizen press credits† are more commonly known as bloggers, and they work as a kind of â€Å"fifth estate† who attempt to keep the mainstream media honest. Lopez (2010) states that these bloggers are important to democracy, in that it shows that anybody can contribute to the discourse of politics and civility. Johnson & Kaye (2008) conducted a study and found that blogs are generally seen as a credible source of information, which makes them even more influential in conveying the news. Moreover, Lopez (2010) asserts that making news interactive, which blogs can accomplish by allowing the blog readers to make comments, makes the on-line experience richer, dynamic and shared. The Internet, in general, contributes to this sense of richness and dynamism, because it enables anybody to check out wha t the media is saying, which is in contrast to the way that things used to work, which was that the citzenry had to accept what the media was telling them, as there was not a way for the average person to find data to refute it. Moreover, Lopez (2010) asserts that the Internet, and the citizen bloggers, as important in that these mediums do not allow the media to control the message. As individuals filter and diffuse news through the peer to peer networks, and there is real-time fact checking involved, the media message might be watered down and more uncontrolled, and this is a good thing, according to Lopez (2010). Alternatively, the Internet can provide information about news that the mainstream media may decline to cover. An example of this is that, after September 11, and during the Iraq war, the mainstream media did not cover the issue of Iraqi deaths, so, more and more, citizens searched on the Internet regarding this topic, and it became the topic of blogs as well (Salwen et al., 2005). This is important, because, as Li (2006) notes, the media often sets the agenda, and the priorities on the issues that it will cover. This, in turn, colors how people may view a certain event, as well as how many citizens are aware of certain issues and events. It may also color how important an issue or event is perceived – if the media covers something extensively, then this topic or issue will be seen as important, and the opposite of the media declines to cover this event or issue (Li, 2006). However, the citizen critics may keep a buried issue alive, or bring it to fore, which is helpful to people who do not want to be influenced by the media about certain events, and people who want to know about underreported stories. The Internet, in

Operations Management and Operations Function Essay

Operations Management and Operations Function - Essay Example Organizations have got into a new era that is featured dramatic, rapid, and turbulent changes. The increased pace of change has transformed the operations in the organizations (Mahadevan, 2010, p. 307). The transformation has become integral and inherent part of organizational life. Several emerging trends have made organizations change their operations functions. These trends include globalization and increased competition from the emerging industries. Most organizations operate in a global economy that is characterized by intense competition. Many products and service are consumed externally as compared to the country of origin. Globalization has brought about a greater union in terms of taste and preference. For this reason, many organizations have changed their old operations in order to keep up with the competition in the market. An operations manager plays a vital role in business, government or any other organization. The task of operation manager is dependent on nature and the size of the organization. An operation manager requires both interpersonal and business skills to succeed in his/ her operations (Burcher, 2004, p. 30). An operation plays a vital role in the management of resources in the organization. Additionally, the operation manager is responsible for financial management in the organization. The operations manager is also responsible for setting objectives and goals and makes policies in various departments in the organization (Meyler, et al., 2013 p 100).

Write a discussion and conclusion for every chart Essay

Write a discussion and conclusion for every chart - Essay Example rvey respondents (international students) had no close American friends and would have liked more meaningful interaction with people born here† (par. 3). As such, racial discrimination still exists as the primary cause of discrimincation in contemporary university settings. Figure 2 illustrates that from among the causes of discrimination, stereotyping was identified by 7 out of 17 respondents as the predominant cause; followed by media (5); lack of knowledge (2) and gender differences (2); and poverty (1). Although poverty was noted only by one respondent as the cause of discrimination, the study written by Moorman & Wicks-Smith (2012) that â€Å"with one quick look students are generally able to size up who is wealthy and who is poor; who is a "have" and who is a "have not"† (p. 141). As such, stereotyping was the predominant cause of discrimination that is an indication of social perceptions that have persistent through time. Figure 3 illustrates that from 19 respondents, it was revealed that only 48% or 9 respondents have average knowledge about discrimination support networks; followed by 26% who does not have much knowledge; 16% who have some knowledge; and 5% for both sets of respondents who are on the extremes – a lot of knowledge and no knowledge at all. The average knowledge of students on the presence of discrimination networks indicate that there are majority of students who could not avail and access support due to insufficient awareness of the existence of support networks to address discrimination issues. As indicated, school psychologists are identified to assume the crucial role of enhancing awareness, to wit: â€Å"working for social justice in the educational setting means guiding students and staff to reflect critically on their roles in proliferating racism and discrimination and supporting systemic change to prevent ongoing inequities† (NASP, 2012, p. 2). Figure 4 illustrates the results on the methods deemed most effective by