Here at Laughology, we’re feeling a bit giddy. No, we’ve not overdone the Curly Wurlys, we’re getting ready to celebrate Learning at Work Week - running from the 16th-22nd May.
Not only that, but it’s also Mental Health Awareness Week from the 9th-15th. So that’s two weeks where you can exercise your brain, feel good and maybe learn a thing or two? And all in the same month? That’s too much excitement, surely?
To help celebrate, we’ve put together loads of activities for you and your team to get learning. There’s something for you to watch, read and do in each section - enjoy!
Learning is good for mental health
It’s not surprising Mental Health Awareness and Learning at Work Week are in the same month, as learning is really good for your mental health. Did you know that learning new skills can improve the brain by stimulating neurons and promoting neuroplasticity? Basically, this means you create more neural pathways, which means you’re increasing your brainpower. Winner.
Just like your body needs exercise to stay healthy, your brain does too and learning new things gives your brain a great workout. You won’t have to break a sweat and can do it in your undies if you really want to – sounds better than going to the gym, don’t you think?
Exercising your brain in any way, whether it’s learning something new, doing a crossword or a quiz supports concentration, improves memory and boosts cognitive skills. Learning new skills of any sort improves your mental wellbeing too by boosting self-confidence and raising self-esteem.
Learning builds a sense of purpose, connects us with others and develops skills for coping by supporting the problem-solving function. It’s also about active engagement, making sense of something new and connecting it to our world.
It may involve the development of skills, knowledge, awareness, values, beliefs and ideas or challenging yourself to let go of previous beliefs. Effective learning involves reflection and supports change. It’s a creative activity that goes beyond attending a training course- although, of course, this can be effective in itself.
At Laughology we want to help you learn, be happy and exercise your brain. We’ve created three themes for YOU, YOUR TEAM and YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE. So go on, get those neurons firing!
Exercise your brain
YOU
Understanding yourself and your personal development areas is a great starting point. You don’t need loads of time to do this either. Block out time in your daily routine to do something for you (some online calendars will automatically book time for learning or focus time).
It might be that you take time to exercise, walk or cycle. Focusing on another activity will help you focus on yourself. If you want a bit of structure around your personal development, here are some simple and quick activities for you.
Watch: LEARNING NEW HEALTHY HABIT
Learning is about changing a behaviour or mindset, and creating a new habit or learning a new way of doing something. Part of this is learning how to form new positive habits and behaviours.
We can make this simpler for ourselves by understanding how to form new and better habits. In this short video, Stephanie Davies, Head of Happiness at Laughology, shares how to create new habits with this simple habit hack.
Read: UNDERSTANDING YOUR VALUES FOR MOTIVATION AND DRIVE
Understanding our personal motivation can be a helpful way of recognising what drives us or why we react to certain situations. A starting point for this is to understand our values.
Our values are individual beliefs that motivate us to act one way or another. They serve as a guide for human behaviour. Generally, we are predisposed to adopt the values that we are raised with.
Understanding where these come from and challenging our beliefs around them is important because it helps us make decisions, take action, and focus on moving towards the life we want to live. Use this cheat sheet to understand your values more.
Do: YOUR PERSONAL SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
A personal SWOT analysis increases self-awareness and highlights both your advantages and challenges. It helps you to improve and also play to your strengths. Spending a bit of time on a personal SWOT can help your personal development going forward. This simple activity will take you through how to do your own SWOT.
YOUR TEAM
Connected teams work better together. When we talk about connections, we don’t mean face to face either. This can be learning more about each other, ways to share ideas and coming together socially. Doing so nurtures healthy relationships and supports a culture of continuous learning.
We’ve put together a few short activities to help you and your team connect and communicate better.
Watch: COMMUNICATE, COLLABORATE AND CONNECT
Communication allows to you explain to someone else what you are experiencing and what your needs are. The act of communicating not only helps to meet your needs, but it also helps you to be better connected to your team.
Communicating is about the art of sometimes not saying anything at all and just listening. In this short video, Stephanie Davies and Dave Keeling explain how to communicate well and also what not to do…
Read: FLEXING YOUR STYLE
Every person has a unique communication style, a way in which they interact and exchange information with others. There are four basic communication styles: passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive and assertive.
It’s important to understand each communication style, and why individuals use them. For example, the assertive communication style has been found to be most effective, because it incorporates the best aspects of all the other styles. But being overly assertive with a passive person can appear blunt and uncaring.
Being able to flex and adapt is key to team togetherness.
Do:KNOW YOUR COMMUNICATION STYLE BETTER - WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU
When individuals exhibit different communication styles, it's easy for conflict or misunderstandings to occur. Understanding the characteristics and tendencies of different communication styles can help us to effectively interact with our team members.
Use this activity to understand yourselves and your teammates better. Pair up with a teammate who knows you and ask them to fill in one for you, as well as filling in your own.
Compare and contrast together and as a team. Discuss what different team members might need and how this can be used to work together better in work situations.
YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE
People absorb a leader’s actions and values and tend to mirror leadership behaviours. On a wider level, a leader's ‘shadow’ may be cast so wide that it affects the culture of an entire organisation.
Your leadership shadow reflects everything you say and do. Whether you intend it or not, you cast your shadow over your team. That’s why self-awareness of your actions is essential to your leadership style.
Role modelling the behaviours you want others to will strengthen the culture you desire.
Watch: ROLE MODELLING
In this short video, you can hear more from Dave Keeling on role modelling. From simple do’s and don’ts to getting the basics right.
Read: ENVIRONMENT
Through their strategies and actions, great leaders have the ability to create the ‘right’ environment for creativity, people development and growth.
In this cheat sheet, there are some top tips for creating the right environment and how to do this through our simple PA OFF model. Personalised, Anyhow, Anywhere, On-demand and Future-focused conversations that help people feel cared for and valued.
There is no one best way to lead others. A leader's style and behaviour should depend on the person in front of them and what’s needed at that time.
Being able to flex and change is a helpful skill to develop. Situational leadership is a way to approach different situations and people depending on what’s important at that time. This activity sheet will help you build your skills in these areas.
For more free learning visit our FREE STUFF PAGE.
Free Learning at work webinar - why being a lifelong learner can make you happy!
Tuesday 17th May 2022 | 12-12:45pm – Join Kerry Leigh - why being a lifelong learner can make you happy!
Growth Mindset
Book a Growth mindset session for your team for just £695 for up to 50 people by emailing doug@laughology.co.uk