Group items tagged

Designers should ensure that spaces for all six modalities of work will be available as needed for both hypersensitive and hyposensitive occupants. While the right sizes and combinations of space will vary for each organization, the key is to provide a seamless array of choices. Spaces should easily adapt to the needs of people with work styles and behavioral needs at both ends of the spectrum. They also must be exceptionally flexible to integrate new technologies over time and, as more people continue to work remotely after the pandemic, to blend real and virtual work environments. Our current design is old and un-informed. We are ripe for a huge disruption in this space. I saw some recent pictures of Tesla's office. It's lame. How can you expect excellent and group breaking work when the environment is meh.

Two-thirds of people around the world want to work flexibly when the COVID-19 pandemic is over, a new survey shows. And almost a third are prepared to quit their job if the boss makes them go back to the office full time. The survey of workers in 29 nations also shows people have coped better with homeworking than some feared. The power has shifted to choice. We no longer just go work where someone tells us to go work.

The paradoxical result of widespread remote work is that it represents both a centralization and a decentralization of where new technologies are built. That is, even as workers disperse geographically, more of them are doing their work in a single place: the internet. This change is already helping Silicon Valley giants break through logjams like regional housing crises in order to poach talent wherever it lives. The world has never managed hybrid work before. We're going to see a huge issue with culture and connection. How can you be connected and motivated. New slick tools aren't enough. Humans need and require human engagement.

Here, we assess the lasting impact of the pandemic on labor demand, the mix of occupations, and the workforce skills required in eight countries with diverse economic and labor market models: China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, these eight countries account for almost half the global population and 62 percent of GDP. Another study that shows how unhappy workers are and that they're squarely in the drivers seat.

Summary of a larger report, which is hyperinked in the article. Six summary paragraphs present these scenarios. In April 2020, an ambitious initiative called Positive AI Economic Futures was launched by Stuart Russell and Charles-Edouard Bouée, both members of the World Economic Forum's Global AI Council (GAIC). In a series of workshops and interviews, over 150 experts from a wide variety of backgrounds gathered virtually to discuss these challenges, as well as possible positive Artificial Intelligence visions and their implications for policymakers. The workshop attendees and interview participants, from science-fiction writers to economists and AI experts, attempted to articulate positive visions of a future where Artificial Intelligence can do most of what we currently call work.

"Several prominent professors at U.S. colleges have participated in China's talent acquisition program, according to leaked documents from a Chinese regional authority. The professors worked with the Thousand Talents Program (TTP), a controversial state-backed recruitment plan criticized by U.S. officials for its role in transferring Western research and technology to China."

In 2020 Europe saw a great reverse migration, as those who had sought work abroad returned home. Exact numbers are hard to come by. An estimated 1.3m Romanians went back to Romania-equivalent to three times the population of its second-biggest city. Perhaps 500,000 Bulgarians returned to Bulgaria-a huge number for a country of 7m. Lithuania has seen more citizens arriving than leaving for the first time in years.

The COVID-19 pandemic and killing of George Floyd along with other recent deaths of Black people at the hands of police have laid bare stark structural and systemic racial inequities and their impacts on the health and well-being of individuals and communities. While these events have brought health and health care disparities into sharp focus for the media and public, they are not new. These longstanding and persistent health disparities are symptoms of broader social and economic challenges that are rooted in structural and systemic barriers across sectors - including housing, education, employment, and the justice system - as well as underlying racism and discrimination. Amid this difficult time for our nation, the increased recognition and understanding of disparities could provide a catalyst for the challenging work required to address them.

The thirteen chapters of the Working Group I report provide an assessment of the current evidence on the physical science of climate change, knowledge evaluation gained from observations, reanalyses, paleoclimate archives and climate model simulations, as well as physical, chemical and biological climate processes. (1300 pages?)

"The defining characteristic of this new version of the creative class may not be where it lives, but its ability to live anywhere it wants. Put differently, people move to certain cities in search of better-paying jobs, but it's now possible to earn high (if not the highest) salaries from almost anywhere. That has been true in certain smaller cities in recent years (Austin and Denver in the United States, for example, and Manchester and Leeds in Britain). To a lesser extent, it has also been true for people who chose not to live in cities at all." Workers hold the power and they need to be able to live and work where they want when they want. We're very reliant on humans, we need to make them valued and show that we are investing in the things they care about.

This week I'm talking to Dr. Amy Cuddy, social psychologist, best-selling author, award-winning Harvard lecturer, and expert on the behavioral science of power, presence, and prejudice. We discuss her recently published Washington Post article, "Why This Stage of the Pandemic Makes Us So Anxious," and how working through this collective, constant pandemic flux affects us as individuals and as leaders. We also talk about developing a flux mindset and how important it is to facilitate a sense of agency as we make decisions about how we return to work.

A new survey-based study explains how automation is reshaping the workplace in unexpected ways. Robots can improve efficiency and quality, reduce costs, and even help create more jobs for their human counterparts. But more robots can also reduce the need for managers. What if more robots = a better quality of life. We always seem to go negative. What if we could work less, not more?

As the pandemic seems to be ending, people are not going back to work. Workers are upset with employers as their wages stay stagnant, and perks that were once the norm, are now few and far between. While many of quite (>4 million in August), many have decided to strike.

A bit of a summary of possible climate change effects. The only certainty seems to be that there will be change, but the severity is still unclear. Work being done today to reduce emissions should help, but to what extent is not necessarily clear. It notes concern for the potential collapse of teh Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which could change things quickly. Still, the uncertainty is what's most concerning, and people need to be ready for different possible outcomes

Yea this isn't a scan hit I need to post but an amazing find. Short article but includes a video demo and link to the website. Called the Pilot, one company has created a tiny wireless earbud that fits in your ear and translates the language you hear into the language you understand. The earphones work in conjunction with an app, but it works offline as well. People have been bound by language for centuries, and it looks like those barriers will soon be broken down by this tiny little device.

"By analyzing #BlackLivesMatter tweets, we found three main strategies: empowerment, mobilization and reputational damage, all as part of an effort that social scientists call "social accountability...We were looking to see whether the people using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter were using any of three key elements of social accountability as they worked to call out the harm done by public institutions and to bring attention to police misconduct..."

"For cities to catch up, they need to apply a data-driven approach similar to what farms are using to more effectively grow crops. Cities must start supporting urban agriculture in targeted ways that work with the urban agriculture industry to transform our current food production and distribution systems into smarter, more localized, and more resilient networks."

DRIVER-WATER-SCARCITY-INFRASTRUCTURE-MATERIALS The North American drinking water infrastructure network spans an estimated 1 million miles, more than four times longer than the National Highway System, and that doesn't even take wastewater pipes into account. Much of the water infrastructure in the United States will need to be replaced in the next three decades. A large portion of water pipes was installed during three periods, and they will all need to be replaced in the next 25 years. Consider the following The oldest cast iron pipes laid in the late 1800s usually last 120 years; Pipes laid in 1920s must be replaced after 100 years; Pipes from the post-World War II boom wear out after 75 years. According to a 2012 report done by the American Water Works Association, the cost estimate to replace the old pipes is approximately $1 trillion over the next 25 years. The longer our water infrastructure is out of sight and out of mind, the closer we are to a serious national situation that will require immediate and dramatic funding. The cost of water infrastructure replacement far exceeds the financial capabilities of local water utilities and requires a strong commitment from not only utilities but rate-payers and government as well.