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A collaborative blog by Ian Gilbert of Independent Thinking and Laughology’s Founder Stephanie Davies.  This blog was written in a safe, socially distanced way and is ready to help you get on with those in your Christmas bubble. Christmas bubble policies They say you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. And generally, that’s true. Except this year,...

Years before Carol Dweck became a professor at Stanford University and first uttered the words ‘growth mindset’, I went to school with a boy called George. He was in my class from year four all the way up to sixth form. His nickname was Wingey Winston, so called because he would cry at the slightest thing and because his last name...

Targets, targets, targets! We've all heard the mantra - sales targets, performance targets, monthly targets. But what does it mean when those targets are met? Is it a sign of success - or could you have achieved more?

For some organisations and businesses, measuring success or failure in such a binary manner could be encouraging a fixed mindset amongst the workforce. It couls also be having a negative effect on growth.

Growth mindset techniques can help your organisation to grow and improve by measuring results based on the amount of improvement your workforce has made.

In this article, we discuss the differences between fixed and growth mindset and look at how using praise and feedback correctly will help your organisation improve its performance, and thereby encouraging a happier workplace.

Unconscious bias is a psychological process that happens automatically when our brains make quick judgments and assessments of people and situations, influenced by our background and personal experiences.  It creates a tendency to view certain people, statistics, facts and situations more favourably or not, depending on whether we find similarities to our own life. Biologically, we are hard-wired to prefer people...

Unconscious bias is one of the ways we make sense of the world. We subconsciously categorise people instantly, before we even know them. And this can be very harmful, as it tends to breed conformity and a lack of diversity. We make unconscious assumptions about people based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic background and mental health amongst other things.

As COVID-19 cases continue to reduce and restrictions are eased, households are venturing out of lockdown into a new normal. As they do, focus will inevitably turn to the mental health toll of this crisis.  Trauma suffered by those who have battled COVID-19, both as patients and clinicians. Bereavement of those who have lost loved ones. Anxiety of school children and...

It has been a challenging time for schools, as they begin to reopen. Our school friends we have spoken to have generally been left to design their own systems and procedures. It is safe to say, from our conversations, that there has been dismay in the lack of leadership and advice from central Government.  In the absence of clear leadership from...

As the corona virus continues to spread, increasing numbers of people are working remotely from home. Some are self-isolating. And, as we write this, it seems increasingly likely that, during the coming weeks, the government will put in more stringent measures to further curtail movement. As a result of these circumstances, many concerned businesses find themselves in uncharted waters. However, it’s...

International Women’s Day is held on March 8th every year. It’s a day when we celebrate the amazing social, cultural, economic and political achievements of women - while also campaigning for greater progress towards gender equality. Why do we need International Women’s Day in 2020 International Women’s Day (IWD) has been celebrated since the early 1900s. Although we’ve made great progress...