It's no secret that technology has the power to completely change our lives and the way we interact with one another. COVID-19 accelerated a lot of these trends (teleworking, telehealth, e-commerce, and so on), while also adding potentially problematic technology layers.
A big theme emerging in the past few weeks is how technology can help us respect social distancing measures while enabling us to safely resume certain activities.
If you want to see different perspectives on our contactless future, you can read this article from Microsoft in which they re-imagine meeting room experiences. Read the full post here.
In the travel industry, touchless and biometric technologies have already been popular for a while. The technology is already in place to help passengers automatically upload their COVID-19 test results, ID, and air tickets. Together with iris and face scans, traveling could become a more seamless experience, but not without privacy or data concerns. Read the full article here.
Apart from this larger, touchless theme, here are more articles we found relevant and insightful.
By Rasmus Hougaard | Forbes | 6 min
Empathy and compassion are very different because they are represented in different areas of the brain. With empathy, we join the suffering of others but stop short of helping. With compassion, we take a step away and ask ourselves ‘how can we help?’. For leaders, recognizing the differences between empathy and compassion is critical for inspiring and managing others effectively. Read the full article here.
Leadership | Work culture | Business | Mindfulness
By Ulysses Smith | Quartz | 4 min
In the past few months, the pandemic gave companies an opportunity to mindfully reevaluate their policies. Many already became more intentional about virtual relationship-building, while also investing in practices that foster diverse representation and recognition. The main takeaway from the transformative period that companies experienced is that the businesses which are inclusive, interpersonal, and representative will develop the engaged workforces they’ll need to get through this crisis, and well beyond it. Read the full article here.
Leadership | Work culture | Business |
By Laura Mandaro | The Information | 6 min
This article offers tangible solutions to bonding with a new hire and welcoming them to the company in the nicest way possible, under remote circumstances. It suggests joining online group activities such as group yoga sessions to meet colleagues and find common points or even joining messaging channels devoted to pets, food, or baby pictures. Bonding with colleagues is essential for strong collaboration and trusting relationships, and this article proves precisely why. Read the full story here.
Work culture | COVID-19
By Michelle R. Weise | Harvard Business Review | 5 min
This is one of the most exciting and data-driven articles we found in the past few weeks. It explains in a visual and eloquent manner different career changes made by professionals in three different industries across one decade: Hospitality + Food Services, Retail + Customer Service, and Transportation + Warehousing. Here is one of the conclusions of the study: "policymakers should take note of research suggesting that investments in not just education and training but also navigation can boost social mobility." Read the full article here.
Management | Business
By Lauren Bravo | The Guardian | 9 min
This article is one of the best pieces about sustainability and fashion that we came across lately. It presents strong arguments from different perspectives (social, economic, environmental) about the growing industry of resale and how we can be more conscious of our consumerism. The article also contains a short video on the growing UK resale market. This is the kind of article we like so much that we bookmark for future reference. Read the full article here. E-commerce | Sustainability
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