Friday Footnote #24

Each week we share loads of content amongst Team ION and with our network. Content which inspires us, which we find helpful or that just makes us smile. We thought we would start sharing these insights every Friday. Welcome to Friday footnote!

Sleep is the best meditation (Dalai Lama)

At a recent ION Open Doors session, members of the group discussed the various problems they have sleeping, and how it impacts on their day-to-day lives. We make hundreds of decisions each day, either personally or work-related. How does tiredness impact on our decision-making? Kaye from the team explored the subject a little deeper and shared her findings in our latest blog.

This led to some interesting conversations on and offline with some great links shared including this recent TED Talk ('Sleep is your superpower') and this interesting read from Headspace sharing 15 science-backed topics for your best rest.

Inspiration

Here are just a few things that have caught our eye this week:

• Shirking from home? Staff feel the heat as bosses ramp up remote surveillance (The Guardian)
• Flexibility: how Covid-19 turned a 'Millennial fantasy' into a no-brainer (The HR Director)
• The benefits of good posture (TED)
• Covid-19 has changed working patterns for good, says survey (The Guardian)
• Why you shouldn't cut R&D investments in times of crisis and recession (Forbes)
• Great leaders are confident, connected, committed and courageous (Harvard Business Review)

Always Learning

This week is #learningatworkweek. As usual, learning has played a big part in ION life.

Members of the team took part in the Good Business Festival hearing from amongst others Patagonia and the Eden Project discussing how 'Profit comes from purpose'. Act 2 of the festival will take place in 2021.

Swansea Programme Manager Suzanne attended this week's Swansea LINC event discussing the 'legal, wellbeing and economic implications of working from home'. During this interesting, and timely, event they discussed how to create a sustainable working from home/office hybrid workforce for the future, whilst taking care of factors that could benefit organisations and individuals as well as issues that could challenge organisations and individuals. A huge emphasis was placed on building a culture of trust within your team. The CBI also discussed how the Welsh Government are looking at hybrid working and making sure our towns in Wales have access to remote hubs.

Adam joined an interesting Zoom discussion organised by the Enterprise Hub at M-SPARC as part of their 'From sports stars to business stars' series of events. Goodwash, who are 'changing the world one wash at a time', was set up by former Wales international hockey and touch rugby player Mandy Powell and former international footballer Kelly Davies. During the conversation, they shared their story and provided advice to those in attendance. Future events in the series include conversations with Lee Bryne and Colin Jackson. Find out more on their website.

The learning continues next week as Kim has signed up to take part in the Women in Business Expo and the following week our Bangor team are running a session on Tuesday 20 October covering 'Supporting your staff out of furlough'. Contact Felicity on f.roberts@bangor.ac.uk to find out more.  

Support & Advice

• The latest Bangor Business School newsletter is now available, with fantastic contributions from our very own Gwenllian and Felicity
• Join Business Wales (and us!) at the Mid & South West Regional Roadshow on 22 October to hear from keynote speakers, take part in workshops and explore and network in the virtual exhibition hall
• Focus Carmarthen Enterprise Hub has teamed up with BUCANIER and Web Adept to help you better understand the world of online trading and e-commerce on their Build a successful business online webinar
• This week is #learningatworkweek and Campaign for Learning have plenty of great resources to support lifelong learning
• We recently became part of the Swansea City Business Network and they have just announced their first virtual event which will take place next week. Entitled 'Survive, Revive and Thrive', speakers include friend of the programme Danni Watts-Jones who will be discussing the importance of lifestyle financial planning and the SOFIT Group who will share advice on looking after employees’ mental and emotional health.

Become an extraordinary leader

We shared another alumni Q&A this week, this time with Lynda Hale of Tŷ Teulu discussing her leadership journey, and telling us why she has enrolled so many members of her team, including her daughter, onto our programmes over the years.

Spaces are booking up quickly on our upcoming leadership programmes. Due to the current coronavirus pandemic, our programmes will start online, until we are able to deliver face-to-face.

Don't forget, we can now offer our leadership programmes fully-funded until the end of August 2021. A number of our programmes are currently fully booked but check out our courses page to find out more about upcoming courses and get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Stay Safe

Team ION

PS - Missed previous #FridayFootnotes?