With Great Brain Power Comes More Creativity
Let’s speak the obvious, 2020 has required us to get creative. We have designed new ways to stay healthy, engage differently with our clients, and communicate with our workforce. Pandemic or not, the more innovative you present yourself and your information, the better received it will be. This month’s MBriefs shares, across the board from social media, health care innovation, and our Learning Centers, how creativity keeps the brain fresh. Take a glance and color yourself educated!
As the Cyber World Grows…
...we are doing more with even less. In the 1950s, it took four grunting men to push a 5MB IBM hard drive into a truck. Nowadays, 5MB calculates to an email with a couple of photos on your laptop or smartphone you can pick up with two fingers. Today the hardware is minuscule, and the technology is light speed compared to its startup. And yet, when it comes to skilled cyber talent, the only thing greater is the need for more.
Practically everything runs on a computer, and yet, the chief information security officers, the CISOs, are in demand.
To stay safe “cyberly,” companies must be flexible and adapt to external threats, and if they don’t have the talent on staff, they should consider a third party to protect their computer world. This article dives deep into five layers of the cyber process and how to search for the security to fit your needs.
Intelligent Predictions to Help Health Care
You get sick; you go to the hospital; they fix you up and send you home.
Yikes. What’s next?
This article is about the care provided to a patient after their hospital stay to learn how to prevent the hospital stay in the first place. With specific clinical data, it is possible to predict problems that can occur after a hospital visit and potentially avoid the emergency room altogether. MIT graduate, Dave DeCaprio, and his team have put their impressive brains together to create models that process post-hospital patients’ data and predict future issues they may have going forward. What makes this artificial intelligence solution different? It computes the different coded data from each health care system, processing apples to apples in a sense. They have even adapted their system for COVID-19 data to give hospitals an expectation of their region’s population.
Medical Insurance is not easy to understand, and if you have more than one employer-provided plan to choose from, it multiplies the confusion. Which benefit is best for you? There are so many factors in the decision process. Do you have a family? Do you go to the doctor often? Are there plans for surgery this year? This fun and useful video is longer than most, but we help you discover the key differences of the HSA and PPO plans, and how to calculate each component to determine the best benefit for your health needs.
2020 has turned most of us upside down, so it may be time to try something new for your benefits communications. For this Side Affects podcast episode, producer, Kenzie Fell has pulled our Director of Strategy and Innovation, Dave Homan, from behind the scenes, upfront to discuss different options for open enrollment. Dave has decades of health care communication experience and knows how to get your message heard. Keep it simple; make it fun and do it all year long. Tune in to learn how to deliver your message to your workforce.
Innovative Mindset: Creative vs. Logical - Webinar
Due to COVID-19, all Learning Centers will now be presented as webinars.
Progressive Concepts: This MB Learning Center presents one of our highly anticipated speakers. Justin Howard’s exhibitions get you thinking about you and your engagement with your team. This session provides an understanding of the neuroscience behind our brain’s priorities in what it thinks is keeping us safe.
As we get older, the brain directs itself to the side of logic, losing a bit of that creative flair. So, as a team member, we need to embrace other team members and how they may approach their creativity based on their brain development. It may require us to remove the natural approach of self-preservation and put ourselves ‘out there’ a bit.
Learn how to re-orient yourself to the collective creativity and novelty of the group. How do we work inside the group, depending on our brain’s age and level of creativity?
Training Focus: Attendees will learn group exercises that reveal our behaviors, and you will take away the explanation of desirable responses, paired with activities that create desired experiences.
This class has been approved for 2 HRCI and SHRM CE Credits
Presenter: Justin Howard
Justin is the founder of Black Box Improv Theater in Dayton and lead facilitator at Emerge Improv, a professional training and coaching organization dedicated to workplace and individual development. Justin graduated from Wittenberg University with a degree in communication and studied improv in Chicago and New York City. He started improv training for businesses after leading workshops for Harvard Business School MBA students, and his clients include local governments, nonprofits and Fortune 100 companies.
Thursday, September 10th | 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Hello HR Execs, it’s finally time for you to join the social media revolution. Embrace social media and use the tools that your employees will understand and accept. With the straight-forward tips listed below, you are one step closer to trending all the way home.
Evolution of 2020 Marketing Trends
2020 has been an interesting year. After spending months at home battling a global pandemic, it’s hard to believe we are more than halfway through it! Marketing trends are predicted every year, but we thought it would be useful to look back at what was expected and what became a reality over the last few months...especially with the Coronavirus in our lives. Believe it or not, the health crisis has contributed to our new social media trends...Take a look!
1) Voicemail reminders: Voice search tailored content is nothing new. People often command Siri, Alexa, or their Google Assistant to help with their everyday routines. We have found that people are choosing to “speak” and “listen” over “typing” and “reading.” It’s all about convenience, right?! We have incorporated this into our marketing plan by creating custom voicemails to leave clients and co-workers, reminding them of employee benefit tasks or updated insurance information. Try it out next time you are working on getting communication out to your workforce!
2) Podcasts:Podcasts have been around since at least 2004, and although it might seem like everyone hosts a podcast these days...companies are still hesitant to get on board! Podcasts have the potential for massive brand visibility and engaging a customer base. Even though people are working from home, which might cut into commuting/listening time, many are still tuning in -- or better yet, starting their own! Share meaningful, valuable podcasts with material that resonates with your audience. Whether you are considering it internally or externally, consider adding it to your arsenal of marketing distribution!
3) Short form video:I’m sure you’ve heard of TikTok. It’s taking the world by storm and bringing short-form video to the forefront! Instant gratification is nice, and short videos are just that! Creating engaging short-form videos is all about knowing what works -- and your clients aren’t willing to spend too much time on. Next time you’re working on sending out a complicated message, try to do it on camera in one minute or less!
4) Live streams: Live streaming has been around for a while -- and is especially popular during a global pandemic. On Facebook, one in five videos is now a live broadcast! A successful live stream can increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. The key to keep in mind is to pick a time that your audience can engage and promote your “live steaming event.” Struggling to figure out what to talk about live!? Consider a Q+A, a behind-the-scenes tour, an interview with an expert in your industry, breaking news, webinars, or even a product demonstration!
5) Evergreen content: At MB, we make an effort to create timeless videos, scripts, and content. When the content is no longer relevant, it can quickly die off. We also believe in re-purposing and updating content regularly, so it doesn’t lose its value! It can be as simple as embedding a new supporting video or giving an old article a quick refresh and republishing it. We found this to be extremely important regarding our COVID-19 Resource Center. We are continually updating the newest information and links to make sure the most recent updates are available.
Smart Devices Are Getting REALLY Smart
Science nerds and their need to learn stuff can help us live longer. Researchers from Stanford Medicine have been monitoring individual’s health through their Smart devices, and are hopeful that their newest research can predict, through algorithms, the early onset of viral infections. This research has started with the data of five different devices like smartwatches, Fitbits, and others. Indicators, like heart rate and skin temperature, will factor in the possibility of the body fighting off infection. They are still in the fact-gathering stage and hope that their work can assist with COVID-19. Let’s hear it for the nerds!