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Todd Maddox Publishes Brain Science Analysis of Augmented Reality for Product Lifecycle Management

Today, Todd Maddox published the report “Why Augmented Reality is Effective in Product Lifecycle Management: A Brain Science Analysis.” This report provides best practices for implementing augmented reality across product development, supply chain management, equipment operation, troubleshooting, and field service.

Recommendations are based on Maddox’ research, which has been cited over 10,000 by his academic peers.

This report is available at no cost through the end of February based on the generosity of our clients. To download this report at no cost for the rest of February, please go to https://amalgaminsights.com/product/analyst-insight-why-augmented-reality-is-effective-in-product-lifecycle-management.

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Webinar: Leveraging Psychology And Brain Science To Optimize Retention And Behavior Change

Recommended for: Chief Learning Officers, Chief Human Resource Officers, Chief People Officer, Chief Talent Officer, Learning & Development Directors and Managers, Corporate Trainers, Content and Learning Product Managers, Hiring Directors, Hiring Managers, Human Resource Directors, Human Resource Managers.

On Tuesday, February 5, 2019 2:00pm EST, join the most cited  and referenced learning scientist in corporate learning, Todd Maddox, Ph.D.  as he presents on the psychology of corporate training with Dr. B. Price Kerfoot, Co-Founder of Qstream. 

Together, they will show why corporate learning and development professionals need to learn how to leverage the brain science and technology that change behavior.

In this webcast, you will learn:

  • the psychology of continuous learning for hard and soft skills development
  • the proof behind best practices in microlearning
  • the impact of spaced learning on knowledge retention and behavior change
  • the application of microlearning in corporate enterprise.

And by attending this webcast, you will:

  • Be armed with evaluation criteria for identifying best-of-breed microlearning solutions.
  • Become expert in how to affect behavior change at scale in the corporate learning environment.
  • Provoke thinking that applies proven spaced education research your own workplace L&D programs.

To attend this webinar, sign up on the ATD website and learn more about how to influence behavior, knowledge retention, and skills development based on the science of the brain. And Amalgam Insights thanks QStream for underwriting this opportunity for W. Todd Maddox Ph.D. to share his 25+ years of brain science knowledge with the corporate learning community.

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Understanding the Brain Science on How the US Government Shutdown Reduces the Effectiveness of Diligent Decision-Making

 

On December 22, 2018, the longest government shutdown in American history began. Approximately 800,000 employees have been affected with roughly 380,000 workers being furloughed and another 420,000 working without pay. Many of the 420,000 employees being required to work without pay make important, and often split-second, life or death decisions.

This includes the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and air traffic control, to name a few. While these employees are attempting to focus on their job (without pay), they are also pondering how to pay their rent or mortgage and whether to buy food, medicine, or gas.

With each passing day and missed paycheck, the shutdown is causing increased stress and anxiety. It creeps into the workers’ consciousness whether they like it or not.

From a brain science perspective, the likelihood of a major accident increases significantly every day mission-critical government workers are required to perform their jobs without pay, and with no clear indication of when their next paycheck will arrive.

Brain Science for Routine Behavior

From a brain science perspective, the effects of stress on decision making are well understood.  Well-established, routine behaviors such as swabbing luggage for bomb-making material or maintaining buoys and lighthouses is only moderately affected. Behaviors such as these are learned and initiated by the behavioral skills system in the brain that encompasses the basal ganglia, and is best learned and performed without “overthinking it.”

Situational Awareness Is Weakened By Shutdown-Driven Stress

However, cognitive processes and to a higher degree situational awareness are seriously hampered by shutdown-driven stress. Cognitive processing such as routing planes in flight and maintaining defense readiness in ports and on the oceans is strongly affected. Cognitive processing involves the cognitive skills system in the brain that recruits the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobes and relies heavily on working memory and attention. Stress and anxiety engage emotion centers in the brain that appropriate cognitive resources (working memory and attention) from the task at hand.

Situational awareness is especially affected by shutdown-driven stress. Situational awareness involves effectively processing and comprehending the situation around you, and projecting the future state. Situational awareness relies on cognitive, emotional and behavioral skills systems in the brain and involves knowing “what to do, when.”  Situational awareness is critical to Coast Guard, TSA and air traffic control operations because these operations require constant diligence to effectively evaluate the current and future situations that often require split-second decisions and projections into the future. It is this ability to “think on one’s feet” and to make the right split-second decision that is at serious risk when these employees are attempting work and simultaneously deal with the stress and anxiety of going unpaid.

Conclusion

With each passing day the likelihood of a major accident increases. Critical decision-making centers in the brain that are central to the mission of the Coast Guard, TSA, and air traffic control are operating at sub-optimal levels because shutdown-driven stress and anxiety are holding important cognitive and situational awareness processes hostage. This is only going to get worse. Putting politics aside, and focusing exclusively on the psychological and brain science of decision-making, the only solution is to end the shutdown and allow these workers to do their job with pay, and with their full brain processing capacity focused on the job.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Todd Maddox, Ph.D. has more than 200 published articles, 10,000 citings, and $10 million in external research funding in his 25+ years researching the brain basis of behavior.  Maddox is available for comment on this topic and can be contacted via media@amalgaminsights.com

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Leveraging Learning Science: Why Skillsoft’s Technology and Developer Learning Content Drives Continuous Adaptability in the Digital Age: A Market Milestone

In a recently published Market Milestone, Todd Maddox, Ph.D., Learning Scientist and Research Fellow for Amalgam Insights, evaluated Skillsoft’s Technology and Developer Learning Content from a learning science perspective—the marriage of psychology and brain science.
This involves evaluating the training content and delivery to determine whether it engages psychological processes and learning systems in the brain effectively.

Amalgam’s overall evaluation is that Skillsoft’s Technology and Developer Learning Content is highly effective. Skillsoft’s Technology and Developer Content portfolio meets the need for continuous adaptability and effective engagement of the task appropriate learning system in the brain with their “watch”, “read”, “listen” and “practice” content and delivery methodology. Delivering the Technology and Developer Content portfolio with Percipio’s ELSA ensures that the portfolio is efficiently organized, is easily accessible on any device, is searchable and is seamlessly integrated into the employee’s flow of work. Finally, Skillsoft’s newly developed “Aspire” offering helps the employee realize their aspirations and desires by building an “Aspirational Persona” and developing a digital learning journey to support career advancement.

For more information, read the full Market Milestone licensed for distribution by Skillsoft at http://learn.skillsoft.com/Website-AR-Amalgam-Leveraging-Learning-Science-Why-Skillsofts-Tech-Dev-Learn_LandingPage.html.

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Why Skillsoft’s Digital Transformation Portfolio Effectively Drives Digital Readiness: A Market Milestone

 In a recently published Market Milestone, Todd Maddox, Ph.D., Learning Scientist and Research Fellow for Amalgam Insights, evaluated Skillsoft’s industry-first Digital Transformation Portfolio from a learning science perspective—the marriage of psychology and brain science. This involves evaluating the portfolio’s content and delivery to determine whether it engages psychological processes and learning systems in the brain effectively. It does. Amalgam’s overall evaluation is that Skillsoft’s Digital Transformation Portfolio is highly effective.

The digital transformation is fundamentally altering the modern workplace and is requiring companies to modify organizational structures, create new roles and develop new skill sets. This transformation affects every aspect of skill learning from “what” we need to know, “how” we need to behave, and the “feel” or awareness that we need to be effective in ever-changing digitally-driven corporate settings. Skills associated with the “what”, “how”, and “feel” are each mediated by a distinct learning system in the brain. Thus, digital readiness requires content construction and delivery that effectively engages each of these systems. Skillsoft’s Digital Transformation Portfolio meets this challenge and is poised to continue to meet this challenge as new and exciting digital technologies transform the workplace.

For more information, read the full Market Milestone.

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Amalgam Insights Releases List of 2018’s Best Enablement Solution Vendors for “Building Better Sales Brains”

Optimized sales training requires three critical aspects; combining effective sales enablement, people skills, and situational awareness

July 31, 2018 08:30 ET | Source: Amalgam Insights

BOSTON, July 31, 2018 — It turns out that the traits common to the best salespeople aren’t necessarily innate; research indicates they can be scientifically coached to be top producers. A new report, issued today from Amalgam Insights, evaluates the technology vendors who are leading the industry in optimizing this kind of training.

Todd Maddox, the most-cited researcher in corporate learning and Learning Science Research Fellow at Amalgam Insights, authored this report. This research uniquely identifies learning science approaches of optimizing sales training, which Maddox says requires a combination of effective sales enablement, people skills, and situational awareness.

The companies recognized in this research are (in alphabetical order): Allego, Brainshark, CrossKnowledge, Gameffective, Highspot, JOYai, Lessonly, Mindtickle, Qstream, myTrailhead, Seismic, and Showpad.

“Companies are continually looking for a competitive edge; leveraging technology to develop a top-tier sales force is a key area for improvement,” Maddox says. “If you want sales enablement and training tools that are highly effective, they must be grounded in learning science – the marriage of psychology and brain science. Many sales teams and sales-focused vendors have access to these tools. What is needed is an effective way to leverage these tools to maximum advantage,” he added.

Maddox’s report notes that successful companies work to map sales processes to three distinct learning systems in the brain:

  • The cognitive skills learning system is about knowing facts (the “what”) and is directly linked to sales enablement;
  • The behavioral skills learning system is about behavior (the “how”) and is directly linked to people skills training; and
  • The emotional learning system, which is about “reading” people and situations (the “feel”) and is directly linked to situational awareness.

“When these three traits are combined, salespeople become far more effective in understanding both the tangible and intangible needs of their customers and can craft and deliver solutions that continually produce solid results for their companies,” Maddox said.

Maddox’s report, “2018’s Best Sales Enablement Solutions for Building Better Sales Brains,” is available for Sales VPs, Directors, and Managers at www.amalgaminsights.com.

About Amalgam Insights:
Amalgam Insights (www.amalgaminsights.com) is a consulting and strategy firm focused on the transformative value of Technology Consumption Management. AI believes that all businesses must fundamentally reimagine their approach to data, design, cognitive augmentation, pricing, and technology usage to remain competitive. AI provides marketing and strategic support to enterprises, vendors, and institutional investors for conducting due diligence in Technology Consumption Management.

For more information:
Hyoun Park
Amalgam Insights
hyoun@amalgaminsights.com
415.754.9686

Steve Friedberg
MMI Communications
steve@mmicomm.com
484.550.2900

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AMALGAM INSIGHTS MEDIA ALERT: Starbucks is closing its stores. Is It Enough?

Amalgam Insights Logo

For release 830am May 28, 2018

For more information:

Hyoun Park Steve Friedberg
Amalgam Insights MMI Communications
hyoun@amalgaminsights.com steve@amalgaminsights.com
415.754.9686 484.550.2900

AMALGAM INSIGHTS MEDIA ALERT:  Starbucks is closing its stores and doing awareness training for all of its employees this week.  Learning researcher asks, “Is it enough?”

WHAT:  Starbucks says it’s closing its 8,000 stores tomorrow, May 29, for what it calls “a conversation and learning session on race, bias and the building of a diverse welcoming company.”

Todd Maddox, Ph.D., an Amalgam Insights Learning Scientist/Research Fellow, applauds the company’s commitment to ongoing training, saying that approach may work, but warns that unless the training is continuous, Starbucks runs the risk of backsliding:

“My hope is that the company utilizes training content that focuses on true behavior change, as opposed to simply teaching people to identify inappropriate behavior. I also hope that Starbucks goes beyond training during the onboarding process, and incorporates it as a regular, ongoing part of employee training. The brain is hardwired to forget and requires refreshers to consolidate information in long-term memory.


“Just as sexual harassment prevention and many other people skills are about behavior, so is unconscious (racial) bias and all other aspects of appropriate interaction. People skills matter in all facets of society and corporate life. It is time to embrace the science of learning and work to address these shortcomings with effective training.”

 

WHO:  Todd Maddox, Ph.D. has more than 200 published articles, 10,000 citings, and $10 million in external research funding in his 25+ years researching the brain basis of behavior.  He’s been quoted in Forbes, CBS Radio, Training Journal, Chief Learning Officer, and other publications on topics such as the use of virtual reality in workplace sexual harassment avoidance training.

 

Todd’s available for comment on this or other topics; if you’d like to speak with him, please contact steve@amalgaminsights.com.