What would you like to learn this year? 5 inspiring ideas from our team

Written by
Marta Lima, Employer Branding Specialist
Learning Wellbeing
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At the start of a new year, most people get a boost of motivation to set new goals and resolutions, and that often involves learning something new. Have you already set your learning goals for this year?

Learning something new equips you with more tools for the future and improves your confidence and wellbeing. If you think about the most successful people you know, you’ll see they are the ones who constantly strive to learn more about each subject or practice new skills. It is one of the best ways to exercise the mind, discover hidden talents and, to grow your knowledge about the world.

At Emergn, we don’t just advocate for continuous learning as the best way to develop our people, and internal culture and ultimately to deliver value; we live it. We encourage and develop a Discovery Mindset, where we challenge ourselves to be curious about everything we do to find new and better ways of working. Only that way we can work towards continuous learning and incremental results. Our learning culture is one of the things we are most proud of – we work with our people to develop a learning plan, focused on the areas they want to deepen their expertise.  

If you need inspiration to draw your learning goals, you have come to the right place. We asked some of our team members what they would like to learn this year, and these were their top answers.

Artificial Intelligence platforms and tools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms and tools are now part of our daily lives, making tasks easier and faster. Whether asking Google for directions or reaching out for support to a chatbot, AI impacts our lives in an unmeasurable number of ways.

At the workplace, AI tools help us make better decisions, manage our time more efficiently and communicate more effectively with teams and clients. For example, AI can provide us with quicker and more accurate information than we are able to process on our own.

It’s no wonder it is the top learning goal for our employees this year across a diversity of departments.

One of my main goals for this year is to learn more about AI platforms and tools that can support the growth of the marketing and product functions at Emergn because these have the potential to improve both the efficiency of the team and the quality of the work.

Ryan Arshad, Chief Strategy Officer

This year, I’m learning about ChatGPT and how we can use it to build better learning content and to help learners test their own knowledge and enhance their knowledge retention.

Steven Angelo-Eadie, Head of Learning Services

Generative machine learning models have become a popular topic in the last year: ChatGPT for text and DALL-E/stable diffusion for images. The technology has been well known in data science for a while, but providing insights and use cases for us and our clients about the capabilities and limits of this technology will be one of the highlights of the next year.

Muntis Rudzitis, Lead Data Scientist

Mindful hobbies

One of the best ways to make the most out of your spare time is to pursue a mindful hobby. This hobby should require focus and allow you to be present in your activity without distractions from the day-to-day routine or work. It could be taking walks, reading, meditating, painting, and many other things – the important part is that it gives you a chance to calm your mind after a stressful day and recharge it for the next.  It also improves your mental health and can impact your work: when you’re feeling blocked or out of focus, they help boost your creativity and concentration.

I have started to do some Macrame art, and I intend to improve this technique as well as go a little deeper into caring for plants, which seem to me to be two very mindful activities to take away the normal stress of work.

Paulina Fonseca, Product Design Practice Lead

I would like to improve my drawing skills, to go beyond the observation drawing I already have and go deeper into illustration and more imaginative drawing. Arts fulfils me so much, and drawing helps me think and relax.

Marta Pinto, Learning & Development Manager

New Sports

It’s no secret that moving your body is a key ingredient to a healthy life. But it also has many benefits for your mind – did you ever feel in an extremely good mood after exercising? Exercise is a simple way to boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem while also reducing stress. It might be the perfect activity for you to reset after a long day of work.

This year I’ll begin criterium racing, so I’ll be focused on learning to improve my bike handling skills in large packs of people at high speed.

Steven Angelo-Eadie, Head of Learning Services

I started something called Aerial Yoga, and this year, I’d like to learn how to reach more advanced poses because it helps me a lot with my balance, physical strength, and mental health.

Elma Pasic, Senior Consultant

Second Language

Learning a second (third or fourth) language gives you the opportunity to connect with different cultures and learn more about the world. Teams are worldwide, and so are career opportunities. Learning a new language gives you a chance to explore these opportunities and connect with the people you cross paths with on a deeper level.

Learning a new language also improves your performance in other areas – it strengthens your memory and focus, enhances your availability to multitask, and makes it easier for you to retain more knowledge.

Our global team is spread across more than 12 countries, so learning more about the culture and language of our teammates is always a good opportunity to build stronger relationships. 

I am trying to learn Portuguese via Duolingo and Latvian via Mondly. I am fast discovering that these apps don’t replace actually speaking to people or hearing real conversations, so I am going to try out Slow News to help with that. But I suspect that the gamification of learning is what keeps me going – and Duolingo is winning on that front.

Gillian Barnes, Business Analysis Practice Lead

Learning from your team

Being open to learning from your colleagues or friends will enrich your knowledge in an entirely different way. The mix of backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge often brings some of the most original ideas to life. Another good way to learn is by seeking mentorship with a colleague, a superior, or someone you admire – some of your challenges are likely the same, and they might have valuable lessons to share with you for a better solution.

With the new challenge of navigating the Product Design Practice boat, I feel that I have a lot to learn, both from the people who make up this team as well as from other Practice Leads, absorbing their experiences and knowledge. I’d really like to learn more about helping people progress professionally, and how to guide them, so I’ve also been investing in the literature about that topic.

Paulina Fonseca, Product Design Practice Lead

These are some of the ideas shared by our team, but there is a whole world of skills and hobbies you can explore to enrich your life.

The key is to find something you truly enjoy doing in the way you like to learn. If you lack attention when watching a webinar, online classes are most likely not the best option for you to learn a new skill, but gamification and quiz apps might be the way. Joining expert communities, seeking mentorship within your team, e-learning platforms, books, and audiobooks are other great options for you to start. Choose the one that best suits you and challenge yourself to learn something new!

If you enjoyed reading about our suggestions, keep an eye on our Careers Blog – to learn about a variety of topics from employee experiences to company events, stories and webinars, and career and development suggestions.

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