Leading Edge Articles

Showing 21 to 25 of 54 results

Drowning people can't learn to swim: the need for space to learn

Andrew Badham - 2019-02-08 15:22:28

I once watched a man give a talk on learning new languages, a task famously hard for English first-language speakers. He surprised me with a simple question: “Why do some people never learn the language of a country, even when they have moved there years before?” It was a question that surprised me simply because I used to believe that moving to a country was the best way to learn the language. The answer he proposed to his rhetorical question was this: “Because a dro... Read more

A guide for doing things you'd rather not be doing

Andrew Badham - 2019-01-18 15:53:54

Do you ever feel like going for a run? I don’t mean you felt guilty about that fourth doughnut and now you think a jog might absolve you. I mean you actually felt like running would be a fun idea. For the few people who have had that feeling, you will know two things about it: one, it’s quite rare; two it’s short-lived. Even if running seemed like a great idea when you started, and the first kilometre flew by in what felt like a celebration of athleticism, your feelin... Read more

Why you lose your cool in the heat

Andrew Badham - 2018-12-06 15:02:33

It’s getting hot, uncomfortably hot, and as the temperature rises, you might find your temperament changing with it. Chances are, you’re probably feeling a bit more on edge, a little more agitated, perhaps even a little aggressive. Of course, so is everyone else. After all, they’re baking in the same nationwide sauna as you are; a sauna which is only set to get worse as summer marches on and climate change fuels it on. Of course, it might not be the heat that is short... Read more

Why you need a beautiful office

Andrew Badham - 2018-12-03 12:08:19

Of all the reasons to feel blue walking into an office on a Monday morning, the colour of your office was probably not the first to come to mind. You’d far sooner attribute your discomfort to office politics before referencing the lack of pretty pictures on the wall. Nevertheless, you’d probably choose a beautiful office over a purely functional one, if given the chance. Is that choice purely superficial? Is there any practical reason we might prefer one environment to anot... Read more

The importance of immediate action, even when it's a scary convo with your boss

Andrew Badham - 2018-11-21 11:38:04

There’s a simple question I like to ask students at the end of a class, “What’s one action you’ll do tomorrow to move towards your goal?” It seems like a mundane question, but it’s rather important. When people decide to make a change but fail to take any substantive actions to effect that change, they might actually further entrench their old behaviours, according to The JournaI of Personality and Social Psychology. For example, if you decided to be less la... Read more