28 Super Simple Things You Can Do to Be Happier [Infographic]

28 Super Simple Things You Can Do to Be Happier [Infographic] Sometimes in our daily life, small annoyances and irritations can build up and begin to affect your day to day mood, health and general well-being. It is so easy to get content with our day to day life, but there are always things we can do to improve our well-being and happiness. This infographic by MyBreast outlines 28 simple things you can do every day to improve your happiness, from things as simple as sending an email to an old friend to celebrate small success with people you care about. You could even turn this into a 28 days challenge to improve your life. By the end of 28 days, you should look back and see how much impact small positive things can have over your well-being and happiness. [Source: Mybreast]

Free Essays on William The Conqueror

During a visit in 1051 to his childless cousin, Edward the Confessor, king of England, William is said to have obtained Edward's agreement that he should succeed to the English throne. In 1053, defying a papal ban, William married Matilda of Flanders, daughter of Baldwin V, count of Flanders and a descendant of King Alfred the Great, thereby strengthening his claim to the crown of England. Henry I, fearing the strong bond between Normandy and Flanders resulting from the marriage, attempted in 1054 and again in 1058 to crush the powerful duke, but on both occasions William defeated the French king's forces. Conquest of England About 1064, the powerful English noble, Harold, earl of Wessex, was shipwrecked on the Norman coast and taken prisoner by William. He secured his release by swearing to support William's claim to the English throne. When King Edward died, however, the witenagemot (royal council) elected Harold king. Determined to make good his claim, William secured the sanction of Pope Alexander II for a Norman invasion of England. The duke and his army landed at Pevensey on September 28, 1066. On October 14, the Normans defeated the English forces at the celebrated Battle of Hastings, in which Harold was slain. William then proceeded to London, crushing the resistance he encountered on the way. On Christmas Day he was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey. The English did not accept foreign rule without a struggle. William met the opposition, which was particularly violent in the north and west, with strong measures; he was responsible for the devastation of great areas of the country, particularly in Yorkshire, where Danish forces had arrived to aid the Saxon rebels. By 1070 the Norman conquest of England was complete. William invaded Scotland in 1072 and forced the Scottish king Malcolm III MacDuncan to pay him homage. During the succeeding years the Conqueror crushed insurrections among his Norman followers, includ... Free Essays on William The Conqueror Free Essays on William The Conqueror During a visit in 1051 to his childless cousin, Edward the Confessor, king of England, William is said to have obtained Edward's agreement that he should succeed to the English throne. In 1053, defying a papal ban, William married Matilda of Flanders, daughter of Baldwin V, count of Flanders and a descendant of King Alfred the Great, thereby strengthening his claim to the crown of England. Henry I, fearing the strong bond between Normandy and Flanders resulting from the marriage, attempted in 1054 and again in 1058 to crush the powerful duke, but on both occasions William defeated the French king's forces. Conquest of England About 1064, the powerful English noble, Harold, earl of Wessex, was shipwrecked on the Norman coast and taken prisoner by William. He secured his release by swearing to support William's claim to the English throne. When King Edward died, however, the witenagemot (royal council) elected Harold king. Determined to make good his claim, William secured the sanction of Pope Alexander II for a Norman invasion of England. The duke and his army landed at Pevensey on September 28, 1066. On October 14, the Normans defeated the English forces at the celebrated Battle of Hastings, in which Harold was slain. William then proceeded to London, crushing the resistance he encountered on the way. On Christmas Day he was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey. The English did not accept foreign rule without a struggle. William met the opposition, which was particularly violent in the north and west, with strong measures; he was responsible for the devastation of great areas of the country, particularly in Yorkshire, where Danish forces had arrived to aid the Saxon rebels. By 1070 the Norman conquest of England was complete. William invaded Scotland in 1072 and forced the Scottish king Malcolm III MacDuncan to pay him homage. During the succeeding years the Conqueror crushed insurrections among his Norman followers, includ...

Obaid Al Slamis Career Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Obaid Al Slamis Career - Assignment Example Mr. Slami has a complete career in the banking sector and he started off as an assistant general manager. In the initial years of his career, he was a bit confused and sidetracked about the type of job to do in order to focus on one career. This can be inferred from the fact that first, he started off as a part-time as an assistant manager and then he changed his line to teaching accounting for about a good three years. This can also be stated as a positive aspect that the individual had a deep insight about the technical know-how through his experience as a part-time. The second added benefit is that he also had a good amount of knowledge about the facts and figures pertaining to the area of accounting through his teaching career. Mr. Slami is also somebody who has a pretty good knowledge of how different types of banks function because throughout his career he switched to many various types of banks. He has the experience of about three different banks. He has even worked as an auditor and finally ended up being the General Manager in an investment bank. Career development is a complete procedure of how an individual takes up a different variety of tasks, and roles to develop a set line of skills and experience. A career in terms of jobs is committing, yourself to a role physically and emotionally for a certain period of time. This time period is helpful in gaining an insight of the tasks carried out at a particular job and human developmental training. For this purpose, it is highly essential that the individual is focused, carrier oriented and be moving towards a level of self-actualization. The person mentioned in the resume takes the career as a structured pattern of activities that tend to create a path in one direction focused on one field of interest.  

A clinical incident Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

A clinical incident - Essay Example Mr. Halliday who had just undergone surgery for gastric carcinoma under general anaesthesia had respiratory distress during my posting in the post operative room. The anaesthetist advised tracheostomy. Immediately my senior whom I had assisted twice already in the procedure and observed it being done by her many times, posted me to the duty of assisting the anaesthetist to do it. I had half an hour to prepare myself, the patient and the family for the procedure. The moment that I learned that I had been posted, I felt a little shaky. Could I go through with it? It was my first participation in a tracheostomy. The senior boosted my confidence and told me she would be around if assistance was needed. First I ensured the availability of the emergency tracheostomy kit. I had to speak to the patient and his family of wife and son about the procedure and its outcome. The patient himself was a little hazy from the anaesthesia of surgery. The wife and son were easily convinced but they wanted to know whether it is just for now or long term. Informing them that it has been intended for a short duration now and is being done for controlling the secretions, I felt pleased that things had started off smoothly. Checking the list that is used for the packing of instruments and other equipment for the emergency tracheostomy during preparation for autoclaving, I felt everything needed had been ready. The outer tube, the snugly fitting inner tube, the flange which lies against the patient’s chest and the 15mm termination which fits all ventilators and respiratory equipment were the main components necessary (Tracheostomy care working group, 2000). The optional parts were the cuff which helps fix the tube in position, the air inlet valve which prevents the escape of air, the air inlet line which would allow air to move from the air inlet valve to the cuff and the pilot cuff which is an indicator of the amount of air in the cuff (Tracheostomy care working group,

The Case of the Off-Rhythm Bongo Player Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Case of the Off-Rhythm Bongo Player - Essay Example As explained by Jason Bardi reports from the Scripps Institute, "calcium is a second messenger and regulates many different intracellular processes, including gene expression within cells." (Bardi, 2004) and "the transfer or spread of this excitability to a neuronal network, manifested as electro-graphic and clinical seizures, occurs via synaptic transmission." (Wellmer J, Su H, Beck H, Yaari Y and Eur J Neurosci, 2002) The effect on ion channels and effect on threshold are distinctive in the sense that "native calcium channels have been classified by both their electrophysiological and pharmacological properties and are generally divided into low-threshold (T-types) and high threshold (L-, N-, P/Q- and R-types). The L-, N-, P/Q- and R-type channels typically activate at membrane potentials near -30 mV and display diverse kinetic, voltage-dependent and pharmacological properties.1 The availability of specific pharmacological agents targeting the high threshold channels has permitted elucidation of many of their physiological functions. The T-type calcium channels describe a class of molecules that transiently activate at relatively negative potentials (-60 mV) and for which a general lack of high-affinity selective blockers has made their exact physiological contributions lag behind those of the high-voltage activated isoforms" (Snutch, 2005) The effect on Bado's muscles including the aching, twitching and tingling fingers is based on how the calcium mediates constriction and relaxation of blood vessels. This includes those excitable cells which controls the nerve impulses like those occurring in his twitching fingers. More definitively explained by Jane Higdon of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon University, calcium plays a role in mediating the constriction and relaxation of blood vessels (vasoconstriction and vasodilation), nerve impulse transmission, muscle contraction, and the secretion of hormones, such as insulin. Excitable cells, such as skeletal muscle and nerve cells, contain voltage-dependent calcium channels in their cell membranes that allow for rapid changes in calcium concentrations. For example, when a muscle fiber receives a nerve impulse that stimulates it to contract, calcium channels in the cell membrane open to allow a few calcium ions into the muscle cell. These calcium ions bind to activator proteins within the cell that release a flood of calcium ions from storage vesicles inside the cell. The binding of calcium to the protein, troponin-c, initiates a series of steps that lead to muscle contraction. The binding of calcium to the protein, calmodulin, activates enzymes that breakdown muscle glycogen to provide energy for muscle contraction. (Higdon, 2003) As explained in the following afflictions, cell excitability and effects on the skeletal muscle are discussed: a) Hyperkalemia: "In acute hyperkalemia, the ratio of intracellular to extracellular K+ is decreased. The gap between the resting membrane potential to the excitability threshold is decreased and the nerve conduction is initiated more easily. If this continues it progresses to weakness of muscles. Gradual hyperkalemia, as in

Using Enterprise Gamification For Improving Business Essay

Using Enterprise Gamification For Improving Business Essay Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging. (Gamification Wiki, 2012) Though a relatively new field, gamification has been used in a variety of applications albeit in a simpler manner, from driving customer loyalty through loyalty points to improving employee engagement within the workforce using titles such as Employee of the Month The latter is an example of enterprise gamification wherein enterprises use gamified systems to bring about internal change. However most such systems are currently heavily simplified and extrinsically focused, only looking to reward employees with badges, which leads to the danger of reducing the employees intrinsic motivations. Also, many of the enterprise gamification platforms have only been designed for use in the developed world and hence the need to explore how these might differ for an Indian audience with its different set of motivations and appeal to them. Taking these into account, this paper looks to explore how gamification works and what are the underlying psychological factors and how Indian enterprises can use it in their employee development process. The findings would lead to a proposed enterprise gamified framework for improving workplace motivations and the performance appraisal process currently being practiced in Indian organizations. Lastly we look at the possible limitations of having such a system in place at the enterprise level and explore areas of further development for future research. Introduction A common definition of gamification is the application of game elements in non game contexts (Deterding, 2011) At the heart of gamification is the objective of getting the desired behavioral response by appealing to the players motivations. A repeatedly used approach is to use the scoring elements used in video games and use them in a different context. Though the term is relatively new, this concept has been in application for centuries in the form of frequent flyer loyalty programs for customers, enterprise leader boards in the sales and customer care divisions. However, in recent years the concept has gradually seen an increasing no. of applications within the enterprise. Some of the examples are listed below Intranet The SAP community network is an internally used community network (intranet) where leader boards for domain experts in every domain is maintained Productivity Enhancement Call centers are using gamification techniques to improve representative performance by making use of leaderboards, levels, virtual badges and immediate feedback. The danger could be that it could be used as a tool to constantly monitor and pressurizing them. Efficiency Enhancement Efficiency enhancement is about improving general skill level of employees and not just the work related to their job. Helping employees deal with their emails is an example. Companies use gamification elements such as progress bars, virtual points and feedback on time spent for emails to help them deal with this. Seriosity is another company that has created a virtual currency around the emails. This helps employees decide which mails to deal with first and decide the urgency of the emails they are sending out to other employees. Knowledge Management Application called WhoWhatWhere is an enterprise collaboration system where consultants are encouraged to share information about what they are working on thereby making it easier for consultants working on similar projects to get in touch with them and seek help Innovation The UK Dept of Works Pension created the Ideastreet, essentially seen as a trading platform for ideas. Employees put forward ideas which have a inherent stock listed price associated with them. Other employees have the option of buying or selling these stocks so that a few of the ideas have a much higher market cap than the others. This has proved to be a well performing solution, with the no. of new ideas being implemented increasing by the tune of 54%. Recruiting and Onboarding Gamification is also being used for recruitment for certain managerial positions using online simulation games that depict real life scenarios and test the decision making skills of the players. This competition leads to a pool of best players who are then considered as potential candidates for the company. All the above mentioned examples of enterprise gamification and gamified systems in general, can be broadly classified according to what user motivations they cater to, which could be intrinsic or extrinsic motivations. The concern with gamified systems that are heavily extrinsically focused such as the one currently employed in call centers, is the long term negative impact that most organizations are not aware of. This is something that shall be addressed in detail in subsequent sections in this paper. Organisations that offer gamification platforms for employee engagement are growing in developed countries. Bunchball is currently one of the biggest which offers Nitro as a plugin gamification application to Salesforce. The Indian enterprise market however, is currently largely untapped and presents huge opportunities for the same. Most Indian employees find the current performance appraisal systems in most organizations highly inefficient and unsatisfactory. The current efforts of the HR professionals to improve employee seem to fall short with workplace morale and productivity running lower than desired. Taking these factors into consideration, this paper looks to propose an enterprise gamification model for improving intrinsic workplace motivations and the performance appraisal systems currently in place in Indian organizations. Theoretical Background What are Games? A formal broad definition applicable to all forms of games proposed by Zimmermann Salen, 2003 says that A game is a system in which players engage in artificial conflict, defined by rules, which result in a quantifiable outcome. However, what this definition lacks is the notion of a feedback system. The feedback system can take the form of points, levels, progress bars and serves to quantify the progress made by the user, how close/far the user is from the goal and provides motivation to keep on playing. In addition to this is the concept of voluntary participation. Be it indoor games such as monopoly, social games, alternate reality games to the most popular sports played today, voluntary participation requires that each one plays the game willingly, accepting the rules and goals of the system with the freedom to enter and leave the game whenever desired. This ensures that the artificially created challenging environment is not found threatening and can be experienced as a playful, safe and enjoyable activity. All these characteristics of the definition of a game are important and are modelled by Dignan in the figure below (Dignan, 2011): A definition of a game (Dignan, 2011) What makes Games so Engaging? Before we delve further, it is important to explore what is it about games that is so engaging and why it seems to be the answer to current workplace engagement and productivity issues according to us. An important research conducted by McGonigal to explore how playing games leads to human happiness has answers to this question. According to McGonigal (2011) studies have actually shown that people are at their happiest when doing hard work at the borders of their skill level. Only when people are continuously challenged according to their skill levels and continuously receive feedback on their work will they have a sustained engagement, otherwise they will end up getting bored.C:UsersmicaDesktopFlow.png This is also explained well by a central model for the appeal for video games the concept of flow. According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, people feel best when they are neither underchallenged nor overchallenged but at the right level of skills. And as people learn with time and repetition, challenges have to increase to keep up with growing skills. The research goes on to say that most of the traditionally considered relaxing activities such as watching TV, are actually mildly depressing. She argues that this is because companies often fail to continuously challenge employees at the right level in a structured way without giving them frequent feedback. In short, it goes on to proclaim that The Opposite of Work is not Play, it is Depression. Empirical studies also show how the responses that games elicit are very similar to real life emotions, if not the same. Even if the reward might be growing more crops in Farm Ville, the reward though purely fictitious elicits an emotional state that happens to be no different from a real life scenario. To summarize there are multiple dimensions to games that cater to different needs of the players and have been segregated as follows When it comes to the workplace, at a fundamental level we could conclude that the work in itself not the demotivating factor for workers in an organization. It is more so the lack of one or more of the above needs that results in a decrease in their morale over time. For example a rigid company structure could end up stifling the workers need for independence or autonomy. More so, the absence of a continuous challenge that gives employees an opportunity to master their skills and a more regular, robust feedback system that helps them figure where they stand is currently missing. A gamified system would serve the solution for this through continuous feedback on their current skill set and quantifying their scope of improvement. A choice provided to the user at various stages to set their own goals would mean that their need for autonomy is also served to. Throughout this paper, we would henceforth look at building a framework considering these factors. Using Games as a Form of Behavioural Change Dr. BJ Fogg of Stanford University developed a behavioural model which described three elements Motivation, Ability and Trigger that are necessary for behavioural change to occur. In essence, the greater the user motivation, more the probability of hard to do abilities being performed. Similarly if the motivation for the user is very low, the ability demanded to perform the task must be also very low ie easy to do. C:UsersmicaDesktopFogg.png Even when both motivation and ability are sufficiently high to reach the threshold, a trigger becomes necessary to be able to change the user behaviour. The model is intended to help designers identify what stops people from performing the intended behaviour. Game elements go a long way in incorporating this model to change user behavior in the following manner 1. Game dynamics use positive feedbacks in the form of points, scores, progress, social status etc which help in improving user motivation. 2. Through training and master of skills, they increase the perceived ability of users by making difficult jobs simpler and more manageable. 3. Game dynamics place triggers in the path of motivated users at the optimal level of user ability to trigger a behavioural change. Gamification for Motivational Design At the core of the gamification system is tapping into the right motivational factors that drive users. Since the motivators vary for different people, game systems needs to be customized accordingly. Broadly speaking, motivators can be divided into extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. Extrinsic motivators are driven by external rewards such as the desire for power and status. Intrinsic motivators are driven by the inherent joy of doing the task itself instead of using any external reward mechanisms. Such motivators at the workplace might include autonomy, mastery, curiosity and feeling connected to the overall cause of the company. Traditionally, most enterprises have essentially made use of extrinsic motivators to motivate employees and enhance productivity. But studies show that excessive focus on external rewards results in users losing their intrinsic motivation to perform the task that previously existed, which is not in the best interests of the user itself. If the organization starts using gamification based upon external rewards and then stops the rewards program, it will be worse off than when it started as users will be less likely to return to the behavior without the external reward (Deci, Koestner Ryan, 2001). Good gamification practise however emphasizes on intrinsic motivators to help them succeed in work life. Hence the concept of meaningful gamification takes it a level further through gamified designs, with the user at its centre, appealing to his/her intrinsic motivations and with a focus on providing user benefits without any adverse effects in the long run. Reiss Sixteen Motivators (2001) Despite the many theories in the field, few are based on actual scientific research. One of them was Steven Reiss who in his book Who am I comes up with 16 categories of motivators which are collected in a statistical manner using which he tries to explain human behaviour. Among the 16 we found only 11 categories to be relevant to the workplace as the rest were found to be related to basic physical needs such as consuming eating which is outside our scope. The 11 categories are presented below with a brief description of their desire profile and segregated into intrinsic and extrinsic motivators accordingly: The dominant motivators among this list would be different for the various profile segments, hence research would be necessary to figure out the most important motivators at work for Indian employees which will form the core of the gamification framework to be designed. Research Methodology A quantitative approach was adopted by means of a survey to capture the relative importance of the 11 Reiss motivators found to influence human behavior in a workplace environment. The sample size for the survey was 36 individuals working in different organizations across India. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of the motivators for them on a Likert Scale. After their responses were captured, a regression was run to establish a relationship between the respondents levels of motivation in a workplace and the various motivators. The relative importance of the motivators was then established by comparing their standardized coefficients. The process then led us to the motivators that were considered most important by Indian employees in the context of a workplace environment. C:UsersmicaDesktopTempg.png Research Methodology Process Leading to the Gamified Framework These dominant workplace motivators and barriers to adoption insights would then be used to design the appropriate game mechanics and come up with the final gamified system as shown in the figure above. Findings Analyzing the results of the survey showed us that Indian Employees are motivated by factors such as curiosity, independence,social contact status and not factors such as competition or power. This implies that the gamification structure that is created needs to have game layers that focuses on group tasks and freedom of players involved in the game. The game layers also need to emphasize on increasing ability since curiosityis an important motivator for Indian employees. On the basis of the results obtained we make the approach to design a gamified framework. Since there currently does not exist a fixed method of developing a gamified system we have given our recommendations based on these results and the theoretical construct described above. Choosing the Right Game Mechanics The biggest problem with todays workplace is the absence of any structured goals that provide an optimal challenge, real time feedback of ones own performance and how the contribution has an impact at an organizational level. In this context game mechanics serve the purpose of increasing either ability or motivation to accomplish the desired behaviour for the employees through real time feedback in the form of points, progress bars etc and other components. Since the major motivators in the Indian workplace context have been found to be curiosity, social contact status and independence/autonomy, care must be taken to see that different game mechanics are in place to cater to these motivations. Hence the following proposition consisting of three different features that serve a different purpose, appropriate mechanisms would be used 1. Personal Efficiency Model For Curiosity Autonomy Motivators To-do lists and progress bar map to track the employees personal goals such as time management, emails cleared, level of project completed etc both to increase ability and motivation. This is done by assigning progress to create incentives for players to complete goals they set for themselves. A sample diagram depicting the same is as given below C:UsersmicaDesktopPicture1.png Sample Visual Map of Individually Set Goals and Status of Completion To cater to the employees motivation for curiosity, a set of interactive quizzes and challenges of different levels testing his/her knowledge in the domain would be necessary. The levels would be of adaptable difficulty (such as in GMAT exams), based on the performance of the worker in the previous level. Customisation components to choose personal goals in different competency areas. This provides workers with a feeling of independence and autonomy. 2. Online Stock Market Model For Status and Social Contact Idea Resource A game where individuals come up with innovative ideas in their domain which are listed on the virtual stock exchange. Employees can now buy/sell these ideas using in game currency so that each idea now has a market cap too. Resource Management using in-game currency as extrinsic rewards for good idea suggestions 3. Peer Recognition and Social Features For Social Contact and Status Community features to encourage unexpected positive feedback from peers and improve motivation when individual contribution levels have reached. A similar interface to elicit positive peer feedback on a software called Rypple is shown in the figure. Social Badges to cater to the players need for appreciation from colleagues and flaunt their status C:UsersmicaDesktopwork.jpg Social Recognition Feature Employed on Rypple.com Designing a Gamification Framework There are three major frameworks and models included in this paper for the purpose of coming up with a gamification framework. There are Dignans Game Frame which describes all the necessary components of a behavioural game (Dignan, 2011), Dr. Reiss Sixteen motivators which describes what motivates the player (Reiss, 2001) and lastly Dr. Foggs Behaviour model which examines how a new behaviour is realised (Fogg, 2011). Dignan describes a behavioural game as made up by ten components which together design the framework Game Frame (Dignan, 2011). The Game Frame allows the designer to look at any behavioural game from the top down, understand its essential parts and see how they together make up a game. In this paper, Dignans Game Frame is used as a structure to describe the situation. This structure needs to be filled with information based on our research. However, to design how the game is played and the available tools for the players, one needs to know what kind of behaviour that is intended (outcome). Before designing how it is played, what currently inhibits the intended behaviour (the obstacles) were investigated from the survey results. The characteristics of these obstacles are then categorised in terms of lack of ability or motivation with Dr. Foggs behavioural model to investigate what kinds of mechanics that will be most efficient to promote the new behaviour. We now take each element of the Dignans frame to explain the overall gamification framework for our system. The Objective and Activity The objectives of this recommended gamified framework will be to encourage employee innovation at the workplace, improve the intrinsic motivation of the employee in alignment with the organizational objectives and to put in place a more robust performance feedback system. Reinforce good habits and real-time recognition and rewards. Recognize achievement publicly or give real rewards in the discount coupons. The main activities of the game will involve entering logs, giving feedback to peers and/or submitting ideas apart from setting custom goals. The Player Profile Based on the results that we obtained using our research, an attempt was made to create a profile for players involved in the system i.e. Indian employees. Since curiosity, status, Independence and social contact proved to be the most important indicators, certain inferences were drawn about the behavior of Indian Employees: Peer recognition and appreciation by fellow employees were significant Learning and development of new skills acts as a powerful motivator Employees remain driven if given the freedom to decide their own goals and pace to achieve those goals Team activities or tasks that involved the organization as a whole generates a lot of interest . Outcomes The last frame in Dignans game frame is the outcomes that are generated along the way of the game. The short-term outcomes should primarily be to get individual feedback on everyday activities at work. The long-term outcomes are to get a clearer picture of the career progress, improve employee morale through feedback. The outcomes of the game are to receive immediate individual feedback about the organizational impact of their contributions and to visualize the career progress. Defining the Feedback Cycle A significant feedback would be in the form of the community-like feature where employees can give feedback on each others personal goal statuses. The motivational factor will be increased by community-driven feedback and intangible rewards. These rewards should be in terms of in-game currency, and badges for reaching a certain personal achievement. One important part of the competence model is that the employees estimate their own performance. In terms of the feedback, this means that the employees need to estimate the value of their own performances in this system as well. Hence, when logging an activity, the employee needs to estimate how valuable that particular action is. Defining Resources and Skills Resources are the drivers of game using which a player moves forward within a game. The resources in the stock based platform for ideas is the virtual currency that players are allotted to buy/sell. Since the currency allotted to players is limited, players must ensure that they allocate it judiciously for ideas that they think will work best. In case of the Gamified feedback system, resources are the badges and points that act as motivators and used to display appreciation for ones efforts. Skills are specialized abilities one that puts to use in a behavioral game and can be categorized as physical, mental and social. Our gamified set up requires players to use their mental skills for generation of ideas and continuous learning and social skills that help individuals get their ideas to be popular and well traded. Triggers Certain activities work very well as triggers. For example simple activities like sending notifications to employees that tell him of his weekly performance in a domain vis-Ã  -vis another employee who is working in a similar domain could act a trigger for the employee .Notifications could also tell the employee of his weekly performance over his/her last weeks performance .The direct comparison is such cases could help employees set the pace for the rest of the week. Transparency Should an employees performance be revealed to other employees? It is a question that needs serious consideration. Often employees do not like the comparison that comes with the sharing of another employees progress and such comparisons could prove to be fatal. An example would be a gamification system based on leader boards employed by Disney for its laundry workers. The real time sharing of information about a workers performance and the continuous comparisons hampered employee performance and created a sense of nervousness amongst employees. On the other hand sharing information is an integral part of the feedback mechanism that allows one to comment and receive feedback on ones progress.A possible solution to the problem would be to let the employee decide by giving him the choice to reveal his/her personal information to whomsoever they want. System Limitations The suggested gamification system has its own strengths and weaknesses. One of the most obvious thing that needs to be ensured is long term engagement. Gamified setups are designed to achieve both short term and long term objectives and therefore needs to be continuously developed and maintained to ensure that players dont get bored. Emphasis must lie on increasing ability of the players and changing the motivational elements within the structure which involves bringing in new game elements and tweaking existing game mechanics Another limitation of a stock market like setup for Ideas is that there comes a time when stocks might be traded due to their association with people and not with ideas. There is an inherent danger of the system becoming a personality driven platform rather than a platform being idea driven. The other danger which has already been mentioned is that of a player getting too involved in the game and restricting his concerns to achieving a higher stock price for the ideas selected by him/her and not the ones that can bring a change. Finally there is the question of participation. Games require voluntary participation from all its players. A platform meant merely for ideas that does not fall within the purview of an employees personal responsibility may not encourage players to voluntarily participate. Employees may however be encouraged by their superiors to part of such a set up but this runs the risk of an employee engaging in the system with not much interest. Any social game requires participation and lack of interest to participate can prove detrimental to the setup. Ideas of System Future Potential and Further Development Even if the suggested game layer attempts to promote each activity by adding motivational elements, a big focus on increased ability has permeated the selection and design of the game mechanics. To achieve a greater impact, organizational elements at the workplace need to be included in the system so that in-game rewards have a clear connection to the consultants career. One step in that direction would be to incorporate projects as part of the game layer. That would allow log entries to be linked to specific project entities and the connection between the system and what the consultant actually do will be clearer (instituting a more relevant feedback loop). It would also create a good way for project leaders and management to give feedback. The down side, and the main reason that it is not proposed, is that it would bring an additional dimension, raising the commitment and time needed to use the system. There is also great potential in adding team based mechanics into the system. These could be project based teams or made up teams. There are many examples showing that the social component in team-based activities is a powerful way of affecting behavior. Dedication takes time but enables more ways to create relevant feedback loops, awards more strongly connected to the consultants professional situation, in-game currency that can be spent in various ways, team-based structure and challenges etc. It is all a question how deep the gamification system is allowed to permeate through the organisation. Another important aspect that needs to be considered before the implementation of a gamified system is to identify how it will impact the skill level of employees. Employee skills can be classified into -a) Core skills i.e. those skills that all employees in the organization are expected to have, b)Unique skills i.e. skills that are unique to an individual and c)Future skills i.e. skills that an employee would like to have in the future. A gamified set up works best in situations where employees can put to use their core skills to be part of a team-based activity for the greater organizational good or in situations where individuals can develop future skills as part of their personal responsibility. While it is imperative that organizations look closely towards data, employee behavior and organizational culture to create a gamification structure that can best support its objectives; it must take steps to ensure that an employee remains motivated to fulfill his responsibilities and does not get lost in the game.

I Will Use My God Given Talents in the Practice of Law Essay -- Law Co

I Will Use My God Given Talents in the Practice of law Given an understanding of the scarcity and importance of time and the fleeting nature of existence, time commitment decisions are among the most important choices that an individual has to make. I believe that time is a gift from God and it is up to individuals to make wise decisions regarding how they will invest the time that God has granted them. My perception of time dictates, to a degree, how I chose to use it. I believe that time is linear - there is a beginning and an end - God, the creator of time. For this reason, I strive to use my time wisely. One day I will be unable to live like I do now, so I believe that it is important to make the most of what time I have. However, I also perceive time to be a progression of cycles that God has set in motion. I need constant reminders of both my insignificance and my potential for changing the course of time. I believe that my existence is a small part in a much larger scheme that I'll never comprehend. The fact that I wake up in the morning is mind-boggling when I consider that I am no more deserving of life than the Southeast Asian child that dies of hunger or the elderly woman that dies alone in a cold, cavernous rest home. Time continues to perpetuate itself, but I have yet to be included in the endless cycle of deaths that paves the way for new births. My life is a precious gift from God; in many ways, I have no control over my future - a truth that I have accepted and use as a motivation to manage what time I have wisely. Furthermore, despite a fundamental lack of control of the inevitable, I believe that my time commitments do result in meaningful action. Though time may cycle, my actions and their cons... ...riendship showed me the true value of one-hour a week well spent. My part-time work in the UNC Computer Science Department has given me unparalleled first-hand training in the information technology field. I plan to go to law school in order to become and IT lawyer upon graduation' my work with computers has given me relevant exposure that will benefit me when I begin to practice law. Like the choices I made in high school and so far in college, my decision to pursue law school is rooted time. I am prepared to devote four years of my life to more studying and exams so t hat I may become an attorney. Law school will unquestionably be a commitment that affects my fast-approaching future; as a lawyer, I'll make numerous more decisions concerning time in an effort to uphold justice, preserve the American ideal, and hopefully make someone's life a little better.

Compare Education System Between the United Kingdom and Kurdistan Essay

One of the most important points for the development of society is education. Nowadays many countries try to develop the Education by there own rules, but this development process is intended for the System. This system varies from one country to the other. This essay demonstrates the educational system in Kurdistan and the United Kingdom, also marking aspects of differences and similarities between both of system. Main Body: Kurdistan, also known as the Kurdistan Region or Southern Kurdistan, is an autonomous region of northeastern Iraq (1). It’s still part of Iraq but they have many differences in Languages, clothes, culture and education system. So comparing the Kurdistan’s educational system with British educational showed some similarity and differences in some side. Both English and Kurdish schools are similar in having state and private schools. Also, students in both countries have to take exams to enter University. Then, Britain and Kurdistan are similar in that their school start in September and finish in July. Although, in advance primary school finishes earlier than secondary and high school in Kurdistan British children have to attend school from the age of 5 to 15. On the other hand, Kurdish children attend school from the age 6 to 18. The school time in Kurdistan and England are different in that student in Kurdistan school day start from Saturday to Thursday. Whereas, the English school start from Monday to Friday. Kurdish schools have two terms in year; in contrast the English school has a three terms a year. There are 2 time shift in Kurdish schools Morning start 08:00 to 11:40am, and evening start 12:30 to 04:15pm. However, in English schools there is one shift starts 09:00 to 03:30pm. There is no high school level in Britain; in contrast the Kurdish student goes to high school after passing in primary school. Conclusion: Finally, there are many differences between British educational and Kurdish educational system in school times, school ages, school days and school levels. Then some similarities have private and state school in both countries, and take exams to enter University. So both systems are created to be coordinated with the culture of each country.

John Donne essays

John Donne essays John Donnes The Sun Rising. Metaphysical love poetry such as John Donnes The Sun Rising has certain characteristic features. The frequent use of colloquial speech stresses the occasional quality of the poems in the sense, that they often seem to rise out of a specific occasion, and in some cases they even seem to be deliberately provocative. Further characteristics are the elaborate and innovative metaphysical metaphors, that deliberately distance the tenor from the vehicle, thus stressing the unusual and original by startling contrasts. Also intricate rhythmical patterns aim towards wit and originality. The love poetry often features a deliberate intellectualisation of emotional states (love); The lover becomes a logician instead of a suffering victim, and the poetry addresses the mind rather than the heart. Although metaphysical love poems acknowledge the poetic tradition of the renaissance - the Petrarchian love sonnet as a part of the courtly love tradition - it nevertheless represents a distinct break with that tradition according to form and content. Since I find it impossible to touch upon all of the above characteristics in a limited analysis like this one, the following aims to point to the ways, in which Donnes love poem treats a traditional theme in an innovative manner by turning the Petrarchian conceits up side down, creating instead a poetical universe that not only demands an imaginative effort on the part of the reader but also seems to challenge, provoke and transcend a well established literary tradition. Busy old fool, unruly sun/ Why dost thou thus/ Through windows and through curtains call on us?(ll.. 1-3). The opening lines of the first stanza of Donnes The Sun Rising are constructed in intricate, varying and abrupt rhythmical patterns that seem to mirror the speakers state of mind. In an emotional out...

One-Sided Friendship Essay Example

One One-Sided Friendship Paper One-Sided Friendship Paper Basadre, Danielle Ella Mae B. February 4, 2011 Neon-IV Draft # 2 Aim: To write a personal narrative essay One-Sided Friendship Ever since I was a little girl, I have had this best friend who is really unusual. But this friend of mine is amazing; he would take me to new places, new adventures. He opened a world of learning and entertainment. He showed me a lot of things and he makes sure that I’m always aware and updated in the latest happenings. And you know what’s even better? He is always there when I need him. He doesn’t ask for so much attention and being with him gives me comfort and warmth. But, little did I know, that this best friend would soon betray me and cause me suffering. If before he was a good influence, now, he was a distraction, and I seemed to be so drawn into his world, that I even ignored things that are really essential. So one day, when I was inside the house with him, my mother asked me to buy something. I was reluctant because I didn’t want to leave him. But then I had to obey; I went to the table to get the money beside the â€Å"fresh from the kettle tumbler† with c alamansi juice on it which had been prepared by my mom. Unfortunately, I accidentally knocked the tumbler over and the freshly boiled juice spilled onto my thigh. And all of this happened because I wasn’t giving my full attention to what I was doing; my attention was always on my bestfriend. I cried and I cried but he didn’t help me. My best friend had abandoned me. It really hurt when my thigh was burned. It was hard for me to move especially walk. It was really a traumatic and saddening experience for me. I’ve realized that this friendship of ours was not healthy. Even my mother told me that spending time with him is bad, especially now that I’m more drawn into him. So I’ve made up my mind. I won’t be spending most of my time with him; I’ll try to lessen the time that we’re together. I’ve learned to prioritize what is really important. No more late nights and snack times with him. I’ll just bond with my family more; nothing would break us apart; not you, my ex-best friend, the television.

New Religious Movements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

New Religious Movements - Essay Example Not only do these NRMs catch the attention of scholars, but they also caught also the interest of the general population. The most crucial moment for public awareness in cults or new religious movements occurred in November, 1978, when some 900 members of the The Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana died by murder and suicide. Moreover, some movements have been accused of ongoing human rights abuses, child abuse, brainwashing, prostitution, financial fraud and swindling.3 Only a small number of the older cults such as the the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have garnered huge membership all throughout the world. Of those groups formed in the twentieth century, only a few, such as the American Muslim Mission (found in 1930), can count their membership in the tens of thousands.4 National polls report that 19 in 20 Americans affirm a belief in God, and 4 in 10 said to join Sunday services regularly. Nevertheless, these surveys do not show how and what the people really believe in. Therefore, a number of new religious movements develop to fill these gaps. ... Moreover, the rise of new religious movements and cults also reflects the tensions that exist in the society at large, usually evolve from pressures that increased public acceptance of ideas outside the established religious institutions. As an example, the cultural revolutions of the 1960's lessen the social taboos against religious testing. Furthermore, technological advancements, particularly the Internet and the access world travel, enable a lot of people to access wider beliefs and religious systems and making it easier for small religious groups to form.5 Additionally, new religious movements continue to grow due to: existence of man's spiritual needs, man's cultural identity search, filling a void in man's heart, man's seeking for answers to vital questions, cults cashing in on pastoral weakness of established religious institutions, a plot from the devil, existences of a charismatic leader/founder/guru, prevailing weaknesses of the members, and the doctrines uniqueness of the movement. Existence of spiritual needs.The evolution of cults or new religious movements often indicate that there are spiritual needs which have not been fulfilled or even identified, or which the Church and other established religious institutions have either not aware of or not able to provide.6 Cultural identity search.The new religious movements are able to attract huge number members because there are always people searching for meaning when they are feeling gone astray in a period of cultural revolution.7 Filling a void.Many Christians join the cults or new religious movements because their hunger

International Development Organizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

International Development Organizations - Essay Example In 1970s, the organization was training families on how to indulge themselves in farming in order to get an extra income to sustain their basic needs. The organization started by installing water pumps in order to distribute clean water to communities which were highly affected by morality rates (Russell & Cohn, 2012). It then recruited volunteers who taught the community how to use the water to irrigate in order to become self-reliant. In 1990s, the organization shifted its attention towards the needs of children and other vulnerable groups in the society. This is after realizing that many governments were struggling with offering these groups[s with the necessary platforms in order to unleash their potential. By 2014, the organization was the 11th largest non-governmental organization in the United States (Russell & Cohn, 2012). World Vision International receives funding from corporations and private donors (Cagney & Ross, 2013). Approximately 19% of the organization’s budget is obtained from public grants. However, corruption is one of the major challenges that have been facing this organization. For instance, in 2007, World Vision International identified that a lot of funds that was to be directed towards education, health care, and economic development was being embezzled by various officials. In addition, the organization’s officials in various positions were diverting food deliveries and other important building materials for their own personal gains. Through its financial aid especially in developing countries, World Vision International has been able to improve the lives of the people. This is through initiating projects that are self sustainable (Kilby, 2006). Through the projects, the organization has been able to create employment, an aspect that has played a significant role in alleviating poverty in the society. World Vision International has been able to build a sustainable economy in different parts of the