OBSIDEA Snacks: Recommendations for a new year

We’re kicking off the year with a new series, called OBSIDEA Snacks. I’m the captain this week (Dean’s headed to Japan), and I’m taking this opportunity to share with you a little entrée of what could be a regular snack delivery for you to digest…and who doesn’t love snacks!

This time we take a look at some of our favourite resources from The Internet of Things. Three things, in fact, as a nod to our friends in the Offbeat community. These are all gems we refer back to regularly when working with our clients and colleagues, and we hope you get as much from them as we have!

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📼 TED Talk / Keynote Highlight

Terri's Pick: Scott Galloway: The Algebra of Happiness

Scott Galloway is razor sharp and dry as hell, and the insights he shares from his own experiences and book ‘The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning’ are a refreshing reminder of the things that are important in life. I’ve rewatched this video countless times over the years and often recommend it to those who are faced with making a decision that puts them at a crossroads between a professional choice vs their personal happiness. It’s a bit of a long one, but it’s worth the ride.

Dean: Damn. I totally wanted to pick that one.

‍Dean's Pick: The Fusion of Nostalgia and Novelty in Octopath Traveler

‍Alrighty, I’ll go unconventional. This keynote is on the development of a video game from 2019, it’s about an hour long, and goes into how they managed to evolve a dated genre, into a best seller through storytelling and design principles. The Learning and Development space is dated, so a lot of L&D-specific keynotes are mostly... not good, so finding inspiration and proven methods elsewhere is very helpful for OBSIDEA’s continued innovation. Little bit of a warning, you'll need subtitles.

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🎤 Podcast Highlight

Dean's Pick: Lex Fridman Podcast

A “no thrills” podcast, hosted by Lex (an AI researcher at MIT) that focuses on science, technology and philosophy. Do I listen to every episode? No. Do I jump in and enjoy every episode I click? Yes. This podcast has no bells and whistles, it’s just good conversations with people at the top of their game, or those with immense knowledge and passion for particular subjects. I’m no Amazon fanboy, but even the latest episode with Jeff Bezos was fantastic. It also comes with video format.

Terri's Pick: Do You F*cking Mind

I came across this podcast last year, and as someone who loves understanding how our brains work and why we do the things we do, Alex Fernandez’s ‘Do You F*cking Mind’ podcast discusses neuroscience and psychology in a simple and relatable way.

It’s not a typical ‘self-help’ podcast; full disclosure, it’s brimming with colourful language (welcome to Australia, have you seen ‘Boy Swallows Universe’?), but as someone who typically struggles to stay engaged with podcasts (hello ADHD), I’ve taken a lot of professional and personal insights from this one and the fast pace and conversational dialogue keeps me hooked.

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🔦 L&D Industry Spotlight

Terri's Pick: Lavinia Mehedințu

I’ve followed Lavinia, co-founder of Offbeat, for a few years now. She created a cool little L&D community around the time that COVID kicked off which shares a newsletter full of interesting resources, topical L&D articles and insights shared by Offbeat community members. I’ve enjoyed and engaged with a ton of Offbeat resources over time, and you can even jump on and recommend your own favourite things! To subscribe to the Offbeat newsletter, click here.

Dean's Pick: Nicky Sloan, CPO (CVM, Silk Laundry)

I met Nicky Sloan pre-COVID, to discuss a few learning and development opportunities. Since that meeting, I’ve been following the hands-on development she’s been doing across multiple businesses (and the people she manages!) where she’s had great success in both the OD and L&D space. Why is Nicky my highlight? Well, one of my biggest weaknesses is getting out into the real world's learning events. I’m a designer at heart, and even though I’m a people person, I hate “selling”, even if it’s authentic and organic. This sometimes prevents me from attending conferences or in-person sessions. Nicky continuously inspires via her LinkedIn posts to get out of the house, and just meet people! Basic, I know, but sometimes you need that motivation on your feed.

Terri: Also a big Nicky Sloan fan, she’s a great example of a senior leader who excels at demonstrating her organisation’s culture and EVP through LinkedIn, and she’s a huge advocate for her people and incredibly authentic. 

We hope you enjoyed this snack delivery, please give me five stars so that Dean doesn’t take my LinkedIn privileges away 😊 In the meantime, let us know what topics interest you or that you’d like to hear our thoughts on!