Make Your Brain A Happy Brain

With Easter approaching and our Executive Director taking some well earned down time I find myself with the opportunity not only to guest edit our weekly round-up but to create a short piece for the UHR blog too, writes Naomi Holloway, UHR’s CPD Manager. In preparation I found myself reflecting on the past three years and my transition from full time, permanent HR Director to sole Director of an HR consultancy company and UHR CPD manager.

I cast my mind back to seeing Charles Handy present a plenary session at the annual CIPD conference some 20 or 25 years ago. His main subject reflected his recently published business management classic, The Age of Unreason, in which he coined a term “the portfolio life,” referring to the reorganization of careers as portfolios full of different jobs. At the age of 26 or 27 working for Royal Mail and expecting to stay there until early retirement at 55 I wasn’t so sure about this concept. Now with the big 5-0 as my next birthday I seem to have embraced this concept and when you look outwards the internet's buzzing about the impending age of freelancing. Some statistics say that as soon as 2020, 50 percent of the workforce will be contract employees or self-employed. It may have taken longer than Handy envisaged but the world of work is undoubtedly changing, and we're already seeing this transition take place.

Some workers are being forced into self-employment due to the strain of a struggling economy, while others have already chosen such a path as a means to greater freedom and job satisfaction. In our own sector we are seeing colleagues proactively move away from the permanency of university employment to pursue new challenges and set up business that focus on the elements of their jobs that they have enjoyed the most, coaching, leadership development and change management being particularly popular. Whatever the route, it’s critical that we equip ourselves for what’s to come. We'll either thrive in this new era of uncertainty or get left behind.

The best way to keep a job in the future, it seems, is to do the opposite of what our parents did: Don’t rely too heavily on any single job. Make yourself indispensable by acquiring more than a single skill, and combine those skills in interesting ways, finding where your talents and passions can align with the demands of an ever-changing market.

As CPD manager you might expect me to say this, after all I am the purveyor of all things developmental. But it’s not just because “I would wouldn’t I”, as 5-0 approaches I also find myself reflecting on how to stave off the health and wellbeing impacts of passing another age milestone

As the old saying goes, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But according to recent research, that may not be entirely true, or good for you.

Though it’s harder for the brain to learn a new skill as you age, several studies show that taking on this challenge can lead to improved memory function and brain health.

According to a 2013 study published in the journal Psychological Science, people who learn a new skill have improved memory. The study involved 221 people between age 60 to 90. In the study, some participants spent 16.5 hours a week for three months taking up hobbies or crafts such as digital photography and quilting. Another group did social activities such as watching films or thinking about previous holidays, while a control group listened to the radio or played simple games and puzzles. Those in the first group who spent months learning a new skill had the biggest memory gains.

So, learning a new skill may reduce the risk of dementia by strengthening connections between different parts of the brain. These connections can be improved through activities such as learning a new language, learning to ride a bike or playing a new instrument because they are more cognitively demanding.

So, by learning something new your brain chemistry changes. The more people practice a new skill they are learning, the more dense the myelin in their brains becomes, which helps them learn even better so learning speed increases. Learning a new skill helps you learn things faster over time. By stimulating neurons in the brain, more neural pathways are formed, and electrical impulses travel faster across them as you attempt to process new information and you could stave off dementia. Perhaps however the most important reason of all though is this….Learning something new will make you happier. On a personal level I can vouch for this: two years ago, I took up hockey having not played since I was 16, whilst not necessarily a cerebral activity I have had to learn the rules and the umpires signals and certainly playing alongside skilled teenagers has certainly been a new challenge. And yes, it has made me happier, (especially getting the opportunity to play alongside my 13-year-old daughter).

If any of this has inspired you to think about acquiring new skills and experiences then you might like to take a look at some of the events we have coming up over the next 6 months:

All programmes can be seen in full and places booked at https://www.uhr.ac.uk/events/training/