I always enjoy Valeria's posts. This one addresses the essence of connecting with a diverse audience and the importance of the depth in relationships. ...... There's no hiding in real life. Your assets must be real. Just like in business, eventually you will be found. The good news is that once you make a connection real, you have it for a long time 1. Diversity - a person who communicates with a diverse audience will be more influential than a person who communicates with a uniform audience. 2. Autonomy - a person who is free to speak his or her own mind, and is not merely parroting some 'official view', will have more influence. 3. Openness - a person who writes in multiple languages, or who can be read on multiple platforms, or who is not limited to a single communications channel, will have more influence. 4. Connectivity - a person you can communicate with, and who will listen to your point of view, will have more influence than a person who does not. ...

Workplace engagement is all about genuinely caring for your employees. They should be aware of their employer’s attitude towards them, which means that there should be ways and means to convey an employer’s concern to his employees. Employers must make clear that they care for them. This should be part of the Company policy so that employees can actually benefit from it. This policy will reap long-term rewards for the business. Some important pointers about an engaged workforce are that: •They will always speak positively about their Company to others including clients, customers, colleagues or friends. •They are committed to stay with the organization, no matter what, sometimes even at the cost of a financially better opportunity. •They are completely involved in the work they do and for the organization they work for – body, mind, heart and soul. Engagement is a two-way process wherein both the employee and employer can find a middle ground to work their way around issues ...

I always wonder if weak minds represent the majority of the population. @FiorenzaMella

The poet John Milton invented “sensuous” because he apparently felt that the existing word, “sensual,” was getting too sexy for his purposes. “Sensuous” first appeared in writing, according to citations in the Oxford English Dictionary, in Milton’s essay Of Reformation Touching Church Discipline in England (1641). In the relevant passage, Milton contrasts the “Soule” with “her visible, and sensuous collegue the body.” He used the word again in a 1644 essay on education. This quotation comes from a passage in which he discusses practical arts like logic and rhetoric: “To which Poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being lesse suttle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate.” It seems the author of Paradise Lost regarded “sensual” as inappropriate for exalted writing and needed something a bit drier. @FiorenzaMella

Losing Our World's Languages Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them not yet recorded—may disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and the human brain. National Geographic's Enduring Voices Project (conducted in collaboration with the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages) strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hotspots—the places on our planet with the most unique, poorly understood, or threatened indigenous languages—and documenting the languages and cultures within them. Why Is It Important? Language defines a culture, through the people who speak it and what it allows speakers to say. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea may not translate precisely into another language. Many endangered languages have rich oral cultures with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger ...

Very interesting article! @FiorenzaMella

The col­ors are deep and lush, warm and envelop­ing. And if eyes are the win­dow to the soul, don't you feel you can see right into the soul of these figures? This is truly inspiring! @FiorenzaMella

"If there is a more important key to communication than finding common ground, I certainly can’t think of it. Common ground is the place where people can discuss differences, share ideas, find solutions, and start creating something together. Too often people see communication as the process of transmitting massive amounts of information to other people. But that’s the wrong picture. ... [C]ommunication is a journey. The more that people have in common, the better the chance that they can take that journey together." — John C. Maxwell @FiorenzaMella

So many examples of candid beauty. @FiorenzaMella

Hs simplicity and humility combined with his bravoure are truly overwhelming. He lets his piano talk while smiling from artistic joy. @FiorenzaMella

Learning a second language boosts your brain power and can protect against Alzheimer's disease, scientists say. New research has shown that bilingual people do better in mental challenges and are more skilled at multi-tasking than those who have just one tongue. They also develop symptoms of dementia an average of four or five years later. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1358234/People-speak-languages-better-multi-tasking-likely-develop-Alzheimers.html#ixzz1EKRpjXzm @FiorenzaMella

Tout le monde est conscient des limites actuelles de l’email et du fait qu’il est aujourd’hui un facteur limitant de la performance des collaborateurs. Mais peu prennent encore le taureau par les cornes pour régler le problème une fois pour toutes. Parmi ces entreprises qui osent on trouve, depuis peu, Atos Origin qui se donne trois ans pour passer de l’email aux réseaux sociaux. Coup de Génie ? Folie douce ? L’un ou l’autre selon la manière dont cette révolution sera pensée. Migrer les flux d’un environnement vers l’autre, en plus de ne pas combler tous les problèmes des collaborateurs peut même engendrer davantage de complexité. Repenser la nature du mail, de l’information partagée et des besoins en termes d’actions et d’intéractions pour rationaliser le tout a davantage de sens mais impose une refonte autrement plus profonde et ambitieuse de l’architecture même du SI. Les réseaux sociaux ne remplaceront pas l’email dans l’entreprise, par contre ils sont un premier pas vers un social...

I love any espression of beauty. Most of these pictures are breathtaking. @FiorenzaMella

Great quote! @FiorenzaMella

A very interesting Post about how we can or we should not interact with our audience @FiorenzaMella

"It's been said that music is what happens between the notes. I believe that a great speech happens between the words, during the pauses when an audience can reflect upon and internalize the message. Never forget the impact that a well-timed pause can have." — John Zimmer @FiorenzaMella

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In this new RSAnimate Steven Pinker shows us how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings. Taken from the RSA's free public events programme www.thersa.org/events @FiorenzaMella

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have identified a gene that may help explain how language develops in children. The gene, called ROBO1, helps chemicals in brain cells to recognise and translate speech sounds into meaningful language. The researchers found that a particular variant of ROBO1 significantly enhanced a core component of language learning. The study identified a significant correlation between the way the gene functions and the brain's ability to store speech for short periods of time, a process which is especially significant during infancy when words are not yet associated with an object or concept. Professor Timothy Bates, from the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh who led the research, said: 'The discovery of ROBO1 gene helps to understand how speech sounds can be stored long enough to be integrated with meaning'. Scientists analysed language learning techniques of 538 families with up to ...

1. Appreciate Life Be thankful that you woke up alive each morning. Develop a childlike sense of wonder towards life. Focus on the beauty of every living thing. Make the most of each day. Don’t take anything for granted. Don’t sweat the small stuff. @FiorenzaMella

Men and women can now thank a dozen brain regions for their romantic fervor. Researchers have revealed the fonts of desire by comparing functional MRI studies of people who indicated they were experiencing passionate love, maternal love or unconditional love. Together, the regions release neuro­transmitters and other chemicals in the brain and blood that prompt greater euphoric sensations such as attraction and pleasure. Conversely, psychiatrists might someday help individuals who become dan­gerously depressed after a heartbreak by adjusting those chemicals. Passion also heightens several cognitive functions, as the brain regions and chemicals surge. “It’s all about how that network interacts,” says Stephanie Ortigue, an assistant professor of psychology at Syracuse University, who led the study. The cognitive functions, in turn, “are triggers that fully activate the love network.” Tell that to your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day. @FiorenzaMella

An asymptote is a straight line that a curve approaches but never touches. It comes from the Greek word asymptotos which means “not falling together”. In the diagram below, the vertical and horizontal black lines are asymptotes to the two curved red lines. Well, perfect public speaking is like an asymptote. Nobody has ever reached it and nobody ever will. There is always room for improvement. There is always room to learn. We might never be perfect speakers, but we can be better speakers. @FiorenzaMella

Jerry's drawings are always intense. Black & white drawings, perfect drawn lines that make you feel an unexpected emotional depth. That's Jerry's talent. He draws bidimensionally but he involves us threedimensionally. His solo echoes in an orchestra of profound sounds. @FiorenzaMella

Appreciating the variety....Art is inspiring.. @FiorenzaMella

“Drawing Secrets Revealed” is the newly launched drawing art instruction course by professional artist Sarah Parks. This innovative online video class will help students access their right brain's visual and spatial ability to help them really “see like an artist” and enhance their creativity in other areas of their lives. @FiorenzaMella

Shapes lost in soft colors... @FiorenzaMella

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Lost in grief...I will undress your pain @FiorenzaMella