One of the consequences of a recession is a greater need for evidence when making decisions about how to spend a diminishing budget. It might require very little thought: someone comes up with a machine that produces the widgets you manufacture in half the time at less cost, and you were having to replace the old machines anyway. In other cases the decision might be more difficult, especially with training in ‘soft’ skills.

The New Zealand Herald recently carried an article claiming that “showing your anger rather than repressing emotions is the key to a successful life at home and at work”. The article reports research by George Vaillant at Harvard, who opines that people “think of anger as a dangerous emotion and are encouraged to practise ‘positive thinking’, but we find that approach is ultimately a damaging denial of dreadful reality”.

New Year is the time for resolutions: a new year, a new opportunity, a celebration to mark the occasion. But how long do yours last? For most people, a week would be about average!

A resolution is a determination to break a habit. Put into context, what we’re actually doing is pitting one resolution against another, which is why it feels like a struggle. For example, we resolve to not eat any more chocolate, but this is contrary to the established desire to eat chocolate.

‘Well-being’ and ‘wellness’ are increasingly popular phrases in the training world, but what do they actually mean? There is ample evidence that practising The Challenge of Change Resilience Training programme leads to greater psychological well-being, but do the benefits extend to better physical health?

In the most recent World Values Survey, which ranks the countries of the world on happiness, Denmark tops the list. Perhaps not altogether surprising – a small but prosperous country with generous state benefits – and it is joined in the top dozen by Sweden, Ireland, Netherlands and Canada. So far, the results suggest that wealth and relative peace might account for the ranking, but also in the top five is Colombia, and the wealthiest nation, the USA, comes in only 16th.