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5 TED TALKS FOR WORKING REMOTELY

For most of 2020 and heading into 2021 many organizations, including ADMIN Partners, have their teams working in a new environment: from home. The separation of work and home life was largely distinct for Americans. However, over the past few decades, the concept of having teams work remotely has gained popularity and is now a normalized means of working across the World. In fact, researchers have determined that working from home can increase both creativity and productivity from employees. With this in mind, ADMIN is sharing five TED Talks that showcase the benefits of working remotely and how you can keep your teams motivated and productive!

5 TED TALKS FOR WORKING REMOTELY

As the popularity of remote working continues to spread, workers today can collaborate across cities, countries and even multiple time zones. How does this change office dynamics? And how can we make sure that all employees, both at headquarters and at home, feel connected? Matt Mullenweg, cofounder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic (which has a 100 percent distributed workforce), shares his secrets.

CLICK HERE to watch: ‘Why Working From Home Is Good For Business’ with Matt Mullenweg

Work-life balance, says Nigel Marsh, is too important to be left in the hands of your employer. Marsh lays out an ideal day balanced between family time, personal time and productivity — and offers some stirring encouragement to make it happen.

CLICK HERE to watch: ‘How To Make Work-Life Balance Work’ with Nigel Marsh

Why do people feel so miserable and disengaged at work? Because today’s businesses are increasingly and dizzyingly complex — and traditional pillars of management are obsolete, says Yves Morieux. So, he says, it falls to individual employees to navigate the rabbit’s warren of interdependencies. In this energetic talk, Morieux offers six rules for “smart simplicity.” (Rule one: Understand what your colleagues actually do.)

CLICK HERE to watch: ‘As Work Gets More Complex, 6 Rules To Simplify’ with Yves Morieux

When trying to come up with a new idea, we all have times when we get stuck. But according to research by behavioral and learning scientist Marily Oppezzo, getting up and going for a walk might be all it takes to get your creative juices flowing. In this fun, fast talk, she explains how walking could help you get the most out of your next brainstorm.

CLICK HERE to watch: ‘Want To Be More Creative? Go For A Walk’ with Marily Oppezzo

Our obsession with productivity — to-do lists, life hacks, morning routines — is making us less productive, says digital anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush. She explains why we need to redesign our workday around creativity — not just efficiency.

CLICK HERE to watch: ‘How Burnout Makes Us Less Creative’ with Rahaf Harfoush

Looking for more TED Talk recommendations? Check out our series here and be sure to subscribe to our blog where we share weekly content!

BEST BOOKS OF 2020

It was no surprise that our Monthly Book Review series was a hit on the blog in 2020. As it was in 2019, the book series was a favorite for our audience. This is good news for the ADMIN team who uses the series to broaden our perspective in business and tackle our reading goals for the year. This past year was a great reading year for our team, and we wanted to share some of our top reads from 2020. With that being said, here are the top five books we read in 2020:

TINY HABITS by BJ FOGG

Creating new habits that are positive and healthy are just as hard as cutting out the negative and unhealthy habits we already possess. Why is that? Why is it so hard to shed the bad and repeat the good? According to founder/director of the Behavior Design Lab, BJ Fogg, it is because we try to do too much too soon. After coaching more than 40,000 people on an area of lifestyle goals, Fogg was able to determine that the best way to go after the habits you want is by doing so slowly and steadily. Whether you want to lose weight, become more productive, sleep better, or even experience less stress, there’s a way to it that doesn’t involve you becoming a new person overnight. Fogg’s basic formula applies to any and everything you want to do: make it easy, make it fit your life, and make it rewarding.

Click HERE to read our full review.

UPSTREAM by DAN HEATH

Each day, we as humans face issues that present themselves. This happens both in life and in business. Pressing matters pop up throughout our days and we strategically work to resolve them to the best of our ability. Often, we will do this alone and on occasion, we will work in teams to find the best solution. This is an important aspect of humanity; being able to handle the unexpected and manage curve balls helps us grow individually and as organizations. But, what if we spent less time solving problems and more time learning how we could prevent them from happening in the first place? In Upstream, Dan Heath focuses on finding a cure for the issues we face rather than dealing with the symptoms.

Click HERE to read our full review.

GOOD TO GREAT by JIM COLLINS

The analysis of how businesses become (and stay) successful has always been an intriguing topic for ADMIN and Good to Great by Jim Collins hit the mark. There are endless books on what it takes to achieve greatness, but Collins’s approach was refreshing and enthralling. While there are plenty of companies that are born with successful DNA, there are others that struggle to grow into their greatness. Collins and his 21-person research team decided to explore these companies and discover what truly takes a business from good to great.

Click HERE to read our full review.

THE INNOVATION STACK by JIM MCKELVEY

Jim McKelvey and his friend (and cofounder of Twitter), Jack Dorsey, came together to create a solution to a problem that Jim, along with many other business owners, were experiencing. Now one of the most widely used payment systems for small business, Square is the brainchild of McKelvey’s frustration around the high costs and difficulty business experience when it comes to accepting payments via a credit card. While Square took off quickly, competitors like Amazon caught on and started creating similar products at a lower price point. While it seemed like that might be the end for Square, the brand pushed through and thrived which resulted in Amazon pulling the plug on their similar service. So, how did he do it? McKelvey contributes the longevity and success of square to ‘The Innovation Stack.’

Click HERE to read our full review.

LEADERSHIP IS LANGUAGE by L. DAVID MARQUET

As soon as we saw the title of this book, we knew that we had to put it into our Monthly Book Review for June. We have shared a number of posts on leadership in the past and we are always looking to learn more. David Marquet, a former US navy captain, made waves in the world of business books when he released his first book ‘Turn the Ship Around.’ His follow up book ‘Leadership is Language’ continues his conversation on using communication to boost teams.

Click HERE to read our full review.

Want more book reviews? Click here to see our full series and be sure to subscribe to our blog for monthly reviews!

2020 CLIENT REVIEWS

2020 had it’s hardships and while ADMIN Partners was not exempt from the impact of the challenging year, overall we had a successful year. Not only did ADMIN welcome a number of new clients, but we reconnected with our existing clients during these uncertain times.

Throughout the year, we asked our clients and advisor partners to share their feedback on ADMIN’s teams and the services we provide. This allows us to see where we are doing well and where we can improve when it comes to supporting retirement plans.

Here is some of the feedback we got over the past year:

We are so grateful to all of our clients and partners for their feedback and continuous support. We look forward to diving into 2021 with you by our side!

Want more from ADMIN? Be sure to subscribe to the blog and follow us on social media @adminpartners for daily content!  

A LOOK INSIDE THE ADMIN SOLUTION

ADMIN’s CEO, Mark Heisler, was recently invited to partake in a video case study for one of our clients, the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA). The video was created to detail some of the challenges ACNA faced with their multi-location retirement plan.

The organization was operating two separate retirement plans with two recordkeepers and with little operational conformity. ACNA, with this assistance of its retirement plan consultant, Cammack Retirement Group, ultimately choose an all-in-solution, working with a single record keeper, MassMutual and ADMIN Partners, as the plan’s third-party administrator. 

As a leading full-service TPA in the tax-exempt and government space, we pride ourselves in providing custom plan administrative support to all our clients. As the ACNA plan continues to grow by adding new Church locations, ADMIN’s service team is right alongside to ensure a great experience. You can learn more about our efforts with ACNA in the full video provided below.

Should you have any questions surrounding the health of your company’s retirement plan, contact one of our team members today! You can reach us via email at Contact@youradminpartners.com or by phone at 877-484-4400. We can’t wait to hear from you!