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Ideas in Motion

Reducing Stress Improves Creativity

Aug 6, 2020 11:58:37 AM / by

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Research has linked stress to physical reactions such as headaches, chronic inflammation, reduced immunity, asthma, digestive disorders, infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer. It can cause deleterious consequences to mental health as well. In fact, scientific studies show a negative correlation between stress and creativity. Increased stress reduces creativity, and reduced stress improves it. In this article, we take a closer look at the impact of stress and how we can manage it to improve creativity.

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Five Questions to Help You Select the Right Coupling

Jun 22, 2020 6:30:00 AM / by posted in Manufacturing

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Couplings are a simple component that are often overlooked until late in a project which can cause issues. If not given the proper care and attention to detail early, they can become a source of frustration and even failure if handled incorrectly.

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The Designatronics SDP/SI Center Distance Designer Tool

Jun 17, 2020 6:00:00 AM / by posted in Engineers, Pulleys, Belts, Mechanical Design

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With a global customer base of over 15,000 firms in the aerospace, defense, medical, and industrial sectors, Designatronics, Inc., has emerged as a leader in the design and sale of high-quality small power transmission components. Since it began operations in 1950, the company has expanded to three brands: (1) Quality Bearings and Components (“QBC”); (2) QTC Metric Gears (“QTC”); and (3) Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instrument (“SDP/SI”).  Its 87,000 powertrain products include gears, belt and chain drives, shafts, shaft accessories, bearings, couplings, universal joints, vibration mounts, miscellaneous components, hardware, gearheads and speed reducers, right angle drives, brakes and clutches.

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Reshoring Manufacturing

Jun 12, 2020 3:29:04 PM / by posted in Manufacturing, mechanical components, Problem-solving

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“What critical medical components are currently vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, but could be sourced domestically with some prior planning and coordination?”

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Three Tips to Improve Team Performance

Apr 14, 2020 6:45:00 AM / by posted in Leadership

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Every employer expects team members to be self-motivated. “If everyone just did their job, motivation would be irrelevant,” is the old adage. The problem is people are not machines. Their productivity and creative capacity waxes and wanes. Energy levels are different throughout any given day, week, and month. It is not enough to just say do it. The more enlightened, leadership-based approach calls on leaders to take an active responsibility in team performance.

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The Four Traits of Servant Leaders

Apr 8, 2020 5:41:32 PM / by posted in Self-Development, Leadership

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The idea that leaders are the servants of those they lead has been around for centuries. It is ingrained in military leadership doctrine and for the last twenty or more years has gained traction in the business world. Servant leaders, as they were first termed by Robert Greenleaf in his 1971 essay, “The Servant as a Leader,” put the needs of those they lead first.

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Engineering Your Career for Emerging Technologies

Feb 18, 2020 3:52:52 PM / by

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In October 2019, Google’s quantum computing team reported a breakthrough in quantum computing. Their newest system managed to complete a calculation in 3 minutes and 20 seconds that a traditional supercomputer would need 10,000 years to complete. Quantum Computers use quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform computations instead of electrically gated 1s and 0s in a traditional computer. Google’s experiment was one small step toward commercializing quantum technology and it raised the possibility of breakthroughs in a number of different fields such as artificial intelligence and engineering.

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Science Can Predict Future Behavior—Should it?

Feb 3, 2020 6:13:45 PM / by posted in news, Psychology, Science, Human Brain

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Minority Report was a science fiction story written by Philip Dick and adapted for the 2002 blockbuster film starring Tom Cruise. Imagining the world by year 2054, Philip Dick portrayed a government body with an ability to predict crimes before they happened, and the right to arrest individuals based on their potential of committing a “future crime.” When the movie hit theaters, the idea of predicting crimes seemed a preposterous notion, but science often makes the seemingly impossible, reality.

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13 Virtues of Moral Perfection from the Autobiography of Ben Franklin

Jan 23, 2020 4:31:40 PM / by posted in History, Self-Development, Career, Mindfulness

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In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, he lists thirteen virtues “all that at that time occurr’d to me as necessary or desirable.”

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How to Learn and Practice Skills

Jan 21, 2020 10:33:43 PM / by posted in Psychology, Self-Development, Career, Leadership

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Skills are assets, and they are how most people make a living. We go to school, learn a trade, acquire experiences and then give our time in exchange for money. The amount of money we earn for our time is most likely (but not always) a direct reflection of the “market value” of our skillsets—traditionally speaking. It’s true, “time is money,” but it makes just as much sense to say, “skills are money.” Luckily, obtaining a skill is quite simple in terms of cognitive processing. All one needs is motivation, the ability to learn, and time for practice.

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