VR in Professional Training

Workplace conflict: your brain takes 0.07s to react. Your career takes years to recover. The truth is that one wrong word can: ↳ Break trust ↳ Limit your influence ↳ Close off opportunities But many professionals unknowingly use phrases that trigger resistance. Here's what works instead: 1. Instead of "That's not my job" ↳ "I see this matters. Let's figure out how to get it done." ↳ Shows teamwork while maintaining boundaries 2. Replace "We've always done it this way" ↳ "I see why this feels right. Shall we explore ideas?" ↳ Positions you as innovative, not stuck 3. Never say "That's not true" ↳ "I see it differently. Let me share my perspective." ↳ Opens dialogue instead of creating defense 4. Drop "You should have..." ↳ "Next time, let's try this approach." ↳ Future-focused, not blame-focused 5. Instead of "I don't have time" ↳ "This is important. Can we schedule time to discuss?" ↳ Shows respect while setting boundaries 6. Never say "Calm down" ↳ "I see this is frustrating. Let's take a moment to reset." ↳ Validates emotions while moving to solutions 7. Drop "You don't understand" ↳ "Maybe we're seeing this differently. Can we clarify what we both need?" ↳ Invites collaboration, not confrontation 8. Replace "It's not a big deal" ↳ "I see why this matters to you. Let's figure out a solution." ↳ Acknowledges impact, builds trust 9. Avoid "Let's agree to disagree" ↳ "We may see this differently, let's see how best to move forward?" ↳ Keeps momentum toward solutions 10. Never say "I'm done with this" ↳ "Let's take a break and revisit with clear minds." ↳ Professional pause, not emotional exit 11. Drop "I'm just being honest" ↳ "I want to be direct while keeping this constructive. Here's my perspective..." ↳ Maintains respect while being truthful The truth is, how you handle conflict impacts how leadership sees you: ↳ As a bridge builder or bridge burner ↳ As a problem solver or problem creator ↳ As future leadership material or a liability What’s one workplace phrase you wish people would stop using? ♻️ Repost to help your network to navigate workplace conflict! ➕ Follow Meera Remani for more career transforming insights.

When immersive tech stops being a novelty and becomes a LIFELINE for human connection, that's true innovation!!! 💜🕶️ Rendever just secured $4.5 million in NIH funding. Not because they're hyping metaverse dreams. Because their VR platform is SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN to overcome social isolation in seniors. Let that sink in: Virtual Reality doesn't just entertain older adults. It literally extends their lifespans through connection, memory, and joy. Watch the video. An 80-year-old puts on a headset and says "I'm flooded with memories." Another asks "Where should we travel today?" A caregiver says "This is the best tool in my toolkit." That's not marketing. That's transformation. The research is undeniable: Falls reduce by 48% in 4 weeks. Family engagement bridges distances. Dementia patients reconnect with dignity. Caregiver burnout decreases. Community satisfaction scores jump 40%+ in 8 weeks. 🔹 Reminiscence Therapy — Revisit childhood homes, wedding locations, life milestones. Restore identity through memory, not medication. 📩 Shared Multiplayer Experiences — Families separated by miles play together, laugh together, CREATE together in shared virtual spaces. 🥽 Healthcare-Grade Impact — This isn't entertainment. It's clinical intervention with measurable outcomes and sustainable business models. No ROI spreadsheet needed. The joy is the proof. The opportunity is massive: 500+ senior living communities already deployed. Now expanding to home care. India's aging population? Southeast Asia's residential communities? Africa's emerging senior markets? The addressable market is BILLIONS in unmet human need. By 2027, every senior care facility without VR-based connection protocols will be viewed as operationally deficient. What does aging look like when technology means connection instead of isolation? Cuando la tecnología inmersiva deja de ser una novedad y se convierte en una LÍNEA DE VIDA para la conexión humana, ¡eso es verdadera innovación!!! 💜🕶️ Rendever acaba de asegurar $4.5 millones en financiamiento del NIH. No porque estén promocionando sueños del metaverso. Porque su plataforma VR está CIENTÍFICAMENTE PROBADA para superar el aislamiento social en adultos mayores. La investigación es innegable: Puntuaciones de satisfacción comunitaria suben 40%+ en 8 semanas. 🔹 Terapia de Reminiscencia — Revisa casas de la infancia, ubicaciones de bodas, hitos de vida. Restaura identidad a través de memoria. 📩 Experiencias Multijugador Compartidas — Familias separadas por millas juegan juntas, ríen juntas, CREAN juntas en espacios virtuales compartidos. 🥽 Impacto de Grado Sanitario — Esto no es entretenimiento. Es intervención clínica con resultados medibles. ¿Cómo se ve el envejecimiento cuando la tecnología significa conexión en lugar de aislamiento? #VirtualReality #HealthTech #MentalHealth #Care #Family #Wellness

The Role of Virtual Reality (VR) in Education: A Game-Changer ✓ Explore Ancient Civilizations: Experience history without leaving the classroom—VR brings immersive learning to life! ✓ Medical Training Revolutionised: At Stanford, medical students simulate surgeries in a risk-free environment, enhancing their skills. ✓ Virtual Field Trips: Google Expeditions allows students to visit historical sites and geographical wonders, making learning more engaging. ✓ Interactive Learning with Labster: Virtual labs enable hands-on STEM experiments, boosting understanding and retention of complex concepts. ✓ Transformative Statistics: According to PwC, VR learners train four times faster and are 275% more confident in applying their skills.

This week's defining shift for me is that XR is a practical tool for reducing real-world risk. It helps people see what they are dealing with before they commit to a choice or an action. Teams can spot problems before they happen, drivers can get comfortable with harder scenarios before hitting the road, and shoppers can get a better feel for fit and style before purchase. Better awareness at the start tends to pay off later. This week’s news surfaced signals like these: 🏎️ Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 is using TeamViewer’s AR tools to speed up how its test rigs are put together. Engineers can point a tablet at the setup and see step-by-step guidance placed directly on the hardware. The overlays come from the team’s CAD files and help staff check part placement and confirm that everything is ready before testing starts. 😎 Tom Ford Fashion has added an AR try-on feature for its eyewear on its online stores. The experience, powered by Perfect Corp., uses a person’s pupillary distance to show frames at the right size on their face. This gives shoppers a more accurate sense of how different styles will look and can help cut down on returns. 🚘 South Carolina State University opened a VR training lab for commercial drivers, using full-size simulators to prepare people for roadway hazards such as fatigue, congestion, and aggressive driving. The system also captures physiological data to support safety research and improve training design. Why this matters: Tools that help people understand things earlier can lead to better outcomes. XR does this by making moments that used to feel uncertain easier to anticipate. As more organizations adopt it, the technology becomes a powerful way to bring more confidence into everyday decisions. #spatialcomputing #XR #virtualreality #VR #augmentedreality #AR

When we're caught up in difficult interactions, our immediate reactions can often get the best of us. But with some practice, we can significantly improve our ability to respond more constructively - and improve our empathy while we’re at it. As we all know, two people can experience the exact same situation completely differently. And it’s often not what happens that matters most, but how each of us interprets it. And this is where the 3-perspective reframe comes in since it helps us: - Better understand and empathize with the other person. - Be better able to explain our experience of the situation. - Construct better arguments, solutions, or compromises. - And more. This 3-step exercise is simple: After your next challenging conversation, take 5-10 minutes to write down three different ways of looking at what happened. 1: Write your own experience down. 2: Write down what you imagine the other person’s experience might’ve been like. 3: Imagine what an objective third party might’ve experienced if they were watching it play out. You might be surprised at how differently things can appear when you consciously and with an open mind try to see them from new angles. And when you practice this regularly, this will start to happen more and more on its own, even often in-the-moment when tensions are rising. What used to trigger immediate emotional reactions can start to feel more manageable, and you’ll be better able to consider and understand different perspectives and respond more thoughtfully. This isn't just feel-good advice - it's backed by science. Our brains are incredibly adaptable, and the more we practice seeing different perspectives, the better we get at it. Do you do this, or anything similar to it? Please share your approach in the comments so others can learn and benefit from it! --- Want to learn more about conflict management? This link will give you free 24-hour access to my course "How to Resolve Conflicts" on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/gvpxD4zF

The CEO looked exhausted. "My leadership team is fighting again. - CFO wants to slow down. - CMO wants to scale. - CHRO says we don’t have the people yet". He paused. "Is this a problem I need to fix?" I asked: "When you listen to these three perspectives, what is each leader trying to protect for the company?" He thought for a moment. - "The CFO is protecting stability. - The CMO is protecting growth. - The CHRO is protecting our culture". "And if any one of those voices were missing," I asked, "what would the risk be?" He sat back. "We’d be flying blind. We’d either overextend or stall." "So, how does that change how you see this 'conflict'?" "It feels less like a personality clash and more like a strategy debate," he admitted. "I don’t need them to stop disagreeing. I need to help them integrate those different needs". ✨ Most leaders treat peer conflict as a fire to put out. But usually, it’s just business complexity showing up in human form. 🫴 Growth vs. Profitability 🫴 Speed vs. Quality 🫴 Innovation vs. Stability ✨ The best teams don't avoid conflict; they use it to make better decisions. I’ve put together 5 practical ways to handle these tensions in the carousel below: 1. Quarterly Alignment: Clarify priorities and trade-offs. 2. Curiosity over Judgment: Move from "Why are you blocking?" to "Help me understand". 3. Reciprocity: Support their priorities now to build trust for later. 4. Valuing Perspectives: Ask "What are we missing?" instead of "Who is right?". 5. Monthly Conflict Checks: A 30-minute rhythm to name and explore tensions. One Action: Slide 11 has a simple checklist to start this week. Which one are you picking? Build one bridge at a time. #Leadership #CXO #ExecutiveAlignment #LeadershipTeams #ExecutiveCoaching #ICFCoach

What ever happened to virtual reality (VR)? Up until GenAI stole the limelight late in 2022, the #metaverse was all anyone was talking about. Facebook became META and famously was investing $10 billion annually into #VR. It was going to revolutionise education, healthcare, entertainment, shopping, and gaming, to name a few. During lockdown, a friend convinced me I was missing out on the next-big-thing so I bought an Oculus VR. The games were fun and the 360-videos were amazing. Video conferencing with colleagues who also had VR headsets were kind of goofy, though. Meeting colleagues around a campfire in Red Dead Redemption was amusing, but nothing useful got done. And then…boom. No one was talking about VR anymore. Obviously the hype was OTT but have we thrown the baby out with the bath water? What really struck me was how remarkably immersive and realistic it was and how useful it could be for running experiments. So I was fascinated when I heard Alexis Paljic talk about some of the work he and his team are doing. They ask a fundamental question: To what extent can learning in an extended reality (XR) environment transfer to the real world? They conducted a series of very cool experiments looking at how well drivers can retake control of a self-driving car in an emergency. When an automated car asks the driver to “take over,” the driver has a limited amount of time to shift their attention from whatever they were doing and take control of the vehicle. This is not an easy task and doing it well requires some training. Practicing in a live environment is dangerous so drivers got trained in one of three ways: 👉 One group read the car’s User Manual on how to re-take control 👉 The second group trained in a driving simulator with a real cockpit and controls, including pedals and a steering wheel 👉 The third group trained in a VR setting with a gaming racing wheel All three methods helped drivers respond more quickly but the simulator and VR environments helped them respond significantly faster with less training. In addition, when asked about their experience, participants rated the VR method the highest in terms of its usefulness, ease of understanding and pleasantness. VR isn’t available to everyone, but it’s far more accessible than driving simulators. Anyone purchasing a self-driving car could, in principle, receive VR-based training right at their dealership, making it a safe, cheap, and scalable training solution. Clearly, VR hasn’t gone away even if the hype has died down. The tech is still evolving as new use-cases develop. What is your experienced with VR? Share your thoughts on whether VR is going to be (or maybe already is?) genuinely useful in the comments below.

Customer aggression has become a serious and ongoing threat to businesses and their frontline workers. Start Beyond’s new whitepaper, "From Risk to Resilience: Protecting Frontline Workers from Rising Customer Aggression", shares findings from a nationwide YouGov survey of frontline HR leaders and demonstrates how these insights shaped the development of Minaca VR - Managing Incivility, Negativity and Customer Aggression. Last year, 337 senior decision-makers across healthcare, retail, hospitality and education shared their experiences in a YouGov survey on the rise of customer aggression, revealing just how widespread the issue has become. This July, at the Australian Retailers Association Crime Symposium, it was reported that more than 800,000 incidents of aggressive customer behaviour were recorded in the past year. This is the highest on record, up 39% from 2024. With 1.4 million Australians working in retail alone, it’s an issue that can’t be overlooked. The whitepaper presents industry insights and practical solutions, highlighting how immersive learning drives behavioural change. It explores how Minaca VR, Start Beyond’s off-the-shelf immersive training solution, helps frontline workers build confidence, practice de-escalation techniques, and manage customer aggression in a safe, realistic environment. As the program’s launch partner, The Reject Shop has seen staff confidence soar from 18% to 68% after completing the VR training, with 98% of participants reporting they now feel equipped to manage aggressive customers effectively. The challenges are real — but so are the solutions. Read the whitepaper to discover how VR training is transforming the way businesses protect and empower their frontline teams. Link to the whitepaper in the comments. #StartBeyond #MINACA #ImmersiveLearning #VR #Frontlineworkforce

As a Business Analyst(BA), many times, difficult conversations are unavoidable. Be it conflicting priorities, unrealistic expectations, scope creep and more. When you handle such conversations with a practical plan, difficult conversations can be managed well. 1. Prepare facts, not emotions. Don’t enter the room with opinions. Enter with data, examples, and impact. 👉 Example: Instead of “This requirement is confusing,” say “We’ve had three different interpretations of this step.” 2. Reframe, don’t resist. If a stakeholder pushes back, turn their statement into a clarifying question. 👉 “You want this in Phase 1 — can we discuss what must drop if we add it?” 3. Stay neutral, act as a mirror. Repeat what each side said, in simple words, so they hear themselves. It reduces defensiveness. 4. Use “we,” not “you.” Shifts tone from blame to collaboration. 👉 “We need more clarity here” instead of “You haven’t given enough clarity.” 5. Document live. In tough talks, write things down on the screen or whiteboard. It forces alignment and reduces “I didn’t say that” later. 6. Escalate issues, not people. If you need to involve a manager or sponsor, focus on the issue’s impact, not stakeholder behaviour. 7. Pick the right medium. Some conversations resolve faster face-to-face (or by call) than in long emails. 8. Pause if emotions run high. Suggest continuing after a break instead of forcing closure in a heated moment. 9. Ask for support when needed. 👉From PM/Product Owner: if priority or scope needs authority. From SMEs: if you lack domain depth to challenge assumptions. From QA/Dev leads: if feasibility is in question. 10. Debrief after conflict. Summarise agreements in writing and circulate — ensures no confusion later. Mismanaged conversations damage trust and stall progress. Handled well, they create clarity, respect, and momentum. Knowing when to seek help saves you from carrying the entire conflict alone. As BAs, it's sometimes difficult, but we should never avoid difficult conversations, because, if not today, tomorrow, that difficult topic will hit back badly. Try to make conversations structured with neutral emotions, and involve the right people to reach clarity. #businessanalyst #stakeholdermanagement #businessanalysis #projectmanager #projectmanagement #BA #agile #scrum #customer #customerstakholder

Transforming Engineering Education Through Immersive Technology & Sustainability We learn so much from the voice of students and future engineers. I recently had an inspiring conversation with Suavi Yildirim, whose team won the global Siemens Digital Industries Software-Sony Immersive Design Challenge. Our exchange revealed fascinating insights about the future of engineering education. (press release: https://lnkd.in/gbVJH4gX) We had an impressive response to the challenge. Students showed us how immersive design tools can broaden access to engineering. Through VR/XR technology, complex engineering concepts become more intuitive, breaking down learning barriers. This was perfectly demonstrated by the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg Team NextCycle’s winning project, Battery Twin XR, which tackled EV battery lifecycle optimization. The team's ability to rapidly prototype and iterate in a virtual environment not only accelerated development but also led to better safety considerations and cost efficiencies. Suavi noted: “I think the immersive design tools have huge potential to democratize sustainable design education because they're very intuitive. So even students without CAD or VR experience can start exploring and understanding systems right away. This hands-on visual approach makes learning more engaging and accessible, especially in places where traditional tools or training might not be so common, so available. So, it's a great way to build confidence, creativity and a real understanding of sustainable design.” The success story here goes beyond the technology itself. It's about the power of cross-disciplinary collaboration - bringing together mechanical engineering, data analytics and software expertise. With guidance from industry mentors, the team learned to navigate real-world constraints while maintaining their innovative edge. This was a great example of blending academic theory with practical application. What's becoming increasingly clear is that the future of engineering education requires a delicate balance. While traditional degrees remain important, the rise of microcredentials and experiential learning are reshaping how we develop engineering talent. Industry-academia partnerships are no longer optional - they're essential for ensuring relevance in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. The key lesson? Tomorrow's engineering leaders need both technical excellence and a sustainability mindset, supported by cutting-edge tools and collaborative learning environments. It's not just about what we teach, but how we teach it. Listen now and let me know your thoughts: https://lnkd.in/gZbqcVJV.