Last week I published an opinion piece at the request of the Deseret News. In the article I provide insights into:

• The slow adoption of remote work as a modern workplace practice.
• Why remote work is here to stay.
• Employees' preferences for greater workplace flexibility.
• The potential effects to employers who reject remote work.

You can read the full article here.

I recently published a featured research article in the Journal of Extension, titled
Evaluating Utah's Rural Online Initiative: Empowering Organizational Leaders Through Remote Work. My co-authors on this manuscript were my fellow USU Extension colleagues and faculty: Dr. Lendel Narine, Dr. Amanda Ali, Dr. Debra Spielmaker, Andrea Schmutz, and Tyson Riskas. Here is the abstract:

Compared to urban counties, Utah's rural counties experienced high levels of unemployment. Informed by a statewide needs assessment, Utah State University Extension developed a remote work leadership course to equip business leaders with knowledge and skills to create remote jobs as a solution to rural unemployment. This descriptive evaluation study collected data from course participants (N = 62). Findings showed short-term outcomes were achieved; participants experienced increases in knowledge and skills and had more positive intentions toward creating remote jobs and hiring employees from rural counties. Extension professionals can design and evaluate their programs using the framework in this study.

Read the full article at joe.org.

If you are not enjoying and looking forward to the meetings you are attending in the organizations you work or volunteer for, then Dr. Rogelberg's book, The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance deserves your attention. 

I recently read this book in a club setting with graduate students studying leadership in the department of Applied Sciences, Technology and Education within the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences at Utah State University.

My review for this book is in the form of an outline covering the key concepts with quotes and references to specific chapters. 

I recently published a research in brief article in the Journal of Extension, titled Evaluating Utah's Rural Online Initiative: Empowering Rural Communities Through Remote Work. My co-authors on this manuscript were my fellow USU Extension colleagues and faculty: Dr. Lendel Narine, Dr. Amanda Ali, Dr. Debra Spielmaker, and Andrea Schmutz. Here is the abstract:

Utah's rural counties have experienced high levels of unemployment compared to the state's urban counties. Utah State University Extension developed a remote work educational program intended to reduce rural unemployment. We conducted a descriptive study to gather data from May–August 2019 participants (N = 1,025). Our results indicate that short-term outcomes from the course were realized. On average, participants experienced increases in knowledge, improved skills, and positive intentions toward seeking remote employment. We recommended formative evaluation for continuous course improvement and follow-up procedures to measure participants' success in securing remote employment. Extension professionals can plan and evaluate their programs using the framework presented in this article.

Read the full article at joe.org.

I recently published a featured article in the Journal of Extension, titled Application of a Three-Phase Needs Assessment Framework to Identify Priority Issue Areas for Extension Programming. My co-authors on this manuscript were my USU Extension colleagues: Dr. Lendel Narine and Dr. Amanda Ali. Here is the abstract:

Cooperative Extension strives to deliver relevant programming to residents. However, problems facing communities are increasingly complex. We used a three-phase needs assessment to describe Utah residents' perceptions of issue areas for Extension programming. We gathered data from 1,043 Utah residents. Results highlighted four priority issue areas for Extension programming. These were environmental quality, conservation capacity, community development, and agriculture and food safety. On the basis of our work, we recommend that Extension allocate resources to addressing priority issue areas and implement a formal needs assessment framework for monitoring issue areas to inform relevant and quality programming in response to emerging needs.

Read the full article at joe.org.