Description: Insights on the use of humor and fun in the work place as a tool for team-building, reducing stress, improving motivation and concentration, and increasing productivity.

Description: Background on, and best practices guidelines for dealing with, bid reviews and audits for Medicare Advantage plans.

Description: This article highlights the importance of communicating concisely and effectively through email and other written forums, and when/when not to use written vs. other forms of communication.

Description: The August/September 2013 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.

Description: The October/November 2015 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.

Description: Article describes best practices for teaching a course module that involves multiple parameters. A good example is hypothesis testing which requires consideration of the parameters, sample-size, population distribution, known variance and has as consequences whether a normal or t distribution should be used or whether non parametric methods are used. The articles recommends use of the Prime Implicant Normal Form as a means of teaching. It shows the superiority of this method over other forms such as heuristics, complete rules, or graduated approaches.

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision. This issue’s case study involved a new employee being hired specifically for an expertise that then does not seem to be valued once they arrive.

Description: This article addresses how to best use body language to one's advantage

Description: The December 2013/January 2014 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.

Description: A typical course has some "hard" parts. These "hard" parts are the places where weaker students begin to fail, lose interest, and give up. The paper introduces a metric by which to evaluate each course topic. High metric values indicate "hard parts" of courses. The paper recommends spending more course time on hard parts and less course time on easy parts. The paper also recommends using disclosure: Tell students - this part of the course is "hard" and they may feel uncomfortable which is why more time is being spent on it." This approach to hard parts works! Failure rates are significantly reduced, while retention, satisfaction, and student scores improve.