Curiosity, combined with the ability to glean business insight from anything, propels small-business owners to the top, according to a survey of more than 400 key players at small companies. In addition to being self-motivated, self-reliant and resilient, successful owners monitor their finances closely and read voraciously in their commitment to lifelong learning, the survey revealed.

Productivity is often measured in subjective, incomplete ways such as self-reporting or managerial observation, whereas team-based productivity tracking is more complicated to implement but offers greater potential for objective, holistic data, writes Holly Lyke-Ho-Gland about APQC research. "In other words, use data to capture the breadth of performance, but combine that with the nuance and contextual information provided by observation," Lyke-Ho-Gland writes.

Call-center employees who received good mentoring were 18% more productive than those who opted out of such a program, according to a Harvard Business School study. The researchers posit that mandatory mentoring can help reach more employees who can benefit but would otherwise forego such help.

Valentine's Day is an opportune time to remind employees about the potential impact of romantic relationships in the office. "If workers are finding romance in the workplace, it's key that employers have a workplace romance policy in place to prevent harmful situations should relationships go awry," says Johnny Taylor, Jr., of the Society of Human Resource Management.

This year's International Day of Women and Girls in Science is an opportunity to recognize all of the amazing contributions women make to science, engineering, technology and math. It's also an unfortunate reminder that academia and industry have a long way to go in narrowing the gender gap. According the UN, women often receive smaller research grants than their male counterparts and, while they represent one-third of all researchers, only 12% of members of national science academies are women. Additionally, women only comprise 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics.

Data management skills are in short supply and its preventing businesses from maximizing their data’s value, writes Syniti Australia & New Zealand vice president Frankie Steel. In addition to upskilling existing employees, he advises taking a platform product approach to enable cross-skilling, embracing the trend of hiring talent from anywhere, and working with external organisations to round out internal knowledge.

Harvard University and Emory University researchers have developed a fully autonomous fishbot with human stem-cell-derived cardiac muscle cells. The biohybrid fish swims by mimicking the muscle contractions of a pumping heart. It's not some random exercise in robotic innovation, though. It also could offer insight that brings engineers a step closer to developing a more complex artificial muscular pump while providing a platform to study heart diseases.