Data and judgement
Methods, perception, meaning and unintended consequences.
A half day on data and judgement: how figures are made, collected and read, why people see them differently, how meaning and measures shape behaviour, and sensemaking under uncertainty.
- Level
- Explore
- Learning time
- 6 hours
- Where
- Understanding Data and Data Analysis
- Price
- £129
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Managers, analysts, board members and service leaders in councils, the NHS, housing, police, fire and charities in Wales and England.
Overview
This half-day Explore moves from how a figure is made to how leaders decide with it. It opens with the data journey, choosing methods that follow the question and Deming's tests of quality. It then covers reading data honestly, from variation and averages to chart traps, and why capable people read the same figure differently, with noise and decision hygiene. It turns to how meaning is made socially, the objectivity of formulas from RAWP to the 2020 A Level algorithm, and the unintended consequences of targets, closing with sensemaking through Weick, Cynefin and Rosenhead's trumpet of uncertainty.
Aims
This half-day Explore aims to develop leaders who bring judgement to every figure they are handed. It builds the habits of questioning how data was made, separating signal from noise, reading data well together, owning decisions that formulas inform and keeping good options open when the future cannot be forecast.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Judge how much weight a figure can bear before acting on it.
- Recognise how formulas, targets and definitions shape behaviour and meaning.
- Decide under uncertainty in ways that keep good future options open.
What you'll develop
Across this Explore, you will develop the ability to:
- Use the five questions for any number to judge how much weight a figure can bear before you act on it.
- Plan data collection by working through the six steps from decision to method, starting with the decision the data must inform.
- Apply Deming's four tests of accurate, valid, precise and reliable to a figure you use, and identify where it is weakest.
- Distinguish common cause from special cause variation, and explain why reacting to every movement as a signal, which Deming called tampering, makes a stable process worse.
- Apply the six steps of decision hygiene so that a team or board reads data independently before combining views.
- Recognise the four steps of the McNamara fallacy and the difference between using a formula instead of judgement and alongside it.
- Design a small basket of measures for learning that starts with purpose, pairs numbers with stories and adapts when measures distort behaviour.
- Use the Cynefin domains to judge what data can do in a situation, treating data as feedback rather than proof where things are complex.
Built from 4 parts.
6 hours of learning.
- 01Method follows the questionData collection methods, types and qualityBitesize3 modules
- 02Seeing differentlyReading data honestly and differing perceptionsBitesize2 modules
- 03When formulas decideSocial meaning and the seduction of objectivityBitesize2 modules
- 04Consequences and uncertaintyUnintended consequences and sensemaking with dataBitesize2 modules
Keep going.
Part of the Understanding Data and Data Analysis topic, also sold whole as Beyond the dashboard.
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereExplore, 6 hours, £129
- The whole topicImmerse, Beyond the dashboard, 11 hours, £249. Already own the Explore? You pay £120.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms
Also part of: Leading with data and digital