When formulas decide
Social meaning and the seduction of objectivity.
- Level
- Bitesize
- Learning time
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Where
- Understanding Data and Data Analysis
- Price
- £39
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
Overview and Outcomes.
Overview
Numbers do not speak for themselves; people speak for them, and meaning is settled between people through definitions, categories and stories. This module draws on Berger and Luckmann, Theodore Porter, Espeland and Stevens, Bowker and Star, Lisa Gitelman and Karl Weick, and uses the contrasting ways England and Wales count rough sleeping to show how much choice sits inside an apparently simple figure, and how to make meaning well. A formula looks neutral, yet every part of it was chosen: its proxies, weights and thresholds. This module uses the Resource Allocation Working Party formula for NHS funding, the NICE cost per QALY threshold and its April 2026 change, Daniel Yankelovich's account of the McNamara fallacy and the 2020 A Level grading algorithm to show why you should use the formula and own the decision.
What you'll develop
In this Bitesize, you will develop the ability to:
- Explain how a performance indicator hardens from a choice into an apparent fact, and how the story told about a number shapes what happens next.
- Use the five questions for headline figures to examine the definitions, counts and omissions behind a key figure in your own organisation.
- Apply the five habits for making meaning well, including testing a reading with people affected and revisiting agreed interpretations.
- Explain how proxies, weights and thresholds carry values inside an allocation formula, using the RAWP and NICE cases.
- Recognise the four steps of the McNamara fallacy and the difference between using a formula instead of judgement and alongside it.
- Assess whether the data feeding a formula can carry its weight, drawing on the lessons of the 2020 A Level grading algorithm.
The Modules.
1 hour 15 minutes of learning.
- 06Meaning Is Made SociallyNumbers do not speak for themselves; people speak for them, and meaning is settled between people through definitions, categories and stories. This module draws on Berger and Luckmann, Theodore Porter, Espeland and Stevens, Bowker and Star, Lisa Gitelman and Karl Weick, and uses the contrasting ways England and Wales count rough sleeping to show how much choice sits inside an apparently simple figure, and how to make meaning well.39 min
- 07The Seduction of Objectivity: When Formulas DecideA formula looks neutral, yet every part of it was chosen: its proxies, weights and thresholds. This module uses the Resource Allocation Working Party formula for NHS funding, the NICE cost per QALY threshold and its April 2026 change, Daniel Yankelovich's account of the McNamara fallacy and the 2020 A Level grading algorithm to show why you should use the formula and own the decision.41 min
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 hereBitesize, 1 hour 15 minutes, £39
- Next stepFocus, The meaning we make, 4 hours, £69. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £30.
- Explore, Data and judgement, 6 hours, £129. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £90.
- The whole topicImmerse, Beyond the dashboard, 11 hours, £249. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £210.
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
Other Bitesize in the Understanding Data and Data Analysis topic
- Method follows the questionData collection methods, types and quality2 hours£39
- Seeing differentlyReading data honestly and differing perceptions1 hour 15 minutes£39
- Consequences and uncertaintyUnintended consequences and sensemaking with data1 hour 15 minutes£39
- Making sense togetherWhose data, and collective sensemaking methods1 hour 15 minutes£39
- Stories as evidenceQualitative evidence and evaluation in complexity1 hour 15 minutes£39
- Targets and public dataMeasures, dashboards and public data in Wales and the UK1 hour 15 minutes£39