For the past 40 years my mother has been on a diet. She has a weekly ritual. Every Thursday morning she gets up, visits the bathroom and then, before she has had her customary cup of tea, she weighs herself. Why does she do this? Because she knows full well that she is at her […]
Are Your Neighbours Spying On You?
W Edwards Deming is often quoted as saying: “In god we trust, all others must bring data”. His point was that if you want to improve an operation; hunches, beliefs and superstitions just won’t cut it. You need to have the data that shows what is really going on. No data, no improvement. Unfortunately the […]
Employee Engagement: One Statistic You Really Should Know
There are lots of statistics about employee engagement and how important it is. The problem is most of them are, not to put too fine a point on it, dull. Let me give you an example: Some very dull statistics Gallup do lots of research into employee engagement, this is what they came up with […]
A Highly Sexist Observation
The Pareto Principal If you are female and reading this, I have two questions for you: 1. How many pairs of shoes do you own? This isn’t a personal fetish, it will be OK… What is your answer? My wife (who states she doesn’t have as many as most women) lays claim to 17 pairs. […]
Don’t Believe Everything You Read in the Newspaper
Statistics are wonderful things. I found this old advertisement. I saw it and wondered who would fall for it. Then the penny dropped, lots of people, otherwise they wouldn’t be banned for being misleading. Which then got me wondering, when was the last time I was misled by statistics? Not so long ago. How about […]