1. Bad Arguments → Bad Choices Great news. There will be a follow-on to the excellent Bad Arguments book by @alialmossawi. The book of Bad Choices will be released this April by major publishers. You can preorder now. 2. Evidence-based decisions → Effective policy outcomes The conservative think tank, Heritage Foundation, is advocating for evidence-based […]
1. Evidence → Social RCTs → Transformational change More progress toward evidence-based social programs. The Laura and John Arnold foundation expanded its funding of low-cost randomized controlled trials. @LJA_Foundation, an advocate for evidence-based, multidisciplinary approaches, has committed $100,000+ for all RCT proposals satisfying its RFP criteria and earning a high rating from its expert review […]
1. Great stuff on data-driven decision making in a new O’Reilly book by Carl Anderson (@LeapingLlamas), Creating the Data-Driven Organization. Very impressive overview of the many things that need to happen, and best practices for making them happen. Runs the gamut from getting & analyzing the data, to creating the right culture, to the psychology […]
This week we examine how executives can more fully grasp complex evidence/analysis affecting their outcomes – and how analytics professionals can better communicate these findings to executives. Better performance and more trust are the payoffs. 1. Show how A → B. Our new guide to Promoting Evidence-Based Insights explains how to engage stakeholders with […]
1. When nudging fails, what else can be done? Bravo to @CassSunstein, co-author of the popular book Nudge, for a journal abstract that is understandable and clearly identifies recommended actions. This from his upcoming article Nudges that Fail: “Why are some nudges ineffective, or at least less effective than choice architects hope and expect? Focusing primarily […]
The driving force behind MDRC is a conviction that reliable evidence, well communicated, can make an important difference in social policy.” -Gordon L. Berlin, President, MDRC 1. Slice of the week: Can behavioral science improve the delivery of child support programs? Yes. Understanding how people respond to communications has improved outcomes. State programs supplemented heavy […]
Dentists will slow down on antibiotics if you show them a chart of their prescribing numbers. Antimicrobial resistance is a serious public health concern. PLOS Medicine has published findings from an RCT studying whether quantitative feedback and intervention about prescribing patterns will reduce dentists’ antibiotic RXs. An intervention group prescribed substantially fewer antibiotics per 100 […]
1. Panning for gold in the evidence stream. Patrick Lester introduces his new SSIR article by saying “With evidence-based policy, we need to acknowledge that some evidence is more valid than others. Pretending all evidence is equal will only preserve the status quo.” In Defining Evidence Down, the director of the Social Innovation Research Center […]
1. SPOTLIGHT: Warby Parker data scientist on creating data-driven organizations. What does it take to become a data-driven organization? “Far more than having big data or a crack team of unicorn data scientists, it requires establishing an effective, deeply ingrained data culture,” says Carl Anderson. In his recent O’Reilly book Creating a Data-Driven Organization, he […]
1. Management research: Alchemy → Chemistry? McKinsey’s Michael Birshan and Thomas Meakin set out to “take a data-driven look” at the strategic moves of newly appointed CEOs, and how those moves influenced company returns. The accompanying podcast (with transcript), CEO transitions: The science of success, says “A lot of the existing literature is quite qualitative, […]