Listening is Golden: but to listen you first need to be quiet

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Getting great results requires listening. In our work we measure and analyze data to ensure our clients deliver the best possible service. But data doesn’t just mean numbers and graphs and statistics. Data can include lived experiences, how legal processes feel to a person, what social conditions mean when you live them every day, and […]
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Facts Are Chiels That Winna Ding: What Poetry Can Teach Us about Data

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Alan Mackie in Atlanta, Georgia, at the replica cottage of Robert Burns's birthplace.
Tonight is Burns Night, a celebration of the life and work of Scotland’s National Bard, Robert Burns. This remembrance of the “ploughman poet” is not restricted to just Scotland. Tonight, Burns’ immortal memory will be toasted globally: from Edinburgh to Dunedin, from Edmonton to Durham, and from Eindhoven to Delhi. But what can Scotland’s greatest […
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Using Data to Remedy Bias and Improve Outcomes

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Implicit biases can affect outcomes in unforeseen ways. Using rigorous data collection and analysis it is possible to identify biases and to see how they may be contributing to unwanted outcomes. (See our earlier post on this topic). But once biases have been identified how can they be remedied? Accurate data and analysis allow your […]
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Identifying Biases Using Data Analysis

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How bias affects policy  All policies have unintended or unacknowledged consequences. Unforeseen outcomes can happen for several reasons, including faulty or incomplete assumptions and planning that is not sufficiently rigorous, but a major source of unintended consequences is bias.  While biases may be explicit, the result of identifiable ass
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