The book How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them) is an enlightening guide to the numbers we read in the news and why they are so often misleading. The author\u2019s Tom Chivers and David Chivers make sense of dense material and offer insights into sampling bias, statistical significance, and the dangers of believing the casual language used in the news. They make it clear from the beginning that the purpose of the book is to talk about numbers \u201c\u2026we\u2019re going to talk a lot about numbers: about how they\u2019re used in the media, and about how they can go wrong \u2013 and give misleading impressions. \u201d The statement \u201cmisleading impressions\u201d is important because it shows the intent of how organizations, specifically the news, use statistics to mislead, for shock value, or to amplify their point. I cannot stress how important this is, especially in the age of social media. In order to understand the importance of misleading statistics we need to define it. \u201cMisleading statistics refers to the misuse of numerical data either intentionally or by error. The results provide deceiving information that creates false narratives around a topic. \u201d Misuse of statistics often happens in advertisements, politics, news, media, and others.<\/p>\n
Why This Is Important As Leaders?<\/strong><\/p>\n In their book Extreme Ownership, authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin say that \u201cFor leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. \u201d But if we do not have the proper information or incorrect statistical information, how can we best lead our teams? One of the things that the book How to Read Numbers points out is that we need to treat statistical information with caution. Even if we agree with the statistical information because it proves our point or supports our idea, we still need to treat it with caution. As a leader, we have influence. John Maxwell says that leadership is influence, and as a leader, we need to be careful in how we wield our influence. This reminds me of the scripture that terrifies me the most in all of scripture, which is James 3:1 \u201cNot many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.\u201d This book is done in a light, approachable style that makes it a delight to read. It’s all nicely balanced, informative and laser-accurate in pinpointing the errors we see day after day from the media, which is important to keep in mind in the age of social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The book How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them) is an enlightening guide to the numbers we read in the news and why they are so often misleading. The author\u2019s Tom Chivers and David Chivers make sense of dense material and offer insights into sampling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2347,2076,2088],"class_list":["post-29522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01","tag-chivers","tag-chivers-and-chivers","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29523,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29522\/revisions\/29523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAs Christian leaders, we need to take care of how we communicate information (statistics included) because God holds us to a higher standard, so when we are presented with information, we have to scrutinize it not just for ourselves but also for the sake of those that we lead. It is a huge honor and responsibility to be a leader in any sense but to be a leader that follows Christ, we are held to the highest standard.<\/p>\n