{"id":35695,"date":"2024-02-09T00:02:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T08:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35695"},"modified":"2024-02-09T21:06:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T05:06:23","slug":"numbers-dont-lie-people-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/numbers-dont-lie-people-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Numbers don’t lie, people do."},"content":{"rendered":"

I love numbers. Numbers make sense. Numbers add up. Numbers give objective data. Numbers do not lie. People on the other hand do lie. People do not always make sense nor add up. People often hide or lie about things, including numbers. These are principles I live by and found myself teaching to my employees concerning money management. If you have read any of Tim Harford\u2019s works, you would not be surprised that I loved his book, The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics. <\/em>This is apparently the same book as How to Make the World Add Up<\/em> only with a different title for the US version.[1]<\/a> This was the only way I could access the book in Africa on Kindle. Harford addresses statistics, data, and methods to view and interpret these figures for an accurate perspective. He gives ten practical rules to use in looking at data which I think is also applicable to other areas in life. These are similar principles to what I used in managing the accounting of a small clinic in a poor neighborhood in North Africa. It was basic and less sophisticated from Harford\u2019s 10 rules, but the ideas were there, and it worked.<\/p>\n

In my work and ministry context, these principles are very foreign ideas to those who live day-by-day. There is no perceived need to question numbers if the amount at hand will feed your family for a meal or for the day. This is a concept I cannot pretend to understand from my privileged position. I tried to learn from the staff and their circumstances. I also wanted to lead them into a new way of looking at money and data, for the sake of understanding and performing their jobs well. This is where I had to implement Harford\u2019s rules into the most basic of situations. The following are some of the ways I tried to look at data at the clinic and how some of Harford\u2019s rules and principles overlapped with mine<\/p>\n

My number one rule was numbers do not lie, humans are the ones making the errors. What comes in minus what goes out equals what should be left in the cash box. This simple cash-flow system works great when you live in a cash-only society. This understanding did not come as easily to the person responsible for the money management. As I repeated and explained endlessly, trying different approaches, I could easily become frustrated– enter Harford\u2019s first three rules.<\/p>\n

Rule 1: \u201cSearch [my] feelings.\u201d[2]<\/a> Self-awareness, especially of my own emotional state, was key in continuing to slowly try to encourage change in my staff.<\/p>\n

Rule 2: \u201cPonder your personal experience.\u201d[3]<\/a> If the numbers were not adding up, it was time to investigate further. This was where the employees would often throw up their hands and say, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d Instead, I tried to encourage them to look at the big picture along with the figures on the spreadsheet. What happened that day, week, or month that may help explain this discrepancy? In our situation it was often a missed receipt, a cash advance handed out without recording it, or numbers that were accidentally switched around. Little by little I started to see the employees use their own critical thinking, focusing on different aspects of the situation, their experiences, and began to solve the number problems.<\/p>\n

Rule 3: \u201cAvoid Premature Enumeration.\u201d[4]<\/a> \u201cYou cannot just put a number down because you think that is where it goes. You must know what the numbers mean first.\u201d This was a conversation I had with my employee every quarter when it was time to prepare the employee social security payment. This is an area that continues to be a challenge.<\/p>\n

“You need to ask \u2018Why?;” was another phrase I repeated often. I believe Harford gets to the heart of all humans with his golden rule, \u201cBe Curious.\u201d[5]<\/a> In my context, what seemed to be lacking with the staff in most areas was curiosity. They did not ask questions. They did not counter the status quo. They did not ask \u201cWhy?\u201d. This was true in their work ethics, and it is also true in their society\u2019s religious formation. They have been trained to memorize their holy book, repeat stories and arguments, never questioning why. These things are deeply ingrained in society. What can one do to breakthrough these beliefs?<\/p>\n

The solution was to recognize my own fallibility. I had to own my own errors, learn from a different way of thinking, present quality statistics, data, and live it out these principles in my own life. This is the entire premise of Katherine Schultz\u2019s book, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. <\/em>Schultz gives three techniques to prevent error. Firstly, recognize that mistakes will happen[6]<\/a>. Second, be vulnerable.[7]<\/a> Lastly use quality, accurate data.[8]<\/a> \u00a0For my own growth, I had to accept that errors would happen no matter how hard I tried to prevent them. Through my own actions and responses, I had to show my staff how to be transparent, vulnerable, and willing to be held accountable. Lastly, systems were put into place to ensure that quality and accurate data could be recorded and easily used. As I struggled and sweated through my own learning curves, the employees were watching. They, too, were learning. I knew they were also on a path of transformation when they started to ask, \u201cWhy?\u201d My hope remains that they will continue to ask questions and as Harford says, \u201conce [they] start asking [questions], [they] may find it is delightfully difficult to stop.\u201d[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Tim Harford, \u201cAnnouncing the Publication of The Data Detective,\u201d Tim Harford<\/em>, February 1, 2021, https:\/\/timharford.com\/2021\/02\/announcing-the-publication-of-the-data-detective\/.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Tim Harford, The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics<\/em> (New York City, NY: Riverhead Books, 2021), Kindle, 21.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Harford, The Data Detective, <\/em>51.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Harford, The Data Detective, <\/em>67.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> \u00a0Harford, The Data Detective, <\/em>267.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Katherine Schultz, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error<\/em> (New York City, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc, 2010), Kindle, 304.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Schultz, Being Wrong, <\/em>304.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Schultz, Being Wrong, <\/em>305.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Harford, The Data Detective, <\/em>282.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love numbers. Numbers make sense. Numbers add up. Numbers give objective data. Numbers do not lie. People on the other hand do lie. People do not always make sense nor add up. People often hide or lie about things, including numbers. These are principles I live by and found myself teaching to my employees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"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":[3043,2967],"class_list":["post-35695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-harford","tag-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35695","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\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35695"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35702,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35695\/revisions\/35702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}