I’m on leave. The day before I went on leave, everybody wanted everything from me, because I was going on leave, even though I’m only away for three business days. In order to go on leave, I had to deal with a request for a “quick trial,” providing advice on null results, and managing staff remotely.
Continue reading “Hecticness of Leave”
Today, I incorporated the feedback that we received overnight on our draft materials for our randomised control trial. I’m going to discuss user testing, and why it’s a big part of the applied sociology work that I do, running randomised control trials for social policy.
Continue reading “User Testing”
Today I reflect on an important meeting for one of our projects. We’ve had a lot of setbacks because we don’t have useful data sources or infrastructure to enable us to run a proper randomised control trial. I discuss one example of how we assess the viability of our projects, and what this activity looks like in the context of a typical day as an applied researcher.
Continue reading “Assessing the Viability of an Applied Research Project”
We presented our recommendations for scaling-up to senior managers, who were highly engaged and supportive.
Continue reading “Scaling”
I presented on our project seeking to improve services for vulnerable people who are at risk of recidivism. The questions from the audience were interesting, from specifics about our methods, to how we can encourage conservative organisations to go through the cultural change required to adopt our recommendations.⠀
Continue reading “Services for Vulnerable People”
Reducing reoffending is a state priority in New South Wales. New sentencing reforms will increase referrals to behaviour change programs or other support services for people who are at high-risk of reoffending. Yet non-mandatory programs can often have low participation rates, particularly when programs are new.
Continue reading “How to improve justice programs”
Flood-related fatalities have been an ongoing problem in Australia since the early 1900s. This post reflects how our team worked through this behavioural issue, and brainstormed problems, during a recent masterclass we ran with NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES).
Continue reading “Emergency decision-making”
Our new research shows apprentices who cancel their employment contracts do so because they often feel they are subjected to tough working conditions for little pay (undertaking menial, repetitive tasks and long hours), receiving little guidance about their progress on the job. How can behavioural science help?
Continue reading “Education and training”
A colleague and I organised a board game afternoon as a team building exercise at the end of 2017. We had so much fun! I got us some nibbles including panettone, which is a traditional food eaten over the festive season across Latin America. Feel very lucky to be surrounded by such clever and creative people. This was our view over Sydney. Continue reading Board Game Afternoon
On the road, at Kiama, en route to Nowra. A group of us are travelling to meet with Aboriginal women’s groups to learn about their service delivery and programs. https://othersociologist.tumblr.com/post/168783243793/kiama https://assets.tumblr.com/post.js Continue reading Kiama
Social Science Insights 