Two quick news stories
In this Issue:
- College career counseling is changing to better serve emerging graduates who prioritize mental health and well-being in the workplace
- From the Harvard Business Review: One simple way to get better at reading data
June is here – and even if I didn’t have a calendar to tell me it is June, I’d know the month by the condition of the Quad grass at the front of Wait Chapel. See all the brown parts? That’s dead grass from where the Commencement stage had been. You can click the picture to enlarge if you don’t see it.
Late May/early June at Wake is typically a slower time in terms of news. Many colleges, Wake included, use the summer to take care of construction projects and building maintenance, given the lower occupancy of buildings. Even so, I have a couple of news stories to share today.
College career counseling is changing to better serve emerging graduates who prioritize mental health and well-being in the workplace
Wake Forest was mentioned in a recent article that talked about how workplaces are managing generational differences:
“New college grads are starting careers at a time of a sharp generational disconnect over how the workplace should operate and how younger employees should inhabit it. In response, many colleges are rewriting the way they prepare students for jobs – and life.”
The article talks with a young alumna from Wake Forest, as well as faculty. For any of you in the Daily Deacdom who work with young people, this might be an interesting take on multigenerational work expectations. Read the full article.
From the Harvard Business Review: One simple way to get better at reading data
Statistics professor Lucy D’Agostino McGowan and business analytics professor Jeffrey Camm were featured in the Harvard Business Review. They wrote an article about how data is presented and posit that it is always a good idea to question the data:
“As a leader, you are expected to make sound decisions backed up by data. However, leaders rarely use raw data directly for decision making. Instead, they are likely to be a consumer of statistics calculated by their direct reports to help them make informed decisions.
While data are observed, the presenter decides which statistics are relevant in a particular context. Should the average of the data be presented? Should the standard deviation also be presented? Should the complete distribution of the data be presented? Should differences in the raw data, for example sales, or percentage change in market share be presented?
What you need to remember is: Statistics are not data; they are descriptions of data. To make smarter decisions, you need to know how to question the statistics or as The Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig recently wrote, ‘learning how to talk back to statistics is your first line of defense.’”
I thought this was really interesting – and if you do too, you can read the full article.
For the P’29s who are reading this, look to your inbox tomorrow for your weekly message for incoming families.
That’s all I’ve got for you today, Daily Deacdom!