Observe! Record! Count!

Dr. Rajesh Tandon, Founder-President, PRIA, came up with the idea of devoting substantial amount of his time for building internal staff capacity in the coming year. In this effort, the first seminar was held on April 11, 2018 on “Overcoming the Fear of Numbers”

The  session started with an interesting analysis of numbers we come across in our daily life -- what numbers could we see in the conference hall where we were seated? Number of fans, said someone. The basic count of number of people in the room, divided into men and women. What about the numbers on the dial of the clock, said another colleague? If numbers are so much a part of our daily life, then why do we fear working with numbers in our analytical work and documentation?

The session continued with understanding the difference between mean, median and mode. A back to school moment!

Learning was reinforced by carrying out a short exercise based on data of PRIA staff to calculate mean and mode.

If we observe, record and count numbers in our daily lives, we will be habituated to observe, record and count them in our projects. What better way to overcome a fear of numbers.