The Future Work Centre hosted an event during which, an academic and a practitioner shared their perspectives on why evidence matters and how to use it, and how to overcome barriers. The two experts – Professor Frank Bond, director of the Institute of Management Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Wayne Mullen, senior director of global leadership and capability at an online gaming company – then joined our insight director Dr Richard MacKinnon for a lively and interesting panel discussion.
Key insights and advice included:
- Not all evidence is created equal: there often isn’t enough of it, it isn’t diverse or clear enough and we don’t judge it critically for its quality or relevance, or use it in a systematic way.
- Assessing the evidence in front of us means adopting a mindset of ‘enlightened scepticism’: who’s done this research, and with which population? How’s it going to relate to me, in my context?
- There’s no one-size-fits-all approach or universal truth: evidence applicable in one organisation could be less useful in another.
- Gathering and assessing scientific evidence is just one part of the process – there’s also room for using your professional judgement.
- Taking an evidence-based approach can sometimes be challenging, time-consuming and hard to sell to your stakeholders. But it’s far more likely to give you the outcome you want.
