Making better business decisions without being a statistician

Most people work with data every day, yet very few feel truly confident interpreting it. Spreadsheets, dashboards, targets, averages, and reports often create more confusion than clarity. This course is designed to change that. Making Sense of Data is a practical, jargon-free introduction to understanding variation, interpreting performance, and making better decisions using real-world data. Based on the work of internationally respected statistician and improvement expert Donald J. Wheeler, the course focuses on helping people think clearly about data rather than turning them into statisticians. You will learn how to: * Distinguish meaningful signals from everyday noise * Avoid reacting to normal ups and downs in performance * Interpret charts and reports with greater confidence * Understand variation and what it means in practice * Present data visually in ways that are clear and useful * Make better operational and management decisions * Spot misleading graphs, metrics, and comparisons * Use simple Process Behaviour Charts to understand performance over time The course avoids heavy mathematics and academic theory. Instead, it uses relatable examples from business, operations, customer service, healthcare, education, finance, and everyday management situations. Whether you manage people, projects, services, processes, or performance, the ability to interpret data calmly and correctly is becoming an essential skill. Ideal for managers, team leaders, supervisors, project professionals, improvement practitioners, analysts, and anyone who regularly works with KPIs, targets, reports, or dashboards. By the end of the course, you will feel more confident asking the right questions, challenging poor interpretations, and using data to support sensible, evidence-based decisions rather than guesswork or opinion.