Test What You've Learned

​The most impressive users of research and analysis are those who take the results and feed them into further experimentation.  The instinct to test, to experiment, creates progress regardless of whether the industry is business or academia, for-profit or non-profit.

Once, after a lengthy discussion of admissions and financial aid policy options with a college administrator, one of us suggested what was for that school a novel course:  experiment.  Take the alternatives that were the subject of so much protracted consideration and put each into practice with a subset of prospective students.  In two months, evaluate each action. 

"This is the real world," the administrator responded.  "We can't play games!"  Think about how you would respond to this.  Is empirical testing somehow risky?  If so, is it riskier than setting a course without the benefit of evidence?   You can compare it to the choice to keep money under the mattress.  The person making that choice has to be unaware that investment risk is overshadowed by the near-certainty of inflation eating into the value of that cash.

Kudos to those who find ways to use analytic results to enhance further learning and to push toward the next peak.  If that describes you, we'd be proud to help.