About me

That’s me in the picture, of course. I’m usually better “coiffed”, but I was standing on top of Mt. Washington and that will un-comb your hair right away.

I’ve worked in policy, evaluation, government relations, communications and consulting, and I’ve seen the value of cutting through complexity and explaining what your data is saying, quickly and clearly. From policy and evaluation, I know the importance of high quality, credible analysis, but in the world of government relations I learned, from some of the best communicators around, that there is a real return to communicating well with data, and that this is a skill to be learned, like anything else. This is a critical and uncommon piece of experience that helps me to help you to communicate more effectively with data.

As a powerful extension to this, understanding the critical importance of social networks in communicating on issues and disseminating information, I have added network analysis to the toolbox: both social networks and the networks of players, causes and effects known as “system dynamics”. I can hardly believe the powerful potential of this technique for my clients to explore and understand their webs of customers, stakeholders and influence.

Career at a glance:

• Started as a program evaluator and strategic policy analyst for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, planning and evaluating major national housing programs. Saw both sides of the policy/evaluation coin.
• Moved to government relations, as ‘point man’ with the late Jack Layton and the Big City Mayors Caucus to arrange over a billion dollars in housing investments in Canada. I learned effective communication and briefing inside and out.
• Managed and edited the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Quality of Life Reporting System, covering 22 major municipalities. Our reports garnered significant media and political attention to help drive and guide progress in federal/municipal investments in infrastructure and community-building programming.
• Consulting: I have done policy, evaluation and research for a wide variety of clients. I have also taken training on visual data analysis with Stephen Few (he and Edward Tufte are the originators of most of what you see being taught by others today), Duarte Design (world leaders in presentation and briefing design) and Mathew Jackson, Stanford University, on social and economic network analysis.

I’ve been able work with and maybe even influence some pretty cool people.  Happy to talk any time: jburrett@haikuanalytics.com   613.818.2848

 

Thanks to the American Evaluation Association for spotlighting me in the January 2017 Newsletter – “Face of AEA – Meet John Burrett”.

 

 

 

 

This article in Canadian Executive outlined the strong argument agains using briefing decks.

Here’s a link to the issue (Volume 21 – Issue 5) on the CGE site:

http://www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/dig/21_05/

 

In September 2015 I was interviewed by the Lobby Monitor, a subsidiary of The Hill Times, on the subject of using data analytics to understand the picture of political lobbying in Ottawa. The article was entitled “Big Data: Analytics beginning to catch on in GR circles”.

Here’s the link to the article, though the Lobby Monitor may request at least a trial subscription for access.

http://www.lobbymonitor.ca/2015/09/25/big-data-analytics-beginning-to-catch-on-in-gr-circles/14060