Plain Numbers Practitioners
Welcome to the Plain Numbers Practitioners’ area. You’ll find everything you need for your training course, plus materials to support your work as a Plain Numbers Practitioner.
Becoming a Plain Numbers Practitioner is about much more than just your initial training. After attending the sessions you’ll start using the Plain Numbers Method in your organisation and be an important part of improving how numbers are communicated. We’ll give you ongoing support to help you make a real difference to your customers and your organisation.
Starting your practitioner training
We’re looking forward to meeting you on our Plain Numbers Practitioner training course.
We want you to get the most out of your training sessions, and for you to feel confident to start applying the Plain Numbers Method to the communications your organisation sends out.
Now you’ve booked your training, we have a handy overview here on what to expect, alongside everything you need to know and do below.
Watch the video introduction
We’ve created a video introduction to the course, which explains how the training works and what you’ll learn. You can watch this at anytime before your course starts.
Get ready to start the workbook
It’s easiest to save it on your computer and use Adobe Acrobat to open it and fill it in.
You’ll need to complete the activity workbook as part of the course. The first activity – before your first training session – is to read up to page 10, which includes information about the Plain Numbers research trials (there’ll be a short group discussion about this in the first session).
You’ll then use your workbook to complete the exercises between each session.
The activities are designed to support your learning and help get you set for your work as a Plain Numbers Practitioner. At the end of the course you’ll need to send us a copy of your workbook in order to achieve accreditation as a practitioner.
Look through the slides after each session
Here are copies of the training slides. Feel free to use them as a reminder after each session.
Using the Plain Numbers Method
Here’s an overview of how you can use your new skills in your organisation, and how we can support you. Do speak with the Plain Numbers lead at your organisation, as well as the other practitioners, so you can plan your work together.
Using the techniques in your day-to-day work
Having done the training, you’ll have a new lens through which to see your everyday work. You’ll be able to use the tools and techniques to inform how you put together new pieces you’re working on. You can apply the approach to anything relevant that comes across your desk.
Informal support from the Plain Numbers team
If you’d like an expert eye on something you’re working on, you can get in touch with the Plain Numbers team. There’s no extra cost for this support – it’s all included in your partnership. It could be help with the best way to explain a single concept to customers or more detailed input into something you’ve drafted using the Plain Numbers techniques. Just get in touch with the Plain Numbers Partnership Manager for your organisation. All we ask is that you have a go at applying the approach first, then we are always here to help!
Certification
Most organisations have certification credits included in the partnership. This means we work with you to make sure a communication reaches the highest level of clarity from a Plain Numbers perspective. This could be letters, emails, websites or any other form of communication, including videos and agent scripts
When you’re preparing a piece of communication for certification, the first step is to fill in the communication intent worksheet. As you know from the training, being clear about your organisation’s objective and your customer’s aims is essential. You’ll then use the Plain Numbers techniques you’ve learnt to make sure the piece is as clear as possible.
We’ll give you feedback to help the communication reach the highest possible standard and there may be some things we need you to update in order to achieve certification. We’ll always work pragmatically within any restrictions you may have at your end (for example regulatory requirements and digital constraints).
Once you achieve certification, you’ll be able to add a unique Plain Numbers Certified logo to your communication.
Please contact your Partnership Manager if you have questions about how the certification works.
After your practitioner training
You’ll need to email us your completed workbook (plus the material you worked on for session 4) when you’ve finished the course. We’ll then be able to accredit you as a practitioner: we’ll send you a certificate and logo.
Joining our community
You can celebrate becoming a Plain Numbers Practitioner on social media and follow us to keep up to date with our work. Please join us on LinkedIn.
We’d be delighted for you and your organisation to talk about your work with Plain Numbers and spread the word. To make that as quick and easy as possible, we’ve created some templates for you to use.
Plain Numbers guide
As you work through the course and start using the Plain Numbers Method when you’re accredited as a practitioner, you may find it useful to refer to the handy guide we’ve created.
Top-up training
You can also refresh and enhance your learning at the annual top-up training sessions. These sessions give you a reminder of what you learnt in the full training and are ideal for about a year after your first training.
We run the session at least once a quarter so keep an eye out for an email on this.
Plain Numbers Community Events
Now you’re a Plain Numbers Practitioner, you’ll be able to join our practitioner-only webinars as well as our regular webinars which are open to everyone from our partner organisations. These will explore wider topics related to customer understanding that aren’t covered in your initial training.
You can book onto all the Community Events HERE.
We have new sessions on different topics regularly. The upcoming sessions for 2025 will be:
Plain Numbers in Unexpected Places
Date: Thursday, 22nd May
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Who can attend: Plain Numbers Practitioners only
We’ll be thinking outside the box about where Plain Numbers can, and has been, successfully applied. We instantly think about letters, emails and webpages but there are even wider ways you can use the approach. We’ll be inviting Practitioners to guest speak about some of their examples of communications which may include video, verbal communications and internal information. The exact details will be confirmed closer to the date.
Using Graphics Within the Plain Numbers Approach (re-run for Practitioners that missed this session on 11th June)
Date: Wednesday, 11th June
Time: 11am – 12pm
Who can attend: Plain Numbers Practitioners only
This session builds upon the initial Plain Numbers training. It will provide Practitioners with practical guidance on how to effectively use visual representations of numbers to support customer understanding. We will use real world examples of charts, images, infographics and more to demonstrate how to use visuals effectively.
Note that this session is the same as the one we ran on this topic in June but due to high demand from those who couldn’t make it, we are running the event again.
Communicating Numbers in Tables Effectively (re-run for Practitioners that missed this session on 14th Nov)
Date: Monday, 10th November
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Who can attend: Plain Numbers Practitioners only
Are tables an effective way to communicate numbers? The Plain Numbers Approach often encourages you to question whether tables are needed. There are times when using a table is the best way to present complex information. So, what’s the difference between a good table of numbers and a bad table of numbers from a customer understanding perspective? Join us to learn how to apply the Plain Numbers Principles you learnt about in your training to tables of information and make them as easy as possible to understand.
Note that this session is the same as the one we ran on this topic in November but due to high demand from those who couldn’t make it, we are running the event again.
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