True or False:

• Personality type is a significant predictor of performance in certain jobs?
• Getting the mix of personality types right is important for team performance?
• Good teams perform better than the best performing individual member of the team?
• "Team Building" exercises improve team performance?
• Changing the culture of an organisation changes its performance?

All of these ideas are currently being applied in the management of many organisations. At least one of the ideas is backed by solid theory that has been repeatedly tested. At least one of the ideas is in total conflict with the body of evidence in its parent field of study. This Skeptics in the Pub talk is about Management Science. More specifically, how much of management is "science", how much consists of interesting but untested ideas, and how much is in ignorance or conflict with the evidence base?

Dr Andrew Rae is a researcher and lecturer in the field of system safety engineering. Decomposing the discipline: - safety is about preventing accidents - engineering is about applying scientific principles to solve real-world problems - systems engineering is about engineering the process and organisation of engineering itself Drew is an engineer by training and inclination, but his attempts to apply science to organisations have led him into the murky world of sociology, where rigorous research design competes with pseudoscientific fads.

Drew is a regular speaker on the Skeptics in the Pub circuit, and speaker convenor for York Skeptics.

Prince Charles is a staunch defender and millions of people swear by it; most UK doctors consider it to be little more than superstition and a waste of money. But how do you know which treatments really heal and which are potentially harmful? Simon Singh and his co-author Professor Edzard Ernst investigated the evidence for and against alternative therapies and published their conclusions in “Trick or Treatment?”, an honest, impartial and hard-hitting examination and judgement of more than 30 of the most popular treatments. Singh, who has also authored “Fermat’s Last Theorem” and “Big Bang”, will discuss how and why he got involved in writing about alternative medicine. In particular, he will discuss the origins, philosophy and testing of acupuncture and homeopathy, two of the most popular forms of alternative medicine. Singh, who was unsuccessfully sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association, will also discuss the impact of libel laws on scientific journalism and the ongoing battle for libel reform.

After completing a PhD in particle physics, Simon Singh MBE joined the BBC and worked as a director and producer on programmes such as Tomorrow’s World and Horizon. He has also presented programmes on Radio 4, BBC4 and Channel 4. He is best known as the author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Code Book, Big Bang and Trick or Treatment?

Stand-up comedian Iszi Lawrence will be discussing "The Experiences of an Awkward Athiest - How superstition, belief and reason are intermingled in comedy and everyday life" Iszi Lawrence is the resident compere of the Lil Fat Comedy Club Witney, has had sell out shows at the Camden, Brighton, Oxfringe and Edinburgh Fringe. Her debut four star show "Matter of Tact" was Time Out Recommended and London Lite Comedy Pick.

She also appeared in Perrier Award winning The Passion Of The Hodgson and has appered on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4, BBC7 as well as local radio inc Resonance FM. Iszi is also co-host of the Sundays Supplement podcast and set up Oxford Skeptics in the Pub. She has been an invited speaker to Athiest Think Week, Thinkcon, University College Dublin, Kritisk Masse Oslo, as well as Skeptic Societies around the UK.

Our behaviour, attitudes, beliefs, and even the way we experience events are choreographed and scripted by the demands and expectations of the various roles that we occupy in the course of our everyday life.  We need to be seen as authentic in our roles, namely that we are adhering to what the role requires of us.  But we also need our roles themselves to be seen as authentic.  Hence we are likely to resist any challenges to our authenticity in both respects.  The same may be true when we are clients in a role relationship.  This may lead us to behave and think in ways that are irrational, questionable and counterproductive.  I shall illustrate this with reference to therapeutic practices such as ‘alternative medicine’ and – if time permits - demonstrate how this analysis has been helpful in addressing some questions that have arisen in my forensic work.

Michael Heap is a clinical and forensic psychologist with over forty years of experience working both with people with mental health and neurological problems and with criminal offenders. An internationally recognised authority on hypnosis, he is also a prolific writer and speaker on scepticism.  He lives in Sheffield, England.  He is the author of a recent book entitled Universal Awareness: A Theory of the Soul, which may be ordered from CreateSpace.

A recent survey published by the British Medical Journal found one in ten scientists and doctors saying they had witness colleagues intentionally altering or fabricating data. Based on his investigation of Andrew Wakefield's research on the MMR vaccine, Brian Deer shows how easily it's done, and why nobody steps in to stop it.

Brian Deer is an award-winning British investigative reporter for the Sunday Times who specialises in inquiries into the drug industry, medicine and social issues. In 1986 his investigations revealed that research into the safety of the contraceptive pill had been fabricated by Professor Michael Briggs working for the German pharmaceutical company Schering AG. In 1994 his investigations into the side-effects of the antibiotic co-trimoxazole (Septrin and Bactrim) led to restrictions in its use. In 2008, a celebrity psychiatrist, Raj Persaud, was suspended from practising medicine and resigned his academic position after being found guilty of plagiarism uncovered by a Deer investigation.

In a series of reports Deer investigated the concerns raised about the safety of the MMR vaccine by Dr. Andrew Wakefield published in The Lancet. Deer's investigation led to the longest-ever inquiry by the General Medical Council. In January 2010 the GMC judged Wakefield to be "dishonest", "unethical" and "callous" and he was subsequently struck off the medical register. Responding to Deer's investigation and the GMC finding The Lancet fully retracted Wakefield's research paper.

Deer's television documentary: MMR: What they didn't tell you, a one-hour Dispatches documentary for Channel 4, first broadcast in 2004, became the subject of a libel case brought by Wakefield. Wakefield eventually dropped the case incurring legal costs.

It’s Lucy’s job to make microbiology accessible and this includes getting accurate science into the mainstream media - something that’s not easy when competing with the likes of the latest celebrity news. With an apparent increase in science on TV as well as groups like Skeptics in the pub, Lucy will talk about science in the media and the many and varied ways in which science is engaging with the public and asks: is science becoming an integral part of popular culture? 

After completing a PhD in molecular biology and biochemistry, Lucy attended the first Sense About Science “Voice of Young Science” workshop in 2004, where she decided that her passions lay in talking about science rather than doing it. A couple of jobs later, she is now the Communications Manager for the Society for Applied Microbiology, where she spends her time promoting the science that’s published in their journals and at their meetings, and makes microbiology accessible using all kinds of online, hard copy and social media.

Twenty years ago two Hampshire men admitted to the national press that they were responsible for creating the crop circle phenomenon. During darkness they would flatten patterns into fields of cereal crop, creating one of the most enigmatic puzzles of the 20th century. With the circles came a legacy that continues to entertain, inspire, anger and infuriate: bad science, conspiracy theories, new ageism and plain bad logic.

Trystan Swale is a contemporary folklorist who has investigated a range of Fortean phenomena from the perspectives of both a believer and, later, a critical thinker. He is the founder and former host of the recently deceased Righteous Indignation skeptical podcast.

There can be few aspects of Christmas that would escape the wrath of a committed skeptic. Are we celebrating the birth of Christ or the convenient, political, alignment with pre-Christian festivals? Does the 'season of goodwill', by definition, suggest ill-will for the rest of the year? Not to mention the orgy of consumerism, the waste, the pressure to have a perfect Christmas that leads to debt, family arguments and even divorce (not suicide, though, the figures suggest that increased seasonal suicide rates are an urban myth). In this talk Peter Dunkley explores how Christmas has escalated over the years into the most important trading time of the year for many businesses (including his pub and restaurant..), but arguing that the current position is completely irrational and is as bad for the economy as it is for the poor schmucks that are paying for it and for for the environment that gets one hell of a kicking every year.

David Allen Green explains how skepticism is not just about ghost and ghoulies, UFOs and homeopathy.

David Allen Green is convenor of Westminster Skeptics.  He is also a writer and lawyer.  His Jack of Kent blog was shortlisted for the George Orwell Prize in 2010 and he was appointed legal correspondent of the New Statesman in 2011.  He also has a media law practice in the City of London and was selected as one of The Lawyer’s “Hot 100” earlier this year.  He is from Birmingham, supports Aston Villa, and likes the X-Files and Vertigo comics perhaps too much.

Simon is an active campaigner against nonsense whose work has helped shut down dodgy allergy test services, prevented traditional Chinese medicine vendors from claiming to cure cancer, and exposed psychic scams. His "Quacklash" campaign involved sending almost 600 separate letters to Trading Standards, reporting claims that childhood diseases could be treated with a back rub. Simon will be explaining the techniques he has used to fight woo, talking about what works and what doesn't, and telling stories about some of the crazy nonsense he has encountered along the way.

He also runs Leicester Skeptics in the Pub

The late eighteenth century was a very creative time for inventing new forms of quackery and many became quite wealthy on the back of their invention. Of these creations, it is perhaps only homeopathy that has survived virtually unchanged into the 21st century. The majority of alternative medicines available today have been invented and developed within living memory, despite claims of their origins in antiquity.

What makes an alternative medicine successful? Why should homeopathy survive when the very popular tractors of Perkins have long since been forgotten? Could you have predicted this in 1800? Today, we have a new industry of quack devices protecting us from mobile phones. Should you invest in such enterprises?

In this talk, Andy will look at the factors that make pseudo-medicines thrive and why consumers and practitioners latch onto them. Importantly, we shall explore the implications of these views for regulation and protecting the public from delusional or fraudulent claims.

Andy Lewis developed the web site quackometer.net that explores the pseudo-medical claims of alternative medicine web sites and their impact on society.