Have you ever been party to:
· Presentations full of line and bar charts which provide no insight into data
· Charts which need to be analyzed to decipher its meaning
· Reports which need to be re-read to get some clarity into the message
After Delivering a Presentation have you ever received comments or questions like:
· And what exactly is it that you’re trying to say here?
· What do you want me to take back from this chart/slide/presentation?
· That’s all okay, but what’s the story behind this chart/slide/presentation?
Charts, Slides, Reports, Presentations, Dashboards – are tangible outputs we use as tools to convey the intangible thoughts within our heads. In business, these thoughts often represent our unquestionable expertise in our field. But most often, our expertise comes into question because these tools do not do a great job of communicating our thoughts effectively.
Enter – DATA STORYTELLING – an essential skill to bridge this gap. It is the last mile of the Data Analytics process, and arguably the most important piece that results in knowledge transfer from your mind to that of the Receiving Audience.
In a nutshell – Data Storytelling is about effectively communicating the insights from data using narratives and visuals, catered to specific business contexts. It is the Art of weaving the ancient and scientifically proven storytelling technique into the science of data and leveraging it with good design to communicate effectively with data.
This technique will make your charts-slides-presentations-reports-dashboards talk to your audience, even when you can’t. To understand a little more about Data Storytelling, let’s dive right into a few examples. Charts that invite quizzical questions from your audience most often look something like…
This… And while these charts might be a good visual representation of the data, they provide no clear insights and hence no story behind the numbers. Such charts compel your audience to analyse the information themselves in order to uncover any insights or conclusions from that data.
The excessive time spent by stakeholders and decision makers at this stage, doesn’t bode well for efficient Data Driven Decision Making at your organization. To provide clear outcomes and ignite action from our audience, we need to start weaving our data into a thread of storytelling. Data Storytelling for me is about a way of thinking and not the tool
To become effective Data Storytellers, the most important element is a mindset shift. Remember, Don’t use charts just for visual representation of data, instead use them to showcase your insights > analytics > message > story. When we make that small mindset shift and apply Data Storytelling techniques – here’s what the earlier two examples would look like:
Like this… A few seconds on these charts and your audience will be able to spot the key insights and grasp the story behind the numbers without having to analyze the chart themselves. Once the story is clear, no more questions will be thrown your either! Data Storytelling is really that simple And with my frameworks and techniques I guarantee – I will change the way you think and communicate with data I am a published Author, Tedx Speaker, Corporate Trainer, Keynote Speaker and ICF – ACC Coach and I am leading the march to rid this world of data dumps.
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