Bring data to life
Through effective storytelling strategies
Never before have we had so much data at our fingertips to help make our presentations more persuasive and compelling. Regrettably, too many leaders fail to use simple strategies to infuse their information with a strong narrative. Today, I’ll share my Ready, AIM, FIRE approach so you can stand out from others who simply data dump on their audiences.
While in Atlanta last week for the Annual CommNet gathering, I was invited to spend a day as guest lecturer at Emory’s Goziueta School of Business. To a packed lecture hall (okay they were required to attend), I was able to share my approach with several hundred undergrad BBA students, which I will synthesize for you here.
As you approach the skill of storytelling, consider the metaphor of an archer seeking to hit a target. Effective archers know that mastery matters. They will rigorously practice with the same tools, at the same target, from the same distance, knowing that the goal is not a bullseye every time, but incremental growth in mastery each time. I love Sarah Lewis’s TED talk where she describes this in vivid detail.
Mastery is not a commitment to a goal but to a constant pursuit.
What gets us to do this—what gets us to forward thrust more—is to value the near win.
-Sarah Lewis
Further, in archery as in communication, it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition, as even getting close to the goal can win points. If you simply make your data story incrementally better with the strategies below, it increases your odds of persuading your audience.
READY: prepare by first reminding yourself of the basic story structure found in any Disney film. I prefer Nancy Duarte’s model below.
Begin with a conflict, incident, or question; move through the data toward the climax; and then seek resolution. If you’re presenting results from the past, say your team’s quarterly numbers, tell the story of what occurred. It may be that you are presenting future projections, in which case you can only predict the resolution based on the numbers you have and the recommendations you’re advocating.
AIM: it’s no surprise to any of my regular readers that successful data stories rely on setting a clear strategy for your communication. I continually return to the AIM model developed by Mary Munter and Lynne Russell in their classic text, Guide to Presentations (2013).
Before crafting your story, you must first know and understand your audience’s needs and facility with data. Next, you must clarify your own intent. As a result of this communication, what do you want the audience to think, say—and most importantly—do? Once these two bases are covered, then you can rise up to message. Too many ineffective leaders begin with the message they want to share, rather than considering what the audience is ready to hear. Munter & Russell put AIM in that order for a reason! It’s become a powerful pneumonic in all my communication efforts. It’s emblematic of an iceberg. The 10% that shows above the waterline is the talk you give or story you tell. The 90% below the surface is the time you invest to know your audience, define your intent, and hone your message.
Too many ineffective leaders begin with the message they want to share, rather than considering what the audience is ready to hear.
FIRE: now we come to the heart of my approach—how exactly do we then craft a story with the data we have to influence an audience to take the action we desire?
Focus their attention
Include the right visual
Reduce clutter
Evaluate effectiveness
Focus: As a speaker, you have a great deal of control over where the audience will look on the slide. You can guide us to what you want us to see with attributes such as size, color, position, and animation. In the West, the top left corner is the starting point when we read, while the top right corner is where we aspire to be. Think of the classic hockey stick chart in every founder’s pitch, showing positive cash flow up and to the right. We can move beyond these “hardwired choices” by highlighting a data point for emphasis. Ad and web designers have used the science of our eyes to capture and retain our attention for years.
Visuals: my friend, the data story guru Cole Knaflic, provides a “cheat sheet” in her remarkable book, Storytelling with Data (2015), providing only 12 chart types we need.
When you look closely above, she really only provides 9 data visuals (on the right) we should master and use. This simplifies your work as a communicator. Further, you may note she has not included pie charts (or donut graphs or spaghetti charts). She advises we avoid the food visuals as they don’t read as easily as line or bar charts.
Clutter: the adage less is more applies so fully here. Each legend, arrow, data point, graphic, or word you add to a slide places a cognitive load on your audience. It’s your role to reduce as much clutter as possible so what remains is a clear and compelling story. With strategic animation, I can add a bit more complexity or nuance to a slide, but it’s important to layer in the elements of the story, not blast them like a firehose of information.
Effectiveness: now we return to our initial image of an archer. What was our intent with this data story, and how close to that goal did we come? Perhaps we hit a bullseye and the deal was signed. More often, we may be within the first or second circle of the target, and by answering their questions or providing more information in a follow-up meeting or email, we can still move that audience to agree to our request. And even if you did score a bullseye on the first try, it’s still worth reviewing your visual, with an eye toward greater mastery and considering how you could have made it just a little bit clearer.
As with all my tips in Communication Matters, travel at your own pace. You need not scrap all the decks you’ve ever created, but see if you can adjust a handful of slides to follow these principles. Begin to shift from data dump to data story and see if you can increase your effectiveness and your audience’s enjoyment. The undergrads at Emory took the pledge to do just this; you can too, and let me know how it goes for you.
JD’s Recommendations: what I’m reading, hearing, and seeing:
Reading: in this fascinating piece, the BBC looks at why women seem to ask fewer questions in talks and panels, with strategies to change this.
Hearing: one of my former coaching clients, Andrew Huberman, began a four-part series on mental health on his podcast, with Stanford’s Dr. Paul Conti.
Seeing: saw this moving animation, Q&A, produced by StoryCorps, as they share best practices for ethical storytelling.
As always, jds
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Great examples JD.