Data Storytelling Upgrades -- How To Make the Data Sing
The Problem
So here I am – a colleague sends me a 100+ page deck full of data. The purpose of the deck? To influence the decisions of project stakeholders.
But here’s what I find -- lots and lots and lots of words. Tons of raw data. You have to hunt and peck for summary data spread throughout various sections. Various images are scattered here and there. A few charts are included. Many slides were black and grey with orange text (ugh!). Or slides were white but so loaded with text it felt overwhelming. It felt heavy, overpowering, and ugly. See everyone’s brain turn off and go ‘clunk’.
I’m shaking my head going no, no, no. This isn’t going to do it.
Yet the insights gained plus recommendations given are golden. The project’s findings are rich, actionable, and could have a hugely positive outcome on the company. Unfortunately, they were offered up in a big difficult-to-understand data dump.
Most of it was presented in a way that worked against how the brain operates.
Imagine — you are sitting in the audience, waiting for a professional presentation to begin. Before you’ve even arrived at the room, you were busy responding to emails, reviewing spreadsheets, and analyzing data. You were swamped with facts, stats, and the demands of business communication.
Now, the speaker takes the stage, and launches into the presentation full of complex charts, graphs, and bullet points – but what Cognitive Load Theory teaches us is that your mind has already maxed out its capacity for facts and stats.
So, while the info on the slides might be paradigm-shifting for you and your company, your audience likely won’t remember it. It won’t stick. If your audience can’t recall the facts of the presentation once it’s over, how can they take action on your new information? They won’t be able to, simply because you can’t remember most of what was said. Instead, poor decisions happen.
Once our brains reach capacity, information passes through our minds but does not stick. Why? Because when we listen to a PowerPoint presentation filled with info, only the 2 language centers of the brain (Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area) gets activated. The brain has to work really hard to listen to the information, store it, make meaning of it, and try to remember it. As a result, the brain collapses anywhere between 10-20 minutes. This article showing the brain on too much information documents how terrible decision making is when the brain is on data.
Even worse, in meetings where brains are on data, people end up in endless debates about the data — not about the insights shared, decisions to make, or ideas to generate. As a result, decisions get delayed, delayed, delayed. Your message either didn’t get heard or got run over.
The Fix #1 -- There are 3 basic tasks to influential/effective data storytelling
You have something important to say. You want people to remember it. You want to help people make good decisions. So here’s what to do:
Structure your deck as a narrative – make sure your deck is in the right order to avoid massive data dumps.
No matter who the audience is, begin with the Why and the Context.
Move to the business problem that needs solving.
Share the action steps you took, or you want your audience to take.
Show your solution/recommendations.
End with a key message.
Put your massive amounts of data at the end as an appendix. As you are moving through steps 1-4 above, reference the appendix, knowing listeners can review this on their own.
Go through your current deck and add what’s missing. Reorganize it as a story so people can remember the important message(s) you have.
Use visual language – Drop the biz speak/jargon/boring conceptual language. Use a metaphor to frame the entire presentation and use analogies as you go along.
Create a frictionless layout – create a beautiful deck with less friction. Make it skim-able. Lots of white space. Use colors (NOT black and orange), keep text to a bare minimum, number every bullet point for easy listener reference.
This should get you started.
In my next newsletter and blog post, I’ll share how to tap into your audience plus how to block and chunk information so it’s easier to digest.
Let’s all upgrade those data storytelling skills so you can help yourself and others be more successful!
