Story Telling with Data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
Story telling is an ancient art. Prehistoric families sat around fires to share, besides warmth, stories of their adventures. Stories engage, convince and transform. Stories pack power as they engage the child in us who never really grows up
And do stories sell? You bet! You can use stories to discover needs and create value. Salespersons who share exciting stories of how their offerings solved a critical problem or uncovered an incredible opportunity for another Customer, are welcome everywhere.
Mastering data driven selling becomes much easier, if we can get our data to tell the stories they hold. One way of achieving this is to learn the art of combining numbers with narrative and turning boring data into captivating stories. But hold on, do we really need to learn any of this, when any AI tool can create brilliant data charts and slides in minutes?
AI tools are definitely powerful, fast and great at matching patterns. But there are some human aspects of telling stories with data that they may not be suitable to do. First, they cannot understand the context of the presentation and the nature of the audience. As Jim Stikeleather points out in a HBR article our prospective buyer audience could range from novice to expert. Or it could be generalist to managerial. It can sometimes be the C level executive. Each of them needs a differentiated approach. Context, in terms of where we are in the sales journey also matters. Human judgment becomes necessary in picking what is the type of visual or chart that would best convert the data on hand into a compelling story.
Storytelling with Data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic helps us do all this and more
Key Nuggets from Knaflic's Book to Become Better Story Tellers Using Data:
- Context determines effective story telling. Understand the who, what and how of your audience, their existing knowledge, possible biases and how they see you and your role
- Be clear about what you want your audience to understand, take away and act upon
- Pick the right visual that can communicate your data insight. Tables, charts and graphs, all serve a purpose but different ones. While using tables minimize heavy borders and shade the numbers you want to highlight
- Avoid cluttering the visuals as they increase the cognitive demands on the audience. Subtract and simplify because less does more in presentations. Make generous room for white space, it adds elegance
- Add strategic visual cues with design elements like size, colour and layout
- Let the visuals be straightforward and functional and not complex. Help your audience quickly get what you are trying to communicate. Aesthetics should add to the clarity and take away focus
- Use story structures to make your data memorable. Examples include: Beginning, middle and end, Setup, Conflict and Resolution
- Infuse ideas derived from data and logic with emotion. After all most purchase decisions are driven by emotion
- Never forget what moves your audience. Your narrative should be woven around their needs and the story must be framed around their goals, challenges and motivations. They are the heroines and heroes of your story
While retaining the rigour of a textbook that sets out to teach a fairly difficult subject, the book is fun to read and engage with. The layout is friendly to the eyes and the content is structured to make it easy to absorb the tools and apply them quickly at work. Knaflic encourages us all through the book to try the entire range ideas, tools and frameworks the book lays out.
The Call to Action
Knaflic calls us to action – "There is a story in your data …. Use the lessons we've covered to make that story clear to your audience … Never again will you simply show data. Rather, you will create visualizations that are thoughtfully designed to impart information and incite action"
As she memorably exhorts, "Go forth and tell your stories with data" Let's do!
About the Author
Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic is a data visualisation expert, speaker, educator and founder of Storytelling With Data (SWD). Cole's expertise is in making complex data simple and engaging. She is the author of 3 bestselling books – "Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals", "Storytelling with Data: Let's Practice!", and "Storytelling with You: Plan, Create, and Deliver a Stellar Presentation." Cole feels drawn to the place where math and business intersect, and she believes that turning data into pictures—graphs—can make it more understandable and accessible. Her favourite chart type is the bar chart.
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”
– Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
