The Right Way To Tell A Story With Data: Five Steps That Will Engage And Influence Your Audience Every Time
Story matters.
We’ve heard it before: people are more likely to remember data presented as a story, rather than an avalanche of numbers. That’s why story is essential.
The ultimate goal of business storytelling is to influence action.
But when the rubber meets the road, and we’re about to start our story, where do we begin? How do we see the forest from the trees? And most importantly, how do we resist the temptation to show more than is needed?
The five steps to telling a story with data
A common story archetype: hero who leaves home, goes on a journey, faces adversity, and returns a changed person.
Learning to tell a story with data is similar. You enter the dark forest of pixelated data (trees!)—numbers without context—but as you travel through it, patterns emerge, and you get your bearing.
Ignite-360 has developed a five-step guide that provides you with a roadmap for that journey.
• Know your audience
• Provide relevant context
• Identify a Big Idea
• Engage and captivate audience
• Simplify complexity
Know your audience
Storytelling begins here. Why?
Would you tell a story the same way to a five-year-old as you would to your grandmother? Of course not.
Knowing your audience helps you frame your story. It’s the first step in understanding how to curate your data to make the story relevant and impactful.
Audience tips
Understand your audience. Ask yourself a series of questions:
• Who are the people I’m telling this story to?
• What will matter to them?
• How will they use this information?
• What do they already know?
• Is the audience new to you? Does trust exist?
Provide relevant context
Context illuminates; it doesn’t bog down.
It sets the stage, brings in backstory, and deepens the audience’s understanding of the matter at hand. It helps level set and ground the audience. Looking back helps them fully take in the story.
But don’t overwhelm by providing too much. That’s why understanding your audience is key.
Context tip
Put yourselves into others’ shoes. Imagine your audience and where they may have gaps in historical knowledge. Fill those gaps with the right amount of context so everyone starts on a level playing field.
Identify a Big Idea
People say: he couldn’t see the forest from the trees. Meaning too much detail, not enough big picture. But as a storyteller, we have to get acquainted with the trees in order to understand the forest.
A Big Idea unifies. It’s the overarching canopy that makes your story memorable. You have to be brave to enter that dark wood of data. As you befriend the trees in order to understand the larger eco-system, the bigger picture emerges.
But how to get to that Big Idea?
Sometimes you have to fail—a lot. It doesn’t always come easily. It requires developing habits and applying techniques to bring that often elusive Big Idea out of the darkness and into the light.
Big Idea Tips
Post-its are your friend. Use them to capture your brilliant ideas and easily (re)organize your thoughts. Instead of floating in your head, ideas become tangible. Connect smaller ideas to reveal bigger ideas. This is where the magic happens.
Three-minute pitches create focus. Write a three-minute pitch to develop and increase clarity around your Big Idea. It may not arrive on the first try, but it will sharpen your thinking, and surprise you with insights that you might not have arrived at otherwise.
Engage and captivate your audience
Data should support your big idea.
With quantitative data, the temptation is strong to show more than needed. The challenge is finding that just right place between too much and not enough.
Your story will often compete with the attention of a time-strapped, exhausted, and distracted audience. You want to captivate them.
You want to take their hand, guide them through the terrain with which you are already familiar, and introduce them to the forest and trees you know so well.
Engagement Tips
Get visuals right. Are you presenting data that supports the Big Idea? Ensure it’s easy for the audience to understand what it reinforces.
Variety engages. Use diverse visuals and language to keep people engaged. Slide after slide of the same old, same old, lacks impact.
Brevity rules. Revisit your headlines to make sure they’re tight. Show restraint. Conciseness keeps the story moving.
Simplify complexity
You’ve gotten this far in your storytelling journey, so how do you create simplicity from complexity?
Information overload causes an audience to shut down.
If you don’t streamline, your audience loses its way and drifts off into the woods alone. You will find yourself on the other side of the forest, with only a handful of people you started with.
A big part of simplicity comes from constantly asking yourself: do I have this idea pared down to its most basic essence?
Simplification tips
Combat boredom. Pay attention to points in your storytelling where you become bored or lost. If you feel that way, your audience will.
White space highlights. Help your audience focus on data you’re spotlighting. White space gives your audience breathing room.
Learning to explain and inspire through data storytelling
Storytelling with data is a skill that can be learned and improved by: knowing your audience, providing context, developing a Big Idea, engaging your audience, and simplifying complexity.
But even though we’ve come to the end of this blog post, it’s only the beginning. Find out more about how to tell a better story with data that will engage your audience.
And find your way to a happier ending.
Are you ready to tell your data story and inform and influence your audience? Don’t want to do the work alone?
We can help! Contact us at hello@ignite-360.com
Want more storytelling tips for your business? We have more to share. Sign up for our newsletter and check out these related thought pieces:
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Learn How to Speak Up: The Power of Spoken Stories in Business [Podcast]