Telling Stories with Data - method 1 (The "How we got here" method)

can you tell stories with data like you can with words absolutely but I don't mean just making better charts and graphs or fancier presentation slides I mean by actually applying the same techniques you would use when crafting a story with the words things like a story structure conflict resolution emotion and surprises that a real story told the data doesn't need fancy charts and graphs in fact you might deliver it with nothing more than a whiteboard and a marker now let me give you an example in June of 2000 and remor field started an online bank to help make loans to small businesses he said it was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time but as with a lot of companies at startup there were times when there wasn't enough cash to pay the bills in fact he told me the first time I couldn't make payroll was the worst you know having to choose who got paid and who didn't was emotionally draining but the way he handled it was a masterpiece of storytelling with data and he did it with only five numbers on a whiteboard here's what he did he pulled all 25 employees into a conference room and then he wrote a number at the top of the whiteboard and he said that was our bank account balance at the beginning of the month now below that he wrote two other numbers and explained those are the revenues we expect to get this month and the expenses that we have to pay to keep running the business and then he drew a line and added them all up he wrote the answer underneath and he said that's what we'll have left at the end of the month to pay your salaries and he circled that number then just to the right of it he wrote another number any circle did and then he said that's how much your monthly salaries add up to and then he paused he left the audience assess the stark dilemma in front you see the number on the right was three times the size of the number on the left and they needed something else rather unusual he asked the employees all 25 of them what they thought he should do about it now he assumed of course that the fairest thing to do would be to pay everyone 1/3 of their salary but the team surprised him with a different suggestion they thought a better method would be to pay 1/3 of the employees all of their salary and the other 2/3 none call Andrew was horrified I mean how could he possibly choose who to pay and who not to pay but they surprised him a second time when they offered to help there as well they told him that they would decide among themselves and their criteria would be based solely on who needed the money most urgently and who could wait a month or two to catch up so Andrew left the room so they could talk in private well when they called him back in Andrew got his third surprise of the day the people on the list to get paid were not the ones he expected you know he thought that the younger employees with the smaller salaries would be in the most desperate position but among themselves they decided that the older ones the ones with families to feed and mortgages to pay had the most immediate commitments you know several of the younger ones still lived at home with their parents or in an inexpensive apartment and had no family to support they were the ones who volunteered to go without so Andrea learned a lesson from that experience that he's used to this day when faced with a difficult decision that'll you know result in people being disappointed do two things first be real open and honest with them about the situation right lay all the facts out in plain view and second ask the people affected how they would decide if it was up to them you know nine times out of 10 they'll they'll come to the same conclusion that you did and at that point it's far easier for them to accept your decision because they recommended it and occasionally as in Andrews case they might even suggest a better solution that you wouldn't have even thought of now Andrews startup eventually succeeded and everybody got caught up on their pay but if anyone ever told a story with data it was Andrew Moorefield on that day so let's have a quick look at the storytelling techniques Andrew used right first notice how instead of just giving them the answer he walked the audience through each number from the bank account balance at the beginning of the month to the revenues and expenses during the month to the bank account balance at the end of the month now didn't that feel like the beginning middle and end of a story with the context at the beginning some challenge and conflict in the middle and a result at the end Christ's second notice the emotional impact of the dramatic pause he took as he let his audience assess their dire situation right third notice the element of surprise when he revealed that the bigger circle number on the right was payroll right fourth notice that he used the literary device of showing not telling and he showed them the cash flow and let them figure out there was a problem instead of simply telling them there was a problem you know that's just like in a regular story how the audience gets to interpret the events in the story instead of being told what to think and do like they would in a typical speech right and last notice that Andrew let his audience draw their own conclusions and offer their own recommendations you again that's what you do is storytelling when you're done telling the story you just pause and let the audience react you give the story a chance to work if you're presenting data in typical corporate fashion you make your recommendation up front and tell the audience exactly what conclusions to draw the storytelling is the opposite now compare all that to what Andrew could have done instead he could have simply told the audience look we're really short on cash this month and I think I'm only gonna have enough for about one third of the payroll here's what I've decided to do about it you know that's what most of us would probably say in that situation but notice that's not a story it's just a statement and it's not nearly as effective as the story Andrew told with five numbers you know this is one of my two favorite data storytelling methods I call this one the how we got here method because it you walks the audience through the data chronological order showing how we've arrived at the predicament we're in now and then you pause to let your audience figure out what the predicament is and what should be done about it if you want to learn more about telling stories with data check out chapter twenty-two of my book cell with a story or reach out to me at the address on the screen and if you like the animations in this video reach out to my friends at ink now there are links to all of those things in the description below good luck with your stories

Channel: Paul Smith

Views: 46,348

Rating: 4.9247942 out of 5

Keywords: storytelling, business storytelling, leadership storytelling, sales storytelling, storytelling with data, how to tell stories with data

Id: g-rCSinAZf0

Length: 6min 45sec (405 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2018