Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 288 | Leading & Managing Section | 2

Extractive summaries of and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Week 288 | March 17-23, 2023

The Simple Power of the Slow Reveal

By Nancy Duarte | MIT Sloan Management Review | March 16, 2023

Listen to the Extractive Summary of the Article

Organizational data is human data. When business data is generated by tracking the activity of human beings, the numbers deserve to be communicated in a way that highlights the human story behind them.  Leaders can encourage an emotional reaction to data by using the classic storytelling tool of building suspense. Instead of using a single slide that shows every bit of data all at once, a presenter can make numbers thrilling by revealing data piece by piece.

All stories have an emotional arc, and it’s really no different with data. By taking three steps — identifying the story arc that your data follows, creating “builds” in your visuals, and recognizing heroes and battle lines — you can bring storytelling and humanity to your data presentation.

1. Identify the Story Arc Your Data Follows.  If your data reveals a positive outcome for KPIs, objectives and key results, or other dashboard metrics, determine which of the positive arc patterns it follows — rags to riches (where the numbers steadily rise), man in a hole (where they fall, then rise), or Cinderella (where they rise, then fall, then rise again). When data follows one of these three shapes, you have an opportunity to lead the audience to a strong visceral response.
2. Create ‘Builds’ in Your Visuals.  When you’re sharing your insights in a presentation, you’ll want to display your chart one or two bars at a time. This approach will give you control over when people receive each wave of information. You’ll have time to fill in the details as you speak, generating suspense within the data narrative.  Present the information this way, and people may start a little whooping and hollering.
3. Recognize Heroes and Battle Lines.  One more tool to incorporate into presenting data is the idea of a hero. There’s nothing like a battle of good versus evil to elicit a passionate response to a data-driven idea.  The people in the audience could be the hero of the data story. They rallied, and their actions turned the trajectory of the data around.  Using language that identifies people as heroes is a way to help them see their role in creating a positive outcome. They stood in the hero’s shoes, facing the adversary. Once your audience is connecting on that level, invite them to consider what will sustain the hero’s desire to reach their goal and give them the energy to fight the good fight.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Organizational data is human data. When business data is generated by tracking the activity of human beings, the numbers deserve to be communicated in a way that highlights the human story behind them.  
2. All stories have an emotional arc, and it’s really no different with data. By taking three steps — identifying the story arc that your data follows, creating “builds” in your visuals, and recognizing heroes and battle lines — you can bring storytelling and humanity to your data presentation.
3. Deploying data visualization tools in a thoughtful way can make all the difference in moving audiences that are distracted by busy jobs and competing demands. The goal is to get an audience actively invested in what the data is revealing.

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Topics:  Story telling, Communications, Leadership, Presentations