Struggling with making data exciting in your slide deck? Data can be dynamic. Statistics can tell superb stories.
Here’s The Formula:
Start with facts. Add feelings. And you’ve got a data story.
Let’s turn to the world of sports for a timely example.
Let’s build a short story with data we have from the Washington Nationals path to the World Series.
Here we go — stay with me to the end.
Because business owners can apply the above formula, too.
Data You Have Prior to Making it a Story (using MLB as example):
– Winning percentages
– Games played, wins and losses
– Names and ages of players; positions, personal statistics
– Division rankings
– Historical facts (e.g. date of last world series win)
– etc…
I couldn’t help but take in last night’s World Series win
and see a pretty amazing storyline.
We see this in sports all the time. And yet with clients, I find they are hard pressed to turn their data into compelling stories, even though the stories are most certainly there.
Turn Data Into a Story:
“After playing the first 50 games of the 2019 season, the Washington Nationals were 19-31.
Historically, no team has recovered from a worse 50-game start to win it all.
They had a shot at post-season ball in the Wild Card game.
They were playing the Brewers. Winner goes to the Division Series. A 20-year old, Juan Soto, smacked a double late in the game to give them a 4-3 lead. They stunned Brewers fans. They won and advanced.
In the NLDS they did something no one expected. They forced a Game 5 against the Dodgers. L.A. who won a jaw-dropping 107 games this year. They have been so close to the WS title in recent years they can practically taste it. They were favored by a lot.
Kendrick ripped a grand slam in the top of the TENTH to advance the Nats to the NLCS. They played AT the Dodgers. “Stunned” LA fans hardly works as a descriptor.
The Nats then SWEPT the St. Louis Cardinals – a team on fire this summer – to win the NL pennant. They won in 4 games.
The weirdest part of the World Series to me was that the home team never won. They never won at home. I’ve never seen or considered that before, ever.
It was home field “DIS”advantage. For 7 games, the visiting team – no matter what – won!
And so it was for game 7.
The Nationals. A start-with-nothing team with minimal steam gave one of the greatest post-seasons we’ve ever seen.
They went 7 games to win the WS for the first time ever. Bliss!”
———–
Now pause and think about your data. Think about your company and the charts and graphs you want to show the audience.
Read this again and put your company as the Nationals, your competitors as the Brewers, the Dodgers, the Cardinals, the Astros.
-How are you plowing through competitors?
-What numbers seemed like losses but led to wins?
-Who have you steamrolled in order to win, and who’s on your company’s team?
In Sum:
Statistics can tell superb stories. Start with facts. Add feelings. And you’ve got a great data story.
According to Forbes.com, Cindy Skalicky is “arguably America’s top expert in evaluating persuasion effectiveness.” She has helped company founders raise millions of dollars in venture capital. She has personally trained executives at Microsoft, members of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), and countless entrepreneurs pitching deals to the investor clubs all over the United States on how to win multimillion-dollar deals.
Cindy helps speakers and teams Nail It. She coaches speakers and teams on A to Z presentation training, speech writing, delivery, and overall content development. Cindy also provides specialized workshops in Scientific Messaging and Executive Presence. Master the Message. Learn more at www.onpoint-communications.com or contact Cindy at: cindy@onpoint-communications.com.
