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Have a go and list the 5 bar charts that have had the most impact on your life to the extent that you remember them in detail or at least know where to find them!  Struggling?  OK, how about the 5 pie charts that remain in your memory?  Any graphical rendering of data? 

The ones I more or less remember are where I’ve spotted they are misleading in some way, eg a truncated axis, logarithmic data, or oversized pictograms.

If you found a few examples of data presentations that stick in your memory I suspect there’s a reason for it, or in other words a story attached in your memory.

There are two types of data:

Quantitative Data

This is mathematical data.  You can calculate means, standard deviations and other things so long as you use the same data type throughout.  This type of data is convergent.  So long as you don’t make mistakes and use honest methods to process and present the data, your results will converge on a single answer (or set of answers).  There may be disagreement about how you process the data but these can be resolved, which is why peer review is so important.  Interpretation of results might be less easy to agree upon but in the end, the argument boils down to whether the data does support your interpretation or whether someone else comes up with something better. 

Qualitative Data

This data is harder to process and often tedious and time-consuming.  Artificial Intelligence may be able to help but its help will be limited because this type of data diverges.  The more you process this data, the more possibilities emerge.  The key to this is understanding that you can choose your answers, this data generates answers you hadn’t thought of.  This might sound like a happy hunting ground for conspiracy theorists but it has its uses in the real world, eg seeing a given situation from the perspectives of its various actors.  How would I act if I saw it this way?  Or you can ask: if we acted in this way what would be the likely outcome?  This analysis, sometimes called soft systems, is a great storytelling tool.

Stories About Data

However, in this post, I focus on quantity because stories help with data too.  Despite our almost total inability to remember graphical presentations, we insist on feeding them into overhead projectors.  The point is they are confusing, even when they are accurate.  They’re confusing because there’s too much information for the unprepared audience.  They’ll stop listening as they struggle to understand what they see on the screen. 

It’s much better to use stories with perhaps some simplified data and offer the full details in handouts for those who are interested.

You may present data you have collected and processed yourself or data you've found that backs your case.  These can be combined.  The main thing to remember is you should be searching for data that disproves your case.  Use the data that remains when you have exhausted all reasonable alternative views.

I’ll focus on data you have collected yourself.  The following questions may help you identify stories to get your message across.  If you use someone else’s data, adjust the questions accordingly.

1. What led to you gathering this data in the first place?  What is the problem you are addressing? 
2. How did you gather this data?
3. Do you have detailed accounts of a few of your data points? For example, if you were researching the use of food banks, do you have the stories from users or managers?
4. What surprised you about your data?
5. What are the implications of the data? What changes does it suggest?
6. Do you know of alternative interpretations and why have you rejected them?
7. What happens if nothing is done as a result of this research?

These questions will help you pull together your presentation.  Keep what’s on the screen to a minimum and focus on getting your message across.

This is the ninth in a sequence of posts about business storytelling.  The first post was Marketing: Art or Science?  The last post was Stories About Products and the tenth post will be What Is A Story?

To try out one of your business-related stories and receive feedback from me plus a few other business owners, please comment below to arrange an informal conversation.  I run these sessions free of charge on the second and fourth Thursdays.  Visit my website to find out about the Telling Stories Autumn meetings.

Minerva tells me she was preparing a pictogram showing owl sizes when the owls flew away.  She's not sure who the person who came to help may be but she seems to be offering them an onion bhaji.  She believes a net would be a better idea.