Storytelling with Data
Picture Credit – Times of India Data Storytelling touching our daily life… When I was reading the newspaper and the below visual caught my attention. The finest part of the visual along with the data was that it was self-explanatory. This made me think as a storyteller that it might not always be a case that every time, we need a story to present out data or we in person have the opportunity to present the data on offline or online mode quite similar to how I was just simply reading it. How do you help people making the data more relevant and meaningful weaving a narrative around the data elements? Elements of Data Storytelling applied in the attached TOI report: Time & Place Marker: Data & facts regarding air pollution and prevalent air quality in Delhi, ncr and northern India on various days one week before Diwali. Humanistic Approach: Factors affecting the air quality gives a relevant argument to readers that the amalgamation of Stubble burning, weather conditions and wind speed which have contributed to the plummeted air quality giving a meteoric rise to air pollution. Call to action: The forecast gives a clarity to readers what they should be prepared for in the coming days, weeks. Along with numbers a meaningful and relevant visual help to catch the attention of the reader and visualize the alarming situation thereby creating a sense of urgency required to address it. People can relate to numbers better if there is a context build around those number which helps them to understand and further take an action. Data Storytelling comprises of building context for communication by understanding the audience, adding a visual design – an imagery along with the data – the accurate representation to help viewers and adding all the information in an intriguing & engaging way to help understand easily. Published by Monika Tandon
Storytelling in Business
In today’s corporate world the ability to tell stories has been identified as a powerful business practice. Purpose driven stories helps us to land our message in a relatable manner. Storytelling helps us in structuring our thoughts and presenting them with warmth of emotions by forming a connect with the people at our workplace. In today’s time the importance of communication by harnessing the power of stories and tools of storytelling to enrich the way we interact cannot be understated. Good communication skills always come handy in communicating our ideas and stories helps us to package those ideas in a meaningful way. Share your personal stories at workplace. As your own personal stories gives you a way to stand out from the crowd. They connect on an emotional level because you have experienced it and it is authentic! Your story tells a lot about you, your struggles, failures, and achievements. It tells people why you do what you do. Stories inspire and engages the mind and therefore helps in building more meaningful bonds with the listeners. Sharing your own journey from trial to triumph also encourages your team to open up and share their journey and they also look up to those stories as a survival guide with a light of hope to motivate them to keep trying to accomplish their dreams. Stories have the power to reach to people’s hearts by touching their emotions. The most critical part of using stories in business or at workplace is to find the right story for the right situation. Storytelling is immensely powerful tool in sales. To make a sales pitch and convert it, especially in B2B context, storytelling really helps in giving proper context, helps in highlighting the client/customer problem it is resolving, and how the features of the product or service actually fits as the solution for the client/ customer problem. People don’t buy what you sell, they buy what you believe in, and that is why conveying trust and confidence to people is an integral part of selling. Storytelling is a tool that helps you right from infusing a purpose driven story in your presentation building up to how you plan to deliver the story and the content of your speech or presentation to the listeners. Always focus on why the audience should care about what you say. What problem does your product or service solve? Deliver actionable solutions in your presentation. Every story has a central theme and a plot, and so is your business presentation. Always focus on sharing just one idea, the main point with a crisp headline in the presentation. Add more substance to it by sharing all the relevant details that circle around the main orbit that is the one main idea of the business presentation. Summarize by presenting the challenges in the implementation of the idea and how do you plan to resolve them to create a happy picture of success by creating a value for your client. There is a lot to leverage from the world of Storytelling at our workplace, right from sharing stories to create an understanding and forming a connect with the people to structuring our thoughts in the business presentation to present our ideas in a meaningful way. Start sharing stories and connect through storytelling at your workplace. Published by Monika Tandon
