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storytellers
Read time: 3 mins
If you're growing a business, you probably have access to a bunch of data.
But you don’t have time to try to figure out the data yourself.
You need experts in your team to analyse it and give you a summary - telling you what the data says and what it means.
Even more importantly, you need to be able to make quick, smart decisions based on what the data is telling you.
To use data to grow your business you need 2 different and essential things:
1. DATA turned into INSIGHTS (aka technical analysis)
2. INSIGHTS turned into CLEAR COMMUNICATION (aka storytelling)
In this day and age, access to data does NOT mean better business performance.
But having technical experts with great technical analysis AND storytelling skills is a weapon.
Unfortunately, it's a very rare weapon.
A lot of technical experts - the people in charge of the data - are shitty communicators.
This was me too (hey, Steve here).
It’s not their fault.
Data scientists. Engineers. Accountants. Safety, IT, and technical professionals.
They're smart, detail-focused, introverted people.
And they're definitely not trained storytellers.
But if you want to turn your data into business outcomes, you need to turn your people into technical storytellers.
So today we're sharing 3 steps to do it:
3 WAYS TO TURN YOUR DATA PEOPLE INTO TECHNICAL STORYTELLERS
1. Learn a communication and storytelling structure:
Authors don’t just write randomly.
A great story has phases (e.g. Setup - Conflict - Resolution).
When turning data into insights and recommendations, the same thing needs to happen.
Invest in training to learn and develop a replicable communication and storytelling structure for your team, so they can easily turn their data into meaningful insights.
2. Shift the focus from internal to external:
Most of our data people are introverts.
Their solutions are constructed behind a screen.
We need to push our technical storytellers to interact with the people who are impacted by the outcomes of the work:
Operational staff, customers, subject-matter experts, decision makers.
External voices will help develop better solutions, and craft stories that resonate with the people they're intended for.
3. Train your team:
Since we were kids, we've had coaches and teachers help us learn sports, music, math, and anything under the sun.
Why are things different as adults?
Want to create storytellers out of your technical experts?
Get a coach!
I've been training teams in technical storytelling for the last 10 years; it's an approach I've refined and has been a key part of driving billions of dollars of value for the businesses that used it.
We're considering running a session specifically for businesses trying to implement Data Storytelling skills in their business.
If you're interested, click here and let us know.
Thanks for reading and speak soon!
Steve (and Lynne)
TLDR:
- Technical storytelling is a rare and valuable skill stack that needs to be invested in to extract valuable insights from your data and grow your business
- Shift to problem finding, get external input, and teach your team a communication and storytelling structure that works for your business.
- It doesn’t come naturally - get a coach / support to build your team’s skills
When you're ready, here's how we can support you further:
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Learn more here .
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