Who should attend

Anyone who wants to sharpen their communication skills.

ABOUT THE Session

“Data doesn’t speak for itself; it needs a storyteller.”

Sharing data is a constant in our business lives, but striking the right balance between being a data dumper and meaning maker is a bigger challenge than it may seem. Many of us, knee-deep in our day-to-day work, have a tendency to share too much detail and swamp people with too much data, causing them to zone out. Other times, we suffer from the “curse of knowledge” and don’t give our colleagues or clients the appropriate background or context they need to understand our key points. 

Whether you’re pulling together an informal project update or a more formal end-of-year report, if you work with data, there are best practices you can learn to make sharing this type of information more engaging and compelling.

In this class, we’ll share a “before and after” transformation of a standard data presentation and dissect the differences between the two. We’ll also give you five elements you can use to spice up any data presentation, from comparisons to personal reflections to interest-building phrases. You’ll walk out with inspiration and tools you can use to make immediate improvements to your next data presentation or conversation.  

what you’ll learn

• Why you need to develop a data “point of view;”

• Why less is more when sharing data;

• Why you need to use comparisons to help your listeners understand scale and size;

• A few simple phrases that can make any data set more compelling;

• How your own moments of discovery can add interest to your data story;

• How to use PPT “builds” in your data story to increase suspense and engagement;

• Two storytelling structures, including one you can use when presenting to time-pressed decision makers.

Note: This is not a webinar on making better charts and graphs.  Our focus will be on how you can use words and images to bring data and your most important ideas and concepts to life.

OPTIONAL learning lab WORKSHOP AVAILABLE

Looking to offer participants a hands-on experience after they take this class? Our Learning Lab add-on class may be just the thing.  Learning Labs give participants a chance to bring in their own content and practice key skills for instructor feedback.  So that we can offer a personalized experience, we limit the number of attendees who can join each Learning Lab. Each participant will be asked to complete some light “pre-work” beforehand so they come to the session warmed up and ready to go.

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