How to Use Data (Or Not) to Get Buy In
An email arrived with the subject line, "New analysis for customer engagement."
I moved my eyes from the screen to the window, and saw the green leaves on the trees on the hill outside my office, perched on a hill, waving at me in the breeze.
I blinked and went back to the email. The sender described what business problem the attached Excel sheet related to. She added, "I've pulled the data so we can all see what it tells us."
I shifted in my seat. I took another sip of steaming coffee from my insulated mug. The recent customer complaints had put us all in an energetic state that had caused competing ideas and increasing conflict within the team.
"Let me know what questions you have," the email concluded.
This is what it was:
What I saw was static.
The human mind sees everything happening in the world in a narrative format, not a stream of data.
Data is important, but it must be shaped into recommendations that tap into a person's (or a team's) problems, desires, and goals. All of those charts and graphs – the data – support narrative. They don't replace it.
I looked at the spreadsheet. My eyes scanned the rows and columns of data. From my peripheral vision, I saw out the window an elderly woman walking a dog under the trees on the hill, the sunlight reflecting off of the dog tag. I wondered what its name was.
I closed the spreadsheet. I moved to the next email in my inbox.
When you want to persuade your peers, your boss, the committee, or the customer that the data shows us what to do, the narrative is even more important than the data.
A few simple principles to create a narrative:
What problems, goals, desires does your audience care about? How much do they already know about what you are going to tell them?
What action does your data suggest your audience should do that will improve the situation? This is your recommendation. It should be your opening statement, or your first slide, the title of your document, the subject of your email.
Why is this needed? Now you can get to your data. What does the data mean for your audience, why should you do this?
Put data into a story that moves people, and you will move people to act. Data is just a part of the story.