How do you use storytelling and data visualization to convey complex messages to employees? This is a common challenge for corporate communicators who want to motivate and engage their staff. In this article, you will learn some tips and techniques to craft compelling stories and visuals that can capture attention, inspire action, and build trust.
Storytelling is not just about telling anecdotes or jokes. It is a powerful way to communicate your vision, values, and goals to your employees. A good story can connect emotionally, intellectually, and morally with your audience. It can also make complex or abstract ideas more concrete and memorable. To create a good story, you need to have a clear purpose, a relevant context, a compelling plot, and a meaningful message.
One rookie mistake when it comes to storytelling is spending too much time on the messaging. Messaging matters because it's what you want people to take away at the story's end. But I have seen senior executives spend hours wordsmithing a message while ignoring all the human elements of a company's story. What draws us in and drives an effective story forward is character. Help your audience not only understand what motivates the central character, but show us exactly who this person is based on the actions she takes, what she says and the way she says it (voice), and how she deals with a conflict or challenge. Whether you are telling your own story or someone else's, focus on the human connection to ensure your message is well-received.
Data visualization is not just about making charts or graphs. It is a way to present data in a visual form that can reveal patterns, trends, and insights. A good data visualization can simplify complexity, highlight key points, and persuade your audience. To create a good data visualization, you need to have a clear question, a relevant data source, a suitable visual format, and a clear interpretation.
Data visualization is a double edged sword - its one thing to share the data itself aka the "what" but data in a vacuum doesn't convey information. As such, too often, data visualization is used to share the "what" leaving the "so what" aka knowledge and the "now what" aka wisdom to the imagination. As a best practice for strategic communications of any kind, the visualization should share information and convey knowledge. Voiceover, sidebars or headlines should tell the reader how to contextualize and what to do next.
Storytelling and data visualization can be used together to enhance communication. Defining your audience and goal is the first step, followed by choosing the data and story that you want to tell. Then, you must select the visual format and narrative structure that will best show your data and organize your story. Designing the visual and story to be appealing, understandable, and persuasive is essential. Finally, you must deliver the visual and story to your audience.
To illustrate how storytelling and data visualization can work together, here are some examples of successful corporate communication. Spotify used data visualization to create personalized playlists and stories for its users, showing them their listening habits and preferences to create a sense of connection, loyalty, and fun. Airbnb used storytelling to create a brand campaign that showcased the diverse and authentic experiences of its hosts and guests, creating a sense of belonging, trust, and curiosity among potential customers. Google used storytelling and data visualization to create a report that highlighted the impact of its products and initiatives on society and the environment, creating a sense of responsibility, credibility, and innovation among its stakeholders.
To improve your storytelling and data visualization skills, it is important to consider your audience and goal. Data and story should be used to support each other, and the right visual format and narrative structure should be chosen. Additionally, it is important to keep the content simple and clear, using clear language, labels, and legends. Finally, it is important to test and refine the content, getting feedback from colleagues, friends, or experts, and making adjustments as needed.
In my experience, weaving facts and narrative elements together work best. Consider this sentence: "NOAA data shows that ignoring climate change harms the US economy." Now consider this: "Forty years ago, climate-related disasters such as hurricanes, cyclones, wildfires, flooding and drought with losses exceeding $1 billion per event in the U.S. occurred an average 5 times a year according to NOAA. Today, that average is 17.8 events a year. Thus our failure to address the causes of climate change now costs businesses and taxpayers $17.8 billion a year just from natural disasters alone." Interspersing data with story elements paints a stark and alarming picture more likely to make readers act.