Let me tell you a story...

There are a lot of posts and articles that tell us that we need to tell the story behind the numbers when working in finance but what exactly does that mean?

It isn’t good enough anymore for the finance team to send out an email with a couple of excel files attached and expect a. that the email will be read and b. that the information provided in the excel files will be understood.

By all means send the email as an initial action but after that the information that you are sharing needs to be presented one way or another for it to make any impact on your business partners and stakeholders.

One of the easiest ways to present the data is by getting stakeholders or management teams together in a room and displaying the data on a screen. This resolves issue a. above as you are certain that the information has been viewed, but has it been understood and is the audience receiving the message you are trying to convey.

A story explains the data rather than just exposing it or displaying it.

To really get the message across to your audience you firstly need to understand yourself what it is you are telling people and know how you want to frame the information that you are sharing.

There is a lot of truth that a few hours after you hear a presentation, if you ask yourself, “What do I remember?” If you recall anything, it will probably be a story.  

In some respects (and I’m definitely guessing here!) at least a part of this can be related back to childhood. What are some of the biggest elements of your childhood that you remember? Is it stories and fairytales and actually using your imagination rather than being told what to believe? I’m not sure if any of that is correct but it has an out of focus glow about it all so I’m sticking with it!

No matter how well a speaker serves up data, few listeners will remember it. Yet that doesn’t stop presenters from loading up on facts, charts and statistics.

Even if you design snazzy slides to convey information, most people won’t retain it. Succinct stories, by contrast, lodge themselves in listeners’ brains.

When discussing financial results or other numbers, it has a lot more impact to tell a story behind the numbers. Provide context. To highlight rising sales, for instance, describe how one shopper upped his order thanks to excellent customer service (an intangible benefit) or a newly expanded product line (a tangible benefit).

The best stories capture a specific time and place. Help your audience envision someone doing something: wandering around the new and improved warehouse layout, shopping and discovering your brand, completing an insurance claim form…

It’s not enough to say we spent more on sales than we budgeted. It’s more compelling to say instead that you combined sales, marketing financial and other data to prove you spent more overall, but that unit profitability is much better in one channel than another. Now you’re sharing a larger story that sparks a discussion on more efficient allocation of resources.

Once you set the scene, draw a conclusion tied to the facts you want to communicate. When discussing a 10% increase in payroll costs, describe how a temporary employee needed to work 10-hour shifts during a seasonal surge in activity, or conversely a 10% decrease in payroll costs can be explained by less temporary labour due to increases in efficiencies/productivities.

In addition to stories, look for opportunities to cite examples and case studies. Listeners are more likely to remember your main point if you support it well.

Some people prefer visual cues. To engage them, show photos, cartoons or even draw a picture. Make it easy for the audience to associate your visual with a related fact or data point.

While there is little disagreement on the positive impact that data can have on decision making, too often a lack of framing and context inhibits leaders from identifying the core issues, and a decision, rather than perhaps the best decision, is made.

To give you an example around framing and context, here are four seemingly random numbers: 6; 2,015; 13; and 107,398. 

If I left you alone with these number, you might stare at them for a few minutes, maybe see if they are part of a series and then, more likely than not, move on with your life. But what if I engaged you in a conversation and told you that these numbers can help you get to know me better?

When I was 6 I won my first ever fancy dress competition at Butlins in Minehead. For the non-UK based amongst you Butlins is a holiday resort! Even leaving you with just that statement will either leave you with more questions or alternatively with the world wide retort, so what!

I’m going to pretend that getting this far you might be mildly curious so I will expand slightly. My parents had entered me in the fancy dress competition as at that time it was the done thing whilst on holiday and to add another dimension, at that time there were no fancy dress outfits to be purchased so my Mum and Dad lovingly made my costume. I know now you’re asking so I will tell you…I went as a match, yes the maker of fire, and on my stomach was written “strike a light!” The reason behind this is far from explainable and something that to this day I still do not understand but the Butlins judges loved it and I was given first place. I now put this experience down to me becoming a bit of a bright spark!!

I am a proud father of 3 children; a son who is 7 years old and a son and a daughter who are both 3 and born in 2015. The more insightful will work out that my youngest son and daughter are twins and also that 2015 is not a year that I remember a lot about.

The twins were born extremely early and spent 6 and a half weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and special care baby unit (SCBU) of the local hospital which is pretty much as stressful an experience that the parent of a newborn can get. That coupled with the stresses associated with having not one but two new born babies meant that after they were born in 2015 the year flew past in a blur.

I’ve worked in the distribution and logistics industry for 13 years and over that period of time I have been exposed to a lot of different experiences and I have learnt a lot from each of these experiences. When you’re young and fancy free it is very easy to think that you know it all but this is never true, even at my age today, and I realise that today I am sounding extremely old!

Coming to the last number of 107,398 which is again linked to my children and is the number of….times I have heard Baby Shark in the last few weeks. If you haven’t had the pleasure of this delightful tune yet be warned that in the beginning it is extremely hummable and can get into your head but after listening to it this many times you may want to throttle the shark, however old it is!

We all have sets of numbers that we can use to tell individual stories, describe the state of our organisations, and shed light on the impact of our projects. My four numbers relate to random moments in my life but by putting a frame around these numbers and by creating context for them they are more likely to strike a chord with the audience.

Whatever your numbers may be, the chances are good that they will look random until you do the work to connect the dots. So I encourage you to think: What are your numbers, and what story do they tell?

#financefundamentals

#RobinKiziak is a finance manager with over 10 years experience in the distribution/logistics and retail industries