The Simple Power of the Slow Reveal

Business data deserves to be communicated in a way that highlights the human story behind them. Using a narrative approach—such as storytelling—can get people to pay attention to numbers in a new way. Leaders can encourage an emotional reaction using the classic storytelling tool of building suspense. Instead of using a single slide that shows every bit of data all at once, a presenter can make numbers thrilling by revealing a piece at a time. All stories should have an emotional arc, using a framework first proposed by writer Kurt Vonnegut. One more tool to incorporate is the idea of a hero. There’s nothing like a battle of good versus evil to elicit a passionate response to a data-driven idea. As an individual who comes from generations of great storytellers, weaving a narrative approach comes pretty naturally to me. I encourage you to read this entire article and adopt these approaches to spice up your data-related communications.