Narrative by Numbers

Stories are how human beings make sense of the world. They are what we’re persuaded by, particularly when they’re rooted in genuine evidence.

Overview

Stories are how human beings make sense of the world. They are what we are persuaded by, particularly when they’re rooted in genuine evidence. In the data-rich corporate world, storytellers need to deploy facts and evidence as the foundation of stories – not instead of the stories, and not as the actual stories themselves. To be truly effective, facts need to be presented with a level of emotion, with the stories starring real people.

The Big Data revolution means more data is available than ever before. The trouble is, most people aren’t terribly good at applying it, while those who are – the world’s finest planners and researchers – don’t always make the best storytellers.

Narrative by Numbers offers simple and effective rules of data-driven storytelling that help everyone tell more powerful and purposeful stories with data and statistics at their heart.

Learning outcomes:

• How to build convincing stories using data and statistics
• How to avoid the Curse of Knowledge, false positives and spurious correlations
• How to find and use the ‘killer statistic’ to best effect
• Why empathy is the most important skill of the data-driven storyteller
• How the best data-driven storytellers do it: from Sport England and Spotify, to easyJet and Tesco

Testimonials

"Good and done in nicely sized chunks."

Miles Lott - Levercliff, May 2023

"Very insightful."

Lyubi Stoyanova - MTM, October 2022

"Great diverse training which really gets you re-evaluating storytelling."

Jo - Tesco Mobile, May 2022

"A valuable introduction to data story-telling, taking you through the steps of thinking to cut through the noise."

Emily Jackson - 2CV, September 2021

"Excellent, would recommend to others."

Sara - BMG Research, September 2021

"Excellent engaging introduction to storytelling with numbers."

Anna Jackson - Pearson, September 2021