To weave data-driven ideas effectively into a story, we must first simplify complicated concepts and leverage the power of analogies. Psychologists have identified that asking your audience to process a great deal of raw data, statistics, or complex information is cognitively challenging, and you risk diluting the impact of your message to mental fatigue. Instead, […]

I once attended a presentation given by Nobel Laureate Eugine Fama (he of the “efficient market hypothesis” fame) to a group of investment professionals.  He began his remarks by illuminating a screen with a large grid of numbers by way of an overhead projector, turned his back on the audience to survey the numbers, turned

What is the difference between sharing data and telling a compelling story?   Raiders of the Lost Ark!  You read that right…it’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. Please take a moment to think about how you would describe the movie in two or three sentences to someone unfamiliar with the story. If our goal is to

“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.” ― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair The moment of experience that marks the beginning of our story and informs our reason for being (raison d’etre), arrived during the depths of