Good knowledge can inform an ideal story. It could assist inside communicators establish issues, spot alternatives and form methods that increase their capability to ship the appropriate message to the appropriate particular person on the proper time.
Presenting these insights to the management group in a persuasive approach that results in motion, nonetheless, is one other story. It’s tempting, for instance, to imagine extra statistics make for a stronger argument. Or that the metrics that matter most to you and your group additionally matter to administration. This isn’t at all times the case.
When presenting data-backed insights to firm executives, it’s essential to strategy them as a definite viewers with their very own particular set of challenges. This implies adopting their language to talk to them in a approach that resonates, very like how a gifted comic or marketer wouldn’t tackle a bunch of retirees the identical approach they might a gymnasium filled with excessive schoolers.
It’s essential to additionally map out how the info you’re highlighting connects to the enterprise outcomes executives care about. Executives are big-picture thinkers — in any case, they’re managing everything of the enterprise — so it’s incumbent on communicators to transcend the day-to-day and construct a technique that aligns intently with the overarching targets of the enterprise to get executives to sit down up and listen actually.
Contemplate e mail engagement charges, as an illustration. Whereas this measure alone holds worth for inside communicators, it won’t imply a lot for a management group tasked with driving firm development. For those who can doc how sturdy communication throughout the corporate results in widespread adoption of a brand new software program device, which then ends in extra productiveness and gross sales, that ought to get their consideration.
Likewise, if administration is making an attempt to cut back prices, connecting the dots between a clear inside communications technique, worker satisfaction and a lift in workers retention — which saves the group cash on hiring and coaching new employees — will do wonders.
No matter metrics you intend to point out management, be sure to clarify how they impression the corporate’s general well being. For those who don’t know what to incorporate, frequently ask your self, “So what?” We now have readership knowledge — so what? What does readership imply to our management group?
With this recommendation in thoughts, keep in mind that extra isn’t essentially extra in relation to knowledge. Don’t really feel obliged to incorporate each discovering. A slideshow filled with statistic after statistic can turn into tedious and complicated. Members of the management group will lose curiosity quick in the event that they sense the presentation lacks focus.
Due to this fact, it’s sensible to stay to the fundamental three-part storytelling construction of setting, battle and backbone.
Clarify the context first, ensuring everyone seems to be on the identical web page. Embrace benchmarking in your report to point out the place your organization stands on varied metrics in comparison with different corporations in the identical business. Subsequent, illustrate the issue. Exhibit how the difficulty is harming the enterprise. Lastly, supply an answer. Present a concrete approach ahead primarily based on knowledge analytics that goes above and past somebody’s opinion.
Finally, hold your message easy, temporary and decisive. Don’t make it akin to a joke and not using a punchline.
Comparable rules apply when constructing an govt dashboard for leaders to watch your progress. Not everybody must see every part. Be discerning about what metrics you determine to incorporate and what you permit out. Make it concise. The purpose is to go away a person feeling knowledgeable, not overwhelmed.
As for the presentation itself, don’t restrict what you wish to say to only empirical proof. Break up the numbers with arresting quotes from well-known authors or thought leaders in your subject. Use knowledge visualization instruments like Infogram or Microsoft’s Energy BI to create colourful charts. Embrace private anecdotes to underscore the human aspect of the equation. Embed humorous social media posts to maintain everybody within the room, or on the Zoom name, entertained.
The underside line: Nobody will take heed to what you need to say until you may first seize their consideration and keep it.
Inner communicators who can each extract insights from uncooked figures and convey that knowledge to management in a compelling method are sure to get forward in a world that’s turning into more and more reliant on arduous numbers to tell decision-making. Nevertheless, those that can solely do the previous with out the latter are prone to really feel pissed off with possessing data that nobody appears excited by understanding.