10 types of storytelling with data

Over on the Harvard Business Review blog, Tom Davenport offers a framework for the types of story we tell using data.

We always hear that it’s not so much the data but the underlying story that’s important.  For a number of inconvenient reasons, that point is too often missed:

• Analysts, quants and even accountants are often not that great at storytelling.  They care too much about the detail to let go and just tell the story.
• Managers , marketers and other audiences are often embarrassingly innumerate.  Our animal mind is programmed to spot anomalies; it just doesn’t handle statistical significance that well.  We are too self-referencing, we don’t look for context and, no, “we” don’t really understand percentages.

I’ve put Tom’s story types in a table, but read the post (and maybe his book too) for further detail.