Human Beings are storytellers. Wedemand to be captivated and informed, from our novels, theatre, television, movies—and we universally expect these demands to be met. Yet we don’t hold ourselves as business storytellers to the same standard of excellence. We allow ourselves to deliver presentations that neither meet the needs nor clearly articulate the objectives to our audience. We build stories without structure, awash with data tables and infinitesimal detail with the concluding recommendations buried at the back of an eighty-page slide deck. We make sterile visual choices and make our audience work hard to follow our logic and understand our point of view.

We’ve all had the opportunity to be in the audience for a great business presentation. We remember these presentations because this experience is rare—but it shouldn’t be. There are three critical elements to building an effective insights-led business story, and everyone—from a main stage presenter to a data analyst delivering a quarterly update—can use these rules to improve the impact and actionability of their insights.

Insights to ActionCreating High-Influence Business Stories

By framing our plan as a concise story with

compelling insights, we were able to secure customer alignment to joint strategies that will

drive incremental growth to both of our businesses.

Director, National Sales, The Coca-Cola Company

22 Insights to Action

Start with the end in mind – identify the outcomes you hope to achieve through your story. Statesuccinctly—in phrase- or sentence-length—the tangible results you desire for your business story. How do you hope to influence your audience members? What new behaviors do you want them to take at the end of your presentation? As you structure your story and decide which insights to include and which to set aside, these outcomes should be your guideposts: does this element of my story help me achieve my desired outcomes? If the answer is no, then the information may not be necessary.

Building a great business story centers on this key question—Who is the audience, and what do I want them to do? Defining the audience is essential, because each person in an organization has different approaches for processing information. Knowing how your audience interacts with in-formation will help you properly calibrate the level of detail and narrative required for your story.

• Assumptions• Insights• Certainty

Analytical

• Implications• High Level• Creativity

Conceptual

Rule #1: Know Your Audience and Desired Outcomes

Analytical Processors appreciate concise rationale that details the thinking behind a recom-mended course of action. They are motivated by the ability to validate underlying assump-tions and establish certainty in decision-making.

Conceptual Processors prefer higher-level summaries, with the majority of the focus placed on the resulting implications. They are motivated by creative solutions and breakthrough opportunities.

How do they process information – are they analytical or conceptual?

Most audiences contain both types of processors, so balance helps satisfy the room. Understanding the audience’s potential barriers or points of resistance can help here. If a key audience member is an analytical processor and harbors doubt against the ROI of your proposed program, the story should include more in-depth—but concise—rationale for this element of the recommendation. But the rest of the story should be oriented toward the conceptual thinkers in the room to gain their buy-in as well.

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Rec

ommendation

Action

Rec

ommendation

Action

Like chapters in a book, your business storyshould provide a logical flow that leads to a recommendation. But unlike a book, you may not have the luxury of many pages to tell your tale. Based on the outcome you seek, you must be thoughtful about how you use the audience’s time. Regardless of your medium, the narrative structure should still hold.

To create a strong, adaptable narrative structure, remember the Three to Five Rule. At every level of your story, restrict yourself to a maximum of three to five key points. Short-term memory retains as little as 4 pieces of information at a given moment—anything more is at risk of being lost.

• At the highest level, your story shouldonly present three to five recommendationsthat you want to audience to take action on

• For each recommendation, limit your sup-porting rationale to three to five core insights

• If your audience, medium, and outcomesrequire even more detail, support each insightwith a maximum of three to five data points

You may find that using this approach leaves some very interesting information on the cutting room floor – and that’s okay. Your key recommendations and insights are the milestone ideas or beliefs required to influence the audience toward your desired outcomes.

Rule #2: Design a Structured, Concise, and Logical Story

Rec

ommendation

Action

1

2

3

· Insight· Insight· Insight

· Insight· Insight· Insight

· Insight· Insight· Insight

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Translating the story structure into an effectivepresentation is not a copy-paste exercise. Great care must be put into building a presentation that properly conveys your insights-led recommendations in a vi-sually creative and stimulating format. Do not make your audience work hard to understand your recom-mendations! Present your ideas in intuitive, efficient ways so the audience can focus on remembering your story and taking action, not interpreting your charts or reading large blobs of text. While the essence of creativity is finding unique ways to solve problems, here are some helpful hints on how to make an intui-tive and efficient presentation.

Rule #3: Deliver an Intuitive and Efficient Presentation

Start Big, End Big. A presentation is not a murder mystery. Building to a big reveal works in fiction, but it asks too much of a time-starved, distracted business audience. Instead, open strong by pulling the audience in right away with a strong statement, a power insight, or a bold recommendation. When you reach the big close, build on the information you used in your open. You want that same level of energy to close the presentation—with anticipation for the possibilities that your recom-mendation provides.

Be Choosy with Data. An insight is made from three key ingredients: Data, Synthesis, and Choice. An actionable insight combines multiple points of data and makes choices about what is important and what is not. Some of us fall in love with data, wanting to share any-thing and everything, but your rationale requires only the necessary insights to support the recommendation. Avoid diluting your message and cluttering your space by ensuring that the focus remains on the intrigue of the insight and not on the process by which it was uncovered.

Use Variation and Surprise. Don’t fall into the trap of using monotonous bar charts or tables to present every set of data or building from the same slide format for every text-cen-tric page in your presentation. Stimulate your audience by providing visual variation—give visual distinction to core slides throughout the presentation, use abstract diagrams, quotes to engage the right brain, and change how data is formatted and presented. You can main-tain a logical structure while being creative in how you share it.

• Start Big, End Big

• Be Choosy with Data

• Use Variation &Surprise

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Caprē Group I 1117 Perimeter West I Suite N411 I Atlanta, GA 30338 I capregroup.com

Great storytelling is essential to making an impact in our professional world. In a studyby the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, statistics told through stories are recalled up to 12 times more frequently than facts alone (63% vs. 5%). Know your desired outcomes and cater to the needs of your audience. Design a concise story by limiting yourself to three to five key recommendations. Be efficient with how you deliver information, craft a logical flow, and present an intuitive story that doesn’t require effort to understand.

A great story goes beyond convincing the audience that you are right and should follow a rec-ommended course of action—it ensures the audience even remembers what you have to say.

55 Insights to Action

Hold yourself to a higher standard of business storytelling excellence