12/09/2024

How to Build a Story around Data

Offering context can help address biases people have around data

In today's charged political atmosphere, media fact-checks are abundant. And they've led to a phrase that is admirably accurate yet often frustrating: "This requires context."

The term is a shorthand for the idea that one data point, or one assertion, isn't enough to explain what's going on in a situation. And though your association's board meetings may not be as fraught as a circa-2024 political campaign, it's just as essential for leaders to think about the context they provide around the information they're sharing.

To put it more directly: Leaders need to be good storytellers. That’s one takeaway I had after working on a feature on storytelling around data for the latest set of Associations Now Deep Dives. As facilitator and former association professional Jeffrey Cufaude explained, the charts and graphs that are at the core of the typical association board book won’t tell the full story and are prone to interpretation bias. And in polarized times, the risk of misinterpretation is more pronounced.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.