1. Three keys to communicating effectively
In the previous lessons, we learned about two important tools for communicating insights from data: visualizations and storytelling. In this lesson, it is time to learn about the three keys to communicating effectively.
2. The three keys
The three keys to communicating effectively are focus, structure, and form.
Focus keeps your communication relevant, to the point, and meaningful to the audience.
The structure acts as a guide for your audience and increases understandability.
And finally, form ensures that your communication is tailored to its purpose and audience.
3. Focus
Focus is essential to keep your communication relevant.
Select the right data by including enough context to support your story without overloading your audience with information.
In the same way, you should select the right visualizations, by linking them to your key insights.
Finally, keeping your central message in mind and reinforcing it throughout your communication is vital.
4. Building your central message
A central message describes what you want your audience to remember in a few sentences. It consists of three parts: a description of the problem, a summary of the main insights, and the impact, typically a recommendation or next steps based on the insights.
An example central message could be as follows: The average math scores of students at University A have declined for the last three years.
The data indicate that more students enroll with a weaker starting knowledge of mathematics. By organizing math summer schools, University A can help students better prepare for the expected knowledge level of mathematics.
5. Structure
The structure gives your audience a common thread to follow and increases understandability.
Use structuring techniques like the narrative structure from the storytelling technique to keep your audience engaged, and use the McCandless technique for explaining visualizations.
Also, provide visual structure: keep a clean layout and consider where to place text, visualizations, and tables. Finally, prepare an outline in advance and use this as a blueprint you can keep referring to while crafting your report or presentation.
6. Crafting an outline
A basic outline falls into three parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusions.
The introduction is the part where you introduce the data problem statement, context, and objectives.
The body is the right place to talk or write about the data that was used, the analysis that was conducted, and the key findings.
Finally, the conclusions contain the main insights from the key findings and the recommendations to act on those insights.
7. Form
Finally, the form ensures that your communication is tailored to its purpose and audience. When deciding on the form of our communication, we need to think about the following:
Medium: should we opt for the oral or written communication?
Language: should we include technical details or avoid being too technical?
Scope: should we opt for a short- or a long-form piece? Short-form focuses on the essentials in about five minutes or five pages, while long-form allows to include more details and context.
The answers to these questions largely depend on the purpose of your communication and on what the audience needs from your communication.
8. Thinking about your audience
To choose the appropriate form, ask yourself the following questions about your audience: who are they? What do they need to know? And what do they want?
Returning to our University example, imagine we need to present our findings to the University Board. They are non-technical managers, need to know the key findings, and want specific recommendations. In that case, a non-technical, short-form presentation would be best.
9. Let's practice!
Now that you know all the three keys to communicating effectively, let's practice!