Best of two worlds: data for diagnosing and stories for persuading
Many business analysis efforts require data analysis. For example, if you’re working on a project meant to improve the efficiency of a business process, you’ll probably need to gather data to identify the aspects of the process that can yield the largest productivity increase with the least amount of effort.
But what happens after you’ve found the optimal leverage point to improve process efficiency? Often analysts will see their hard work deconstructing the problem and finding an optimal solution result either in inaction or in a decision to go with a lower quality solution proposed by a higher up based on opinions rather than facts.
Human psychology can run opposite to what logic tells us
The risk of seeing our recommendations ignored can be substantially reduced if we avoid a common mistake analysts make: excessive reliance on data and logic to support their arguments. This is not to say that BAs shouldn’t seek a convincing rationale for their solutions, or ignore data capable of highlighting the best opportunities in value creation. Facts and figures have their place. It’s the overreliance on data that can get in the way of translating evidence-based ideas into actions.
This is where storytelling comes in
Stories are a powerful tool for everyone, and business analysts are not the exception. Once we’ve identified the best way forward, we can use stories to drive home our message, make our points memorable, and emotionally grab our audience.
In a recent issue of my newsletter Behavioral Insights for Business Analysts, I describe how, after years of refusal from HR based on concerns about IT controlling employee data, a story finally produced the approval for an identity management project.
The story — fictitious but based on real-life incidents and told via a comic strip inserted in a PowerPoint presentation — showed an executive assistant frantically trying to find the right person to contact to reset a password the CEO needed for an important demo about to start. The assistant couldn’t find the right person because of inconsistencies in user names across different systems. A tale about the struggles of a single person achieved what all the facts and figures the IT Director had accumulated over the years to justify the adoption of identity management technology didn’t. It made the head of HR start caring enough about the problem affecting hundreds of employees and multiple departments to finally act upon it.
Stories are what stick in people’s minds, warming hearts, activating empathy, and translating feelings into action
Merely getting people to understand intellectually what needs to happen is not enough. Statistics and facts may get people to believe, but feelings are what inspire people to act. The reason stories are such an effective tool of persuasion is because they engage the audience emotionally. Due to how our brains are wired, stories command human attention, enhance memory, and affect behavior.
Being persuasive is a skill. Even you’re an excellent problem solver adept at extracting insight from data, your ability to create value will grow exponentially if you also invest the effort to learn the art and science of storytelling.
To learn more about how storytelling works, check out this resource list.
