Preface: Analytics + Storytelling = Influence

The two core skills required to thrive in the knowledge economy are analytics and storytelling. I wrote this book to explain how important and yet straightforward it is to combine these two skills. And to show how impactful and influential you can be if you can successfully weave narratives that are data-driven by design.

It is my intention that Narrative by Numbers should be instructive, entertaining, and at the same time intensely practical. While the rules and guidance contained in these pages could never hope to be definitive and would never pretend to be so, my aspiration is that those charged with being data-driven storytellers are likely to exceed their peers’ and bosses’ expectations if they follow the advice set out here.

Each topic chapter includes an example of a data-driven story from the public eye over the past decade or so, stories that have moved individuals to action and in some cases mobilised millions. And each topic chapter also concludes with a practical exercise designed to reinforce the lessons learned and rules extracted, each one tried and tested in the training sessions I run. For there’s little point of theory without practice, just as, for me, there’s little point of stories without data, woven into a narrative.

To support this book and its mission to help the world’s data-driven storytellers become more impactful yet, we’ve created a website called www.narrativebynumbers.com. Swing by, pull up a virtual chair, and become part of the community. It’ll be great to have you along and hear the tales you have to tell.

I trust you find this book and its site helpful.