At the Data Culture Club, we’ve been thinking about communication – both how to get people excited about data, and how colleagues can best present their insights – so at our latest event we took inspiration from our wonderful venue at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre to explore Storytelling.
Data isn’t just numbers, it’s narratives. The strongest data cultures aren’t built on dashboards alone, but on stories that resonate, inspire and drive decision-making at every level. But how best to get a message across to a diverse audience with different needs, concerns and learning styles? How can we add emotion to dry facts – and how can we tell if our storytelling is working?
Our members were treated to a thoughtful Fireside Chat with two experts in the field, and then explored the practicalities in a set of lively Roundtable discussions. We hope this summary of the key points from the evening inspires you to use storytelling as a tool to transform how your organisation thinks about and acts on data.
Fireside Chat
Our Fireside Chat brought together two expert storytellers: Dr Susanne Evans, founder of Feldspar Consulting, where she uses storytelling in organisational change, and former Tableau Chief Data Evangelist Andy Cotgreave, a leading voice in data communication.
Moderated by Ortechan Lawrence Hill and illustrated by Live Data Sketch Artist Sophie Sparkes, the conversation demonstrated that storytelling isn’t just a soft skill – it’s a strategic imperative.
Storytelling makes information meaningful and memorable
You may have noticed that when organisations are trying to do something different – maybe a merger/acquisition, or adopting a new piece of tech, or introducing a new way of working – they focus on the process, rather than the people. A leader presents some slides and a timeline at a townhall meeting, but no-one cares because it doesn’t explain how it will affect them, and no-one remembers because it’s really boring.
We see a similar sorry situation with dashboards, where organisations investing heavily in their data programmes in order to become ‘data driven’ just churn out the same old charts month after month, with no attempt to bring the information to life or make facts meaningful or memorable.
Storytelling is key to making things happen in organisations because stories are how our brains make sense of the world. Crafting a narrative around the change or the data helps us communicate with people in a way that makes it easy for them.
Data alone doesn’t drive change
The essential elements of a story
A good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. It needs a narrative arc – if you think of the great films and books, or even fairytales from childhood, there’s some kind of jeopardy that has to be overcome, or a tension that needs to be resolved. It also has to have characters, a place and a time, which are usually set at the beginning.
But what makes makes stories different from other forms of business communication is emotion. There’s emotion in it, but it also creates emotion in the audience. In the best stories, people will start to use their imagination to join the dots or think about their own experiences, then they’re no longer passive recipients of information, but engaged and transformed by what you’re saying.
Storytelling is key to making things happen in organisations
Finding stories to tell
You may already have some anecdotes you can share, or something you could use to illustrate a point. Analogies can be useful for bringing something quite technical or theoretical into a more familiar everyday world (like data governance being the brakes on a car or the flags on a beach). Ask questions of your colleagues and listen more – leaders will perhaps give you the official answer, but more casual ‘water cooler’ conversations with colleagues may tell you more.
Make a note of them, write them down so you don’t forget them, and over time you’ll build up a little library of stories you can call upon when you need them.
A word of warning – both Andy and Susanne find using AI a useful tool for generating ideas for a story, but really bad for writing them. Sometimes you just need that human connection.
Every single thing that you do in an organisation is about people
Building your confidence
Storytelling is not something that tends to be taught at university or business school (it’s somehow seen as inappropriate for the work place). But people often have better storytelling skills that they realise – after all, in the company of friends and family we often recount anecdotes about funny or interesting things that have happened to us.
And it’s not necessary to be extrovert and charismatic like a stand-up comedian to be a good storyteller. It’s more important to be authentic. Some of the best stories are told in a quiet way.
The best approach is to try it. No need to begin with “once upon a time” or “I’m going to tell you story” – just next time you have to make a presentation, try shifting into a storytelling mode for a few minutes, and notice how it feels different. It’s a good way to build confidence and experiment with new styles without any pressure.
It’s not about being the most entertaining person in the room
Honing your message
Once you’re ready to start building storytelling into the way you communicate, you can be a little more purposeful about what you say and how you say it.
Think about your audience: what they need to know, what is of interest to them, and how they like to take in information. For example, presenting at a board meeting may need to be brief and focus on the costs and benefits. Team leads may be more interested in how day to day activities will be affected.
And think carefully about the visuals you’re sharing. Your audience will only have a few seconds to take it all in, so that dashboard you’ve been using to analyse your data will be much too detailed to share. Keep it simple, label everything, and put any deeper analysis and context in a separate document they can refer to afterwards.
And be creative – whether it’s a chart or an image, you can create an immediate emotional reaction in your audience before they’ve even consciously read what the words say.
Final takeaways
- Know your audience: Tailor your story to what they need to hear, not what you want to say.
- Balance emotion and evidence: Use data to support your narrative, not replace it.
- Be brave: Authenticity and vulnerability are strengths, not weaknesses.
- Practice and experiment: Storytelling is a skill you can build over time.
Roundtables
After some well-earned refreshment, our members gathered into five tables to explore a different facet of storytelling in the workplace. From tailoring content to measuring impact, participants shared practical insights, personal experiences, and bold ideas to elevate storytelling as a strategic tool for transformation.
Table 1: Tailoring content to different audiences
Key takeaway: Know your audience—and make it matter to them.
This group emphasised the importance of tailoring content to audience personas and preferences. Whether it’s a one-to-one conversation or a large group presentation, the message must be meaningful, emotionally resonant, and delivered through the right channels.
Top tips:
- Understand audience personas and what drives them.
- Trigger emotion and make the message unique.
- Use brevity—less is more.
- Be authentic, not manipulative.
- Test your message with pilot audiences when possible.
- And in a memorable metaphor: “Hire a bus like Boris”—take the message to the people, don’t wait for them to come to you.
Table 2: Overcoming the fear of delivering stories
Key takeaway: Fear is the biggest barrier to storytelling—passion and preparation are the antidotes.
This table tackled the emotional side of storytelling. Many professionals fear speaking up, but storytelling becomes easier when rooted in passion and human connection.
Top tips:
- Find what you’re passionate about—it fuels delivery.
- Focus on one person in the room to connect with.
- Prepare thoroughly, but don’t over-prepare.
- Meet people where they are—understand their perspective.
- Remember: “No one dies if your story doesn’t land.” Try, learn, and try again.
Table 3: Effective storytelling tools and techniques
Key takeaway: Structure, emotion, and authenticity make stories stick.
This group explored the anatomy of a good story—from the opening hook to the final call to action. They highlighted the importance of emotional engagement and making the audience the hero of the story.
Top tips:
- Start with a clear “why”—why should the audience care?
- Use a classic three-part structure: beginning, middle, end.
- Appeal to emotion and show vulnerability.
- Make the audience the protagonist.
- Consider timing—context matters.
- Use tone, voice, and body language to enhance delivery.
Table 4: Scaling storytelling capabilities across the organisation
Key takeaway: Storytelling should be a shared skill—not just for comms teams.
This table focused on how to embed storytelling into organisational culture. From workshops to leadership modelling, they explored ways to democratise storytelling and make it part of everyday practice.
Top tips:
- Offer workshops open to all—not just comms professionals.
- Make storytelling fun and accessible.
- Teach story arcs and narrative structure.
- Encourage leaders to lead by example.
- Give people time and space to practise.
- Appoint a storytelling champion within the organisation.
- Help analysts move beyond dashboards to insights and narratives.
Table 5: Measuring the impact of storytelling
Key takeaway: Measure behaviour change—not just dashboard hits.
This group tackled the tricky question of how to measure storytelling’s impact. They agreed that success isn’t just about reach—it’s about influence and behavioural change.
Top tips:
- Define your goal before you start measuring.
- Track impact over time—not just one-off results.
- Use both quantitative (reach) and qualitative (behaviour change) metrics.
- Secure senior sponsorship to support storytelling initiatives.
- Embrace negative results—they’re valuable data too.
- Agree on attribution methods early to avoid conflict.
Final thoughts
Across all five tables, a few themes emerged loud and clear:
- Authenticity matters.
- Emotion drives engagement.
- Storytelling is a skill that can—and should—be taught.
- Measurement is possible, but it must be meaningful.
Whether you’re a data analyst, a change leader, or a comms professional, storytelling is your superpower. Use it to connect, persuade, and inspire.
About the Data Culture Club
A cross-industry community for an evolving discipline
Data Culture is relatively new as a concept, and still developing:
- everyone seems to have a slightly different definition of what Data Culture actually means
- it doesn’t feature much (yet) in traditional Data Management best practice frameworks
- many companies don’t yet have dedicated teams to drive it forward
So we created the Data Culture Club, a worldwide cross-industry community to bring together the people who are leading the way in changing their organisation’s attitude to data (whether they have ‘culture’ in their job title or not), to share their successes (and failures), and to provide inspiration and support to others in the same situation.
What we mean by Data Culture
A culture can be described as “the way things are done around here” – the shared values, attitudes and behaviours that are expressed in everyday activity.
So a good Data Culture is one where data is a natural part of the way people work:
- everyone understands the meaning and business value of the data
- they have the tools, skills and confidence to use it
- they feel a collective responsibility for looking after it
Join the club
We hold quarterly roundtables to allow members to meet in person, and have a thriving virtual forum for online discussion. If you work in this space, you’d be most welcome to join! Please get in touch with Araminta to learn more.
Araminta Huitson
Data Culture lead, Ortecha
contentS
- Introduction
- Storytelling makes data meaningful
- The essential elements
- Finding stories to tell
- Building your confidence
- Honing your message
- Tailoring content to different audiences
- Overcoming fear of delivering stories
- Storytelling tools & techniques
- Scaling storytelling capabilities
- Measuring the impact
- About the Data Culture Club
TALK TO AN EXPERT
We’d love to to connect and find out more about your data culture challenges and ambitions.
