There are two skills that everyone needs in today’s knowledge economy to thrive and do their jobs most effectively. These are the ability to interrogate, understand, and extract meaning from data and statistics, and the ability to use the insights derived from the data to move people to action. Analytics + storytelling = influence.

Both the educational establishment and a simplification of how the mind works have kept analytics and storytelling apart for too long. The exponential, side-by-side growth of data and social media have made data-driven storytelling everyone’s business, and story structure is the best way for individuals and organisations, companies, and brands to communicate with those they seek to influence.