“In the new world governed by data, in knowledge economies where ideas are currency, visualization (or visual thinking) has emerged as our shared language,” says Scott Berinato, Senior Editor, Harvard Business Review. Charts, graphs, maps, diagrams, infographics, etc. (collectively called Dataviz) can tell a persuasive story that would be impossible for you to tell with just text, data, or statistics. More importantly, Dataviz can persuade your department heads and managers that a change is needed in their supply chain expenses that they can quickly modify.
What’s a Good Chart, Graph, Map, Infographic, etc.?
A good chart, graph, map, infographic, etc. is a Dataviz that produces the right effect (inform, persuade, or conceptualize), ideas, thoughts, or data by translating them into visual stories that your customers and stakeholders can relate to and then act on.
Further, good Dataviz is learning how to think visually in order to produce good charts for presentation to your key customers and stakeholders that alter the rules on how we make change happen in our healthcare organization. It all starts with a blank piece of paper.
Visualizing the Ideas or Data You Want to Present
The first rule on Dataviz is that you don’t start the visualization process by generating charts from your Excel spreadsheets that seem to conform to your data. Instead, you want to ask yourself these three questions:
- What am I trying to say or show? Are you trying to convince your customers and stakeholders that they need to change their behavior or a product they are utilizing? Or, are you proposing a new product, service, or technology to them?
- What chart will best tell my story? The best way to choose a good chart is to actually sketch the chart that you believe will tell your story clearly, accurately, and effectively. Never start by using the standard charts in your Excel library before you know what you want to say or to have represented.
- How can I make it standout? Do you want to emphasize your most important points with boldface, italics, all caps, underline, color, and highlights? All of these techniques will make the most important information in your charts standout.
In short, don’t rush to create a chart without first visually thinking about the main idea you are trying to get across, getting your story right, and then making it standout. This is because there is so much information that your customers and stakeholders must deal with every day; showing them a chart that is difficult to read or is too confusing to understand won’t send the message you want to convey to them in a very short time span.
Three Presentation Tips You Have Probably Forgotten
Once you have created a good chart that tells your persuasive story here are three presentation tips you have probably forgotten:
- Show the chart and stop talking: A good chart speaks for itself. Give your audience a few minutes to absorb it before you start talking.
- Don’t read the words or pictures: Talk about the ideas, trends, and conclusions of the chart, not what it says verbatim.
- Most importantly, tell stories: Our brain will forget most of the statistics we see or hear, but tell us a good story and we will remember most of it for a long time.
Presenting to persuade is an art and science. Therefore, we need to employ the most current techniques to get our story across. These three tips will greatly help you to do so.
You Only Get One Chance to Make a Good Impression
You only get one chance to make a good impression! Consequently, using Dataviz or visual thinking when presenting your expense management reduction ideas to your customers and stakeholders is a best practice you need to embrace. For you see, in the complex world of supply chain expense management simple, visual, and relatable charts will win the day. We have found that all other supply chain expense change management tactics will pale by comparison.