Nearly everyone of us has had to make a presentation that involved showing and explaining data. Certainly all of us have had to sit through boring or even painful presentations filled with mind-numbing charts, numbers and stats. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
As with every occasion that we are called upon to speak, be that a celebration, eulogy or professional speaking gig it is best to use stories to connect with your audience, help them understand that data and its implications and ideally move them to action. If that seems a stretch, take a look at a master data storyteller—Hans Rosling.
In the video below, Hans Rosling talks about life expectancy and GDP across the world and makes the point how our preconceived notions about other countries leads us to erroneous conclusions. Whilst he shares with us data of nearly a 100 years across 110+ countries, see how he does it through expert storytelling. I’d encourage you to watch the first two minutes and ten seconds. Here’s what you’d see him doing in this short time.
Here’s what Hans Rosling did in his first 90 seconds
| Stage | Script | Effect or Outcome |
| Opening | About 10 years ago, I took on the task to teach global development to Swedish undergraduate students. [10 secs] | Almost the same as “Once upon a time” – his opening words indicate he’s going to tell us a story. |
| Context | “That was after having spent about 20 years, together with African institutions, studying hunger in Africa. So I was sort of expected to know a little about the world.” [20 secs] | He establishes his credibility—why he’s the right person to speak on this topic and provides us context. |
| Problem | And I started, in our medical university, Karolinska Institute, an undergraduate course called Global Health. But when you get that opportunity, you get a little nervous. I thought, these students coming to us actually have the highest grade you can get in the Swedish college system, maybe they know everything I’m going to teach them about. [39 secs] | Hooks us in with the problem – self-doubt, usefulness, need for his expertise. Makes him relatable to the audience as well. |
| Rising action | So I did a pretest when they came. And one of the questions from which I learned a lot was this one: “Which country has the highest child mortality of these five pairs?” [49 secs] | Builds anticipation. We want to know what came of this test. What did he learn? |
| Climax | And these were the results of the Swedish students. [72 secs] | The reveal |
| Resolution | And I got happy, of course — a 1.8 right answer out of five possible. That means there was a place for a professor of international health and for my course. [84 secs] | Problem solved. Doubts erased |
In under 90 seconds, Hans Rosling managed to tell a complete story laying out the context, a problem, rising action, a climax and resolution. And in between this, he also snuck in some facts about relative child mortality in ten countries and got a few laughs out of his audience.
Even when you are thinking he’s done with the story he then adds,
| Stage | Script | Effect or Outcome |
| Climax | But one late night, when I was compiling the report, I really realized my discovery. [90 secs] | Yet another reveal |
| Resolution | I have shown that Swedish top students know, statistically, significantly less about the world than the chimpanzees. […] The problem for me was not ignorance; it was preconceived ideas. [110 secs] | New problem & opportunity |
With planning and practice you can turn your next presentation into one just as memorable as Hans Rosling’s using storytelling.
