You’ve spent weeks or months collecting data and measuring your results and finally it’s red carpet time. You’ve been asked to present results to the board. You’ve gone from excitement to panic in abouta second and a half. Breathe, and read on.
It is very, very nice to have proof that your brilliant idea actually got brilliant results and you no doubt want to make sure the board knows all about it. Resist the temptation. The board wants to know what will make the organization better and more successful. They haven’t called you in to justify your existence. They’ve called you in to find out what worked, what didn’t, and to decide what they will do in the future to make it even better. Here are five steps to make sure you get your message across.
Step 1. Apply the “So What?” test.
Start with your existing reports and put yourself in the shoes of the most hostile board member you can imagine. What he or she will probably say is, “So what?”
Keep those shoes on and keep asking “So what” until you find the data that shows how you’ve impacted your organization’s success. For example:
“So what if we had more Facebook likes? What changed in our ability to fill the needs of our community?”
“So what if we got our messages out? Did that shorten the sales cycle? Improve retention? Improve our reputation?”
Step 2. Use correlations to get from data to insights.
One of the simplest forms of answering the “So what?” question is to do some statistical analysis to determine if there is a correlation between your activity metric and an outcome metric. When you bring two or more sets of data together (for example, Facebook likes, positive mentions, and online donations), you can use a correlation function (available in Excel) or some other form of statistical analysis to prove that there is a connection. Run the test, create a scatter gram. If the dots are all over the map, there is no connection.
Step 3. Don’t waste their time: Get to the point, and make it a good one.
The dollar value of the time of your board members and leadership team or external shareholders is probably a pretty large number. This means that the first page of your report is some of the most expensive real estate in the world. If you get others to pay attention to your report or your dashboard for more than a minute, you should consider it a victory. Do not waste their time with numbers or graphics that do not tell your story.
Step 4. Prepare your elevator speech (for a very short building).
Whether you have five minutes or an hour to present your results you need to start with an elevator speech. The one thing that all board members have in common is that they are busy, and their heads are very likely to be filled with lots of other interesting facts from your peers that presented before you. So you’ve got less than a minute to give the powers that be a reason to stay alert to what you are saying.
Remember: They are much more interested in what your data says than the actual data itself. They want to hear the exciting story of what your data has revealed. And therein lies the secret to a successful presentation: Give your listeners their own Aha! moment. Make your results are as exciting to them as they are to you.
Here’s how to do it. First, distill all that data into no more than three points that you can get across in a minute or less. Now create the story that backs up that statement, with chart or a visual in support. Everyone can look at the chart you put up on the screen, and quite a few of them will understand what it says. But few people will get what it really means for your program unless you tell them.
Step 5. Tell stories with your data.
Rod Stewart was right: Every picture tells a story. Nothing makes a meeting go south faster than someone pointing to a PowerPoint slide and saying, “There’s a big spike in June.” People want the story behind the conclusion illustrated by the chart, as in, “There was a big spike in online donations in June due to the effort we put into growing our follower base.” These story statements are called “conclusionary headlines,” and every chart and PowerPoint slide you show should have one.
Step 6. Use a chart (not pie) to tell your story.
Use a chart to tell a story of progress or decline, by showing how your data trend over time. Present your data for at least five quarters so you accommodate any seasonal changes. If possible, compare your data or your campaigns to those of your peers. Remember, you want to tell a story, which is something that happens over a period of time. Pie charts do not tell stories, so get rid of them.
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