Data beyond the ‘Narrative’

When you are delivering results from one of your data experiments what do you say? I thought it was my job to deal with the facts in a way that the audience would understand, not just the ‘p value’ but about probability and significant factors.

“Data through a narrative creates a Storyline, easy to understand by Managers, Consultants, Project Leads & Architects, who can further correlate the conclusion at a coding level ”

It came as a surprise when I was told to build a narrative, a story that chained items that built to a conclusion. At first I thought it compromised by scientific impartiality but then realised this is how consultants work and there is a huge industry out there that makes money from convincing people they know what they are talking about better than you do. Senior managers have learnt that this is how things are delivered, nonetheless even accepted coercion is never a good way to make decisions.

Is there a way to deconstruct a story once it has been accepted? Such stories become the accepted truth within an organisation without any critical evaluation. Just because 6% was the right number yesterday doesn’t mean its the right number today or tomorrow. Who is going to challenge accepted thinking without ending up feeling marginalised or disloyal?

Any story that you deliver is political and linked inexplicably to the story teller. This is underlined by facts empirically linked to truths. Thus making them very difficult to challenge and question, any criticism is usually taken as a personal attack.

What is needed is some mechanism to allow discussion and to challenge the outcomes of the story. By the nature of any model it will be open to interpretations and will be imperfect. As individuals we need to build trust in ourselves and our methods the only way to do this is stick to the facts, with the caveat of probability, and allow discussion before coming to any conclusions. Just lay out as many cause and effect variables as you can without chaining them together to create a story, and then mull over them as a group.