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Become a better adviser to colleagues and clients

by strengthening your data storytelling skills.

By Megan Hart

PAs often need to communicate complex
ideas to people from different backgrounds, About the
Cwhether they’re clients, colleagues, or author
executives. However, often these audiences won’t
Megan Hart is a
understand numbers as well as accountants do.
freelance writer
“In accounting, we speak a foreign language.
based in Florida.
When we say ‘depreciation,’ people [outside the
profession] think of the value you lose on your car.
That’s not what we’re talking about,” said Peter
Margaritis, CPA, director of the School of Ac-
counting Communications Center and instructor of
professional practice at Oklahoma State University
in Stillwater, Okla., and author of several books
on presentation skills. “The question is, how do we
communicate this complex language to someone
who doesn’t have the skill set to understand it?”
Enter data storytelling.
In a nutshell, this concept means giving your
data a narrative thrust — investing numbers with
more meaning by providing context alongside
them. It’s effective because one thing all humans
have in common is a craving for stories, according
to Bill Shander, who teaches data storytelling and
visualization workshops on LinkedIn Learning and
at the University of Vermont.
Incorporating numbers into larger stories makes
your data more memorable and engaging, he said.
“It’s still data — not a Pixar movie — but you can
present it in a way that flows,” he said.
Data storytelling is gaining greater currency in
business circles. Hopkinton, Mass.-based Shander,
who has worked with clients such as PwC, Star-
bucks, and the United Nations, has seen the
growing value and importance of data storytelling
to governments and major corporations over the
last decade. It’s being taught in universities: The
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