On March 12th, we had Mack Male, co-founder and CEO of Taproot Publishing share some insights around how to better communicate data. Key takeaways:

Taproot Edmonton

Publishes curiosity-driven original stories, curated newsletters on various topics, and locally focused podcasts, all in the service of of informing Edmontonians about what is going on in their community.

Example campaigns using storytelling + data:

• Obituaries for people who passed away from homelessness – so that they’re more than just a number.
• Vignettes – Interviews with Edmontonians who have various roles in the housing ecosystem (homeless, real estate agents, brokers, etc.) to provide more context and explain the conditions that lead to those outcomes.
• Taproot Survey
  • Invited Edmontonians to contribute to the “People’s Agenda,” a project to determine what issues matter to them most heading into the Oct. 18, 2024 municipal election.
  • Distilled to 30 multiple-choice questions.
  • Asked each candidate to answer them.
  • They then created a platform for Edmontonians to answer the same questions to find out which candidates they are most aligned with.

Insight: Some of the decisions we make to help a particular stakeholder, sometimes has unintended consequences on others.

Storytelling

Source: Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow.

System 1: Intuitive/Instinct

• 95%
• Unconscious, fast, associative, automatic.

System 2: Rational

• 5%
• Slower, logical, takes effort, lazy, indecisive

We’re constantly trying to make a story out of everything around us (through System 1). It doesn’t matter if the story is correct or not, the measure of success is coherency – does it match my worldview?

If you just provide data, without the “story”, people will construct the story on their own. The quality and quantity of data doesn’t matter. We build the best possible story from the information that’s available to us. In fact, with less data, our brain are better at creating a coherent story.

Ask yourself: Have I shared too much data? That might overcomplicate it for the reader. Share only what’s relevant to supporting your story.

Jargon:

• Throws you into System 2.
• Avoid acronyms.
• Know your audience but write for a broader audience, not necessarily the lowest common denominator.
• Maybe even parse it through an AI LLM like ChatGPT to test for clarity.

Structure of Stories

Heroes Journey

Pixar Prompt

Consider your audience’s perspetive: Why are you telling me this now (the hook)?

Can you anchor it into something that is relevant to what’s capturing their attention now?

e.g. No one cares if you launch a product. But if your product helps people buy Canadian products, that becomes interesting because of the current trade war.

Using AI more effectively to improve your writing/storytelling

Ask it to:

• Give you multiple different summarizations
• Write 3 different examples
• Ask different tools (not just ChatGPT)

These help with reducing AI hallucination and ensures better accuracy.