From Data to Decision-making: Why Good Data Gets Ignored
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I recently joined ActivityInfo for a webinar on a challenge we encounter across nearly every organization we work with: valuable data is collected, analyzed and presented, but too often it does not shape a decision.
Data helps organizations understand needs, measure progress, secure funding and improve programmes. But even accurate and important information can be ignored. The reason is simple, the people producing data and the people using it experience it very differently.
Authors are focused on accuracy, detail and completeness. Audiences are often opening the same information between meetings, scanning for what matters and trying to understand what they need to decide or do.
The biggest risk to your data is not that it’s wrong. It’s that nobody acts on it.
Moving from data to decision-making requires communication designed around the people receiving the information and the decisions they need to make.
We created a straightforward framework that programme, M&E and communication teams can apply regardless of their design capacity.
The 3Cs of effective communication
Make it compelling
Use visuals to communicate meaning, create curiosity through an engaging story and remove unnecessary information so the most important insights stand out.
Make it consequential
Connect the information to a clearly identified audience, show why it matters to them and point toward a relevant decision or action.
Make it clear
Present a focused takeaway, support it with the right evidence and organize the information so it is easy to scan, understand and remember.
See how your communication measures up
It can be difficult to assess your own work objectively, especially after investing so much time collecting, cleaning and presenting the data.
Our free Visual Storytelling AI Assessment applies the 3Cs to a report page, dashboard, chart or presentation slide.
Upload your work to receive practical feedback from your audience’s perspective and identify opportunities to make it more compelling, consequential and clear.
