Empower Data Storytelling Today | Selena Fisk

I still remember the first time I sat in a boardroom and watched a perfectly good dashboard put an entire leadership team to sleep. Rows of numbers a dozen colours fighting for attention, and not one person in that room walked away knowing what to actually do next. Sound familiar? That moment stuck with me because it's a scene that plays out in offices and not-for-profits every single week. Teams collect more data than ever, yet most of it never turns into a decision. This is exactly the gap that data champion training course programmes are designed to close and it's the reason I want to talk today about data storytelling, specifically for corporate data storytelling ​ and NFPs trying to make their numbers actually mean something. Why "Data-Informed" Beats "Data-Driven" In my experience working alongside organisations that are drowning in spreadsheets, the problem is rarely a lack of data. It's a lack of translation. Someone in finance, marketing, or ...

A few years back, I sat in on a strategy meeting where a manager put up a dashboard with fourteen different metrics on one slide. Fourteen. She talked for twenty minutes, and by the end of it, half the room still couldn't tell you what decision they were supposed to make. Nobody was being lazy. They just hadn't been given a story just numbers. That moment sums up something I see constantly in my work with corporates and not-for-profits: storytelling in corporate training isn't a nice-to-have soft skill anymore. It's becoming as essential as knowing how to run a meeting or write a decent email. In many organisations, data is still treated as "the analyst's job" But there's a growing expectation that everyone not just the people with "data" in their job title can look at evidence and make a sound call from it. That gap between expectation and actual skill is exactly where good training earns its keep. Why Dashboards Alone Don't Change Be...

I've walked into more boardrooms than I can count where someone flashes up a slide full of numbers, says, "As you can see, this is trending down," and moves straight on to the next slide. Nobody reacts. Nobody asks why. Everyone nods, and everyone forgets it by lunchtime. Sound familiar? That's the problem corporate data storytelling is meant to solve. It's not about hiring more analysts or buying a fancier dashboard. It's about building a culture where every single employee, not just the data team can look at a number, understand what it means, and explain it to someone else. The Power of Talking Data in the Workplace In my experience working with organisations across a range of industries, the businesses that thrive with data aren't the ones with the most sophisticated tools. They're the ones where data conversations actually happen in team meetings, in one-on-ones and in the tea room. When a number gets tied to a real story (a customer, a team, ...

A few months ago I was chatting with someone organising a conference programme, and she said something that's stuck with me: "Everyone wants a data session, but nobody wants to sit through one." That's the exact tension a good data storytelling speaker is meant to solve. If you're currently searching for someone to book for a conference, staff day, or leadership offsite, this one's for you. Booking a speaker is a bit of a gamble. You're trying to judge, often from a one-page bio and a showreel, whether this person can actually hold a room and leave people better off than when they walked in. So rather than just listing credentials, I want to walk through what actually matters when you're comparing options using Dr Selena Fisk's work as a real example of what a well-built data-speaking offer looks like. What to Look for Before You Book In my experience looking at speaker profiles, the ones that fall flat usually have one thing in common: the con...

Most schools and businesses don't have a data shortage problem. They have a data understanding problem. Reports pile up, dashboards multiply, and yet the people making the actual decisions are often left asking: "So what does this actually mean, and what do we do next?" This is the gap Dr. Selena Fisk has spent her career closing. As a  data strategy keynote speaker and data storytelling trainer based in Australia, she helps schools and organisations shift from simply collecting data to genuinely understanding and using it, becoming data-informed rather than data-driven . Here's a closer look at her approach, and how you can start applying it. The Real Problem: Too Much Data, Too Little Meaning Ask any teacher, school leader, or business manager, and they'll tell you the same thing: data is not the issue. Access to information has never been easier. The real challenge is turning that information into something usable a decision, an action, a change in directi...

You open a dashboard and see forty metrics staring back at you. Somewhere in there is the one number that actually matters but good luck finding it before the meeting starts. This is the problem most businesses have with data. They're not short on numbers. They're short on meaning. That's where data storytelling comes in turning raw data into something people can actually understand, remember, and act on. What Is Data Storytelling? Data storytelling is the practice of combining data, visuals, and narrative to explain what a piece of information means, not just what it says. It's different from plain data visualization. A chart can show that sales dropped 12% last quarter. Data storytelling explains why it dropped, what it means for the business, and what to do next . Visualization shows the picture. Storytelling gives it a point. Why Businesses Struggle to Communicate Data Most teams aren't short on data, they're short on clarity. A few familiar scenarios: A ...