{"id":19587,"date":"2024-12-22T13:03:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-22T13:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=19587"},"modified":"2024-12-22T13:03:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-22T13:03:39","slug":"discuss-what-taylor-swifts-staggering-tour-numbers-teach-us-about-presenting-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=19587","title":{"rendered":"DISCUSS: What Taylor Swift\u2019s Staggering Tour Numbers Teach Us About Presenting Data?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When giving a presentation, it can be tempting to throw as much data as your audience can take. But without context, that data is often overlooked.<\/p>\n

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Many leaders and entrepreneurs who took a\u00a0presentation skills class I recently led at Harvard were looking for tactics to improve how they communicate data. There\u2019s a trick to presenting numbers in an impactful way. Once you know it, your presentations will be far more memorable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Here\u2019s the secret.<\/p>\n

Put numbers into context.<\/h2>\n

According to scientists, the larger the number, the worse we are at understanding it. Our brains are made to visualize small numbers like one, two, three, and four. More than that, we start to say \u201cseveral,\u201d \u201cmany,\u201d or \u201ca lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to get really good at public speaking and delivering presentations, get good at making data relevant to the audience. Here\u2019s an example.<\/p>\n

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As you\u2019ve probably heard,\u00a0Taylor Swift has ended her two-year Eras Tour. Swift\u2019s camp sent the\u00a0final numbers\u00a0to\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>, and the statistics are staggering: 149 shows over 21 months in 19 countries drew 10 million fans and generated just over $2 billion in ticket sales.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the previous sentence has far too many numbers in one sentence. It also contains too many numbers for the average person to grasp. And yet, most people giving a PowerPoint presentation on the report would likely try to squeeze every number on one slide.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a better way to present big numbers. Choose one or two numbers and add context around them. For example, if I were presenting the numbers, I would say:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Taylor Swift\u2019s record-setting Eras Tour made a staggering $2 billion in ticket sales. That\u2019s double the ticket sales of any concert in tour history. To put it into context, earlier this year\u00a0<\/em>Billboard\u00a0magazine crowned Coldplay\u2019s world tour the biggest rock tour of all time, and that tour took in $945 million. So, $2 billion in ticket sales for Taylor Swift doesn\u2019t just surpass the previous record\u2014it completely shatters it.<\/em><\/p>\n

How brains work<\/h2>\n

By focusing on one number\u2014in this case, gross ticket sales\u2014and building a story around it, the data is easier to comprehend and much more interesting. Here\u2019s another example:<\/p>\n

Swift\u2019s longest engagement was at Wembley Stadium, where, over eight nights, she played for 750,000 people. That\u2019s about the number of people who live in Seattle.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
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There\u2019s brain science behind this tactic. Our brains evolved to process small quantities of information at any one time. Large numbers don\u2019t have relatable real-world references, making them abstract and difficult to understand. Numbers in the hundreds of thousands, millions, and billions simply don\u2019t compute for the average human.<\/p>\n

Relatable comparisons<\/h2>\n

Scientists at\u00a0Microsoft Research\u00a0found that big numbers are easier to comprehend when placed into perspective. Perspective makes big numbers familiar because they provide context. The key is to make the comparison\u2014context\u2014as familiar as possible.<\/p>\n

In the Taylor Swift example, if I were presenting the information to an audience outside of the U.S., I wouldn\u2019t compare Swift\u2019s numbers to the city of Seattle. I\u2019d find a local city more familiar to the audience. The point is to make the comparison as relatable as possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The next time large numbers make news, check out the work of science or business writers. They know, through experience, that making numbers relatable makes the difference between reading an article or skipping over it. The same technique applies to presentations of any kind\u2014make numbers relatable and the audience will relate to you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When giving a presentation, it can be tempting to throw as much data as your audience can take. But without context, that data is often overlooked. 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