WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:03.720 All right, so we wanna work to become better communicators 2 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:05.580 better communicators with data. 3 00:00:05.580 --> 00:00:08.970 We're gonna start off there, becoming a better communicator. 4 00:00:08.970 --> 00:00:12.450 And listen, as communicators in today's world, 5 00:00:12.450 --> 00:00:14.310 we face a lot of challenges. 6 00:00:14.310 --> 00:00:15.750 Okay? There's a bunch of them. 7 00:00:15.750 --> 00:00:19.290 But none of them is bigger than this. 8 00:00:19.290 --> 00:00:24.290 As a species, humans now generate more data every two days 9 00:00:25.020 --> 00:00:27.540 than was generated from the dawn of time. 10 00:00:27.540 --> 00:00:30.210 all the way up until 2003. 11 00:00:30.210 --> 00:00:32.880 Well into the dot com boom there, right? 12 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:37.710 So thousands of years of data being created every two days. 13 00:00:37.710 --> 00:00:40.230 Now, what may surprise some of you 14 00:00:40.230 --> 00:00:42.870 is this quote from Eric Schmidt, 15 00:00:42.870 --> 00:00:45.600 he said this in 2010. 16 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:47.040 So it's not every two days, 17 00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:50.130 it's like, I don't know, every two hours at this point. 18 00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:51.270 So this isn't news, right? 19 00:00:51.270 --> 00:00:53.310 Our audiences are doing a million things at once. 20 00:00:53.310 --> 00:00:54.780 They're multitasking. 21 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:57.120 Most importantly, the thing I want you to really remember 22 00:00:57.120 --> 00:00:58.260 and think about, 23 00:00:58.260 --> 00:01:01.290 is that your audience is very impatient, right? 24 00:01:01.290 --> 00:01:04.050 We spend all day scan, scan, scanning on our phones, 25 00:01:04.050 --> 00:01:06.060 and we're gonna click one out of a thousand links 26 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:08.070 that we crossed paths, okay? 27 00:01:08.070 --> 00:01:10.050 So this is your audience. 28 00:01:10.050 --> 00:01:11.430 You have to acknowledge that. 29 00:01:11.430 --> 00:01:13.740 And by the way, this is your audience 30 00:01:13.740 --> 00:01:16.230 whether you're talking to the general public 31 00:01:16.230 --> 00:01:18.210 or even in a professional setting. 32 00:01:18.210 --> 00:01:20.700 You're speaking at a conference, presenting your science. 33 00:01:20.700 --> 00:01:22.830 You know what? They're still distracted. 34 00:01:22.830 --> 00:01:24.180 They're still doing a million things. 35 00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:25.590 They're still impatient. 36 00:01:25.590 --> 00:01:27.660 You gotta really connect with those people. 37 00:01:27.660 --> 00:01:30.540 Now, there is a solution, okay? 38 00:01:30.540 --> 00:01:33.480 To this general problem in communications, 39 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:34.860 which is something that I developed 40 00:01:34.860 --> 00:01:38.190 that I call the "4 by 4 Model for Knowledge Content." 41 00:01:38.190 --> 00:01:41.310 The basic idea of the 4 by 4 Model 42 00:01:41.310 --> 00:01:46.110 is that you have essentially four layers of content, 43 00:01:46.110 --> 00:01:49.110 four levels of content that you create. 44 00:01:49.110 --> 00:01:51.750 And the basic idea is you need to get the right people 45 00:01:51.750 --> 00:01:54.930 to the right level for them at the right time. 46 00:01:54.930 --> 00:01:58.620 And the only way to do that is to step them into depth. 47 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:02.610 So the topmost level is what I call the water cooler moment. 48 00:02:02.610 --> 00:02:06.930 So let's say we were all standing around the water cooler. 49 00:02:06.930 --> 00:02:09.240 Maybe I started the conversation 50 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:11.610 and I was talking about the Boston Bruins 51 00:02:11.610 --> 00:02:14.580 and the amazing start to the hockey season they're having 52 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:16.770 this year, 2022, 53 00:02:16.770 --> 00:02:20.280 and how maybe this is their chance for another Stanley Cup. 54 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:24.630 Now, if I started talking about that at the water cooler, 55 00:02:24.630 --> 00:02:27.660 how many of you would stick around and want to keep talking? 56 00:02:27.660 --> 00:02:32.130 How many of you care about Boston sports, ice hockey, 57 00:02:32.130 --> 00:02:34.530 anything related to that conversation? 58 00:02:34.530 --> 00:02:36.000 Maybe some of you are from New York 59 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:37.620 and you would like to just bash on the Bruins 60 00:02:37.620 --> 00:02:39.510 for a little while, bash on Boston sports. 61 00:02:39.510 --> 00:02:40.560 That's okay too. 62 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:41.610 You're still gonna be, 63 00:02:41.610 --> 00:02:43.350 wanting to be involved in the conversation. 64 00:02:43.350 --> 00:02:45.510 Some of you couldn't care less about hockey, or sports, 65 00:02:45.510 --> 00:02:46.500 or anything else. 66 00:02:46.500 --> 00:02:48.000 You're gone. 67 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:50.670 That's the purpose of the water cooler moment. 68 00:02:50.670 --> 00:02:54.060 It allows you to self-select in or out of the conversation 69 00:02:54.060 --> 00:02:56.250 based on your interest in the topic. 70 00:02:56.250 --> 00:02:59.160 So in the real world, a water cooler moment is 71 00:02:59.160 --> 00:03:02.730 a headline, a tweet, a 30 second video, right? 72 00:03:02.730 --> 00:03:04.800 It lets you decide do I care? 73 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:09.030 Now, some of you would be interested in that topic 74 00:03:09.030 --> 00:03:10.620 not everybody for sure. 75 00:03:10.620 --> 00:03:12.840 The few of us who are interested in that topic 76 00:03:12.840 --> 00:03:14.220 will go to the next level, 77 00:03:14.220 --> 00:03:17.610 will go to the cafe and have a longer conversation. 78 00:03:17.610 --> 00:03:22.290 Cafe content is the 750-word blog post, 79 00:03:22.290 --> 00:03:24.180 the three to five minute video. 80 00:03:24.180 --> 00:03:26.880 That's slightly longer form content. 81 00:03:26.880 --> 00:03:29.460 Now, let's say a few of us go to the cafe 82 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:31.440 and have that longer conversation. 83 00:03:31.440 --> 00:03:35.100 Most of those people are done after the cafe content. 84 00:03:35.100 --> 00:03:35.947 They've had enough, they, you know, 85 00:03:35.947 --> 00:03:37.890 "One article, I'm good." 86 00:03:37.890 --> 00:03:40.680 But some people want more. 87 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:43.230 Those are the ones who will go to the research library. 88 00:03:43.230 --> 00:03:46.020 They'll read the hundred page PDF of hockey statistics, 89 00:03:46.020 --> 00:03:46.853 right? 90 00:03:46.853 --> 00:03:48.540 They'll dive deep. 91 00:03:48.540 --> 00:03:51.210 So a hundred page PDF, a 60-slide slide deck, 92 00:03:51.210 --> 00:03:53.760 an hour long documentary, right? 93 00:03:53.760 --> 00:03:55.170 That's the longer form content. 94 00:03:55.170 --> 00:03:56.550 The point is this, 95 00:03:56.550 --> 00:04:00.300 you should never create a hundred page PDF, 96 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:02.407 and email it to somebody with a subject line that says, 97 00:04:02.407 --> 00:04:03.240 "Read this." 98 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:04.073 'Cause you know what? 99 00:04:04.073 --> 00:04:05.970 They ain't reading it, right? 100 00:04:05.970 --> 00:04:08.250 No, you would have a good subject line, 101 00:04:08.250 --> 00:04:09.990 a water cooler moment. 102 00:04:09.990 --> 00:04:12.150 You know, "This is about that important thing 103 00:04:12.150 --> 00:04:13.620 we talked about last week." 104 00:04:13.620 --> 00:04:15.120 And then you would have cafe content, 105 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:17.137 the body of the email, a couple paragraphs of texts, 106 00:04:17.137 --> 00:04:20.220 "Dear Joe, Hey here's that thing we talked about last week. 107 00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:22.920 Make sure you check out pages 14 through 72." 108 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:24.967 Or 14 through 22, probably. 109 00:04:24.967 --> 00:04:26.370 "That's really relevant to your 110 00:04:26.370 --> 00:04:28.260 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," right? 111 00:04:28.260 --> 00:04:29.640 So you're enticing them. 112 00:04:29.640 --> 00:04:32.130 You're sort of telling them why they should care 113 00:04:32.130 --> 00:04:34.710 and guiding them to that longer form content. 114 00:04:34.710 --> 00:04:36.510 It's also worth mentioning, 115 00:04:36.510 --> 00:04:39.300 water cooler moments are special magical things 116 00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:42.000 that need to be embedded throughout your content. 117 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:45.450 A hundred page PDF of great wall of text 118 00:04:45.450 --> 00:04:47.550 is not gonna be enticing to anybody. 119 00:04:47.550 --> 00:04:50.250 But if you have water cooler moments throughout that, 120 00:04:50.250 --> 00:04:54.930 headers, subheads, images, charts, and graphs. 121 00:04:54.930 --> 00:04:56.970 Now remember Mr. Impatient, 122 00:04:56.970 --> 00:04:59.250 he can scan, scan, scan through that document 123 00:04:59.250 --> 00:05:02.160 and find those eight pages that are actually relevant 124 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:04.020 and interesting to him. 125 00:05:04.020 --> 00:05:06.390 The fourth level is what I call the lab. 126 00:05:06.390 --> 00:05:07.680 That's like the data dashboard, 127 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:09.030 the interactive data experience 128 00:05:09.030 --> 00:05:11.010 where I can play with the data myself. 129 00:05:11.010 --> 00:05:12.450 'Cause even the a hundred page PDF, 130 00:05:12.450 --> 00:05:17.280 as rich and deep as that is still is editorialized content. 131 00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:19.350 You left out 8 billion variables, right? 132 00:05:19.350 --> 00:05:20.910 That are potentially out there in the universe 133 00:05:20.910 --> 00:05:22.230 that I might care about. 134 00:05:22.230 --> 00:05:24.780 You can't possibly include everything in there. 135 00:05:24.780 --> 00:05:26.850 So if I want to look at everything, 136 00:05:26.850 --> 00:05:28.590 I can play with the data directly. 137 00:05:28.590 --> 00:05:31.110 You're not always creating the deepest forms of content 138 00:05:31.110 --> 00:05:31.943 but when you do, 139 00:05:31.943 --> 00:05:34.650 you have to guide people there by giving 'em a water cooler, 140 00:05:34.650 --> 00:05:37.170 then cafe content, et cetera. 141 00:05:37.170 --> 00:05:41.160 Now, the second four in the 4 by 4, 142 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:43.260 are the four things you want to do with your content 143 00:05:43.260 --> 00:05:45.510 as much as you possibly can. 144 00:05:45.510 --> 00:05:48.660 Again, to make it accessible, compelling, 145 00:05:48.660 --> 00:05:50.640 interesting for your audience. 146 00:05:50.640 --> 00:05:53.070 You wanna make it visual, you want to tell stories 147 00:05:53.070 --> 00:05:55.200 you wanna make it interactive when you can, 148 00:05:55.200 --> 00:05:56.580 and you wanna make it shareable. 149 00:05:56.580 --> 00:05:59.670 And I want to to talk about all four of these briefly. 150 00:05:59.670 --> 00:06:03.180 Again in the context of my favorite word, "Why?" 151 00:06:03.180 --> 00:06:06.300 Why should we visualize things? 152 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:08.010 It's not just 'cause I say so. 153 00:06:08.010 --> 00:06:09.480 It's not just because it's sort of 154 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:11.070 a popular idea these days. 155 00:06:11.070 --> 00:06:12.690 It's a bit of a fad. 156 00:06:12.690 --> 00:06:17.690 We visualize because humans are visual creatures. 157 00:06:18.630 --> 00:06:23.430 Literally, 30 to 50% of your brain by volume 158 00:06:23.430 --> 00:06:27.210 is devoted to processing visual information. 159 00:06:27.210 --> 00:06:30.060 Literally half of this stuff up here 160 00:06:30.060 --> 00:06:32.370 is working on visuals, okay? 161 00:06:32.370 --> 00:06:34.230 The visuals come in through your eyeballs, 162 00:06:34.230 --> 00:06:38.700 which make up 70% of the sensory receptors in your body. 163 00:06:38.700 --> 00:06:41.670 You are a visual creature, end of discussion, okay? 164 00:06:41.670 --> 00:06:42.750 Primarily. 165 00:06:42.750 --> 00:06:46.020 Now, on top of that, maybe more importantly 166 00:06:46.020 --> 00:06:48.900 you are a visual learner. 167 00:06:48.900 --> 00:06:50.857 I don't care what you think, you may think, 168 00:06:50.857 --> 00:06:53.490 "No I'm more of a tactile, you know, kinesthetic learner. 169 00:06:53.490 --> 00:06:55.080 No, I'm more of an auditory." 170 00:06:55.080 --> 00:06:56.940 No, you're a visual learner. 171 00:06:56.940 --> 00:06:59.070 First and foremost, the picture superiority effect 172 00:06:59.070 --> 00:07:02.073 a well-documented psychological effect. 173 00:07:02.940 --> 00:07:05.610 If you share text with people, 174 00:07:05.610 --> 00:07:07.800 they remember a tiny little bit. 175 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:11.190 If you just add some images to the same text, 176 00:07:11.190 --> 00:07:13.230 that retention rate skyrockets. 177 00:07:13.230 --> 00:07:17.520 We learn visually, first and foremost. 178 00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:19.650 All right, now, storytelling. 179 00:07:19.650 --> 00:07:21.930 Why should we tell stories? 180 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:24.000 Once again not just 'cause I say so. 181 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.390 There's actually a lot of really strong arguments for it. 182 00:07:27.390 --> 00:07:31.493 One of the best arguments is that for 50,000, 183 00:07:31.493 --> 00:07:33.000 100,000 years, 184 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.640 human beings have been telling each other's stories. 185 00:07:35.640 --> 00:07:39.300 And it's not just that we entertain each other with stories 186 00:07:39.300 --> 00:07:43.560 it's that we literally teach each other with stories. 187 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:47.610 So great example, when ancient man went out on the hunt 188 00:07:47.610 --> 00:07:51.090 and they got the buffalo, and they came back to the village, 189 00:07:51.090 --> 00:07:52.920 they had data, okay? 190 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:55.680 Not a spreadsheet, but they had data. 191 00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:57.810 How many miles they had to run, 192 00:07:57.810 --> 00:07:59.850 what the wind speed and direction was, 193 00:07:59.850 --> 00:08:01.350 how many arrows they brought with them, 194 00:08:01.350 --> 00:08:03.240 how many arrows they used, 195 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:05.610 how many buffalo there were. 196 00:08:05.610 --> 00:08:08.040 All of that data was used 197 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:10.170 in the form of a story, a narrative 198 00:08:10.170 --> 00:08:12.990 to tell the other villagers, essentially, 199 00:08:12.990 --> 00:08:15.570 here's how you hunt buffalo successfully, right? 200 00:08:15.570 --> 00:08:18.210 This is literally how we have evolved 201 00:08:18.210 --> 00:08:22.440 to learn from each other, visually and via story. 202 00:08:22.440 --> 00:08:24.150 There's a lot of science to back this up. 203 00:08:24.150 --> 00:08:25.590 It's not just me saying it. 204 00:08:25.590 --> 00:08:27.750 So you gotta tell stories when you can. 205 00:08:27.750 --> 00:08:32.340 You also, when you can, should make things interactive. 206 00:08:32.340 --> 00:08:34.500 And this isn't always possible, I get it. 207 00:08:34.500 --> 00:08:36.720 But interactivity is powerful. 208 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:39.840 One of the reasons why we should make things interactive 209 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:41.910 is because we're all narcissists, okay? 210 00:08:41.910 --> 00:08:44.610 We all want the world to be about us 211 00:08:44.610 --> 00:08:47.040 and the things that we care about. 212 00:08:47.040 --> 00:08:50.730 So talk to me about cricket, I couldn't care less. 213 00:08:50.730 --> 00:08:51.960 I don't know anything about cricket. 214 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:54.840 It's just not my, in my vision, right? 215 00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:57.467 Talk to me about ice hockey, I'm on board, okay? 216 00:08:57.467 --> 00:08:59.460 'Cause I'm interested in it. 217 00:08:59.460 --> 00:09:01.860 Talk to me about something I don't like, like politics. 218 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:04.230 Maybe I spend more time reading articles 219 00:09:04.230 --> 00:09:06.660 about the the political figures I dislike 220 00:09:06.660 --> 00:09:08.880 than the ones I like sometimes. 221 00:09:08.880 --> 00:09:10.260 So it's not just things I like, 222 00:09:10.260 --> 00:09:12.300 it's anything that I'm at all interested in 223 00:09:12.300 --> 00:09:13.620 one way or the other. 224 00:09:13.620 --> 00:09:16.680 Interactivity lets me do that. 225 00:09:16.680 --> 00:09:18.857 I get to filter out the part of the data 226 00:09:18.857 --> 00:09:20.760 that's irrelevant to me 227 00:09:20.760 --> 00:09:23.850 and just focus on the parts that are of interest to me. 228 00:09:23.850 --> 00:09:25.020 Okay? 229 00:09:25.020 --> 00:09:28.050 The second part is this. 230 00:09:28.050 --> 00:09:31.260 These are Montessori counting beads. 231 00:09:31.260 --> 00:09:34.560 If you go to Montessori school, a true Montessori school, 232 00:09:34.560 --> 00:09:37.050 there are very specific materials in the classroom 233 00:09:37.050 --> 00:09:38.730 one of which are these. 234 00:09:38.730 --> 00:09:41.040 So when I was three years old, 235 00:09:41.040 --> 00:09:43.140 this is how I learned to count. 236 00:09:43.140 --> 00:09:44.880 Someone handed me three beads, 237 00:09:44.880 --> 00:09:46.770 the ones in the upper left hand corner there, 238 00:09:46.770 --> 00:09:48.780 and said, "That's three." 239 00:09:48.780 --> 00:09:50.580 And that's not that interesting 'cause you know, 240 00:09:50.580 --> 00:09:51.960 I'm sure you all learned how to count that way 241 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:53.760 with like blocks, or rocks, or whatever. 242 00:09:53.760 --> 00:09:57.960 Now, then they handed me the single object 243 00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:00.030 in the upper right hand corner 244 00:10:00.030 --> 00:10:03.450 which are 10 beads all strung together. 245 00:10:03.450 --> 00:10:06.060 And they said, "That's 10." Okay? 246 00:10:06.060 --> 00:10:08.520 Then they handed me the object in the foreground 247 00:10:08.520 --> 00:10:10.290 on the right hand side there, 248 00:10:10.290 --> 00:10:13.740 which is a hundred beads all wired together, single object. 249 00:10:13.740 --> 00:10:15.120 And they said, "That's a hundred." 250 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:19.050 And I'm pretty sure that when I was three years old, 251 00:10:19.050 --> 00:10:23.070 I understood on some level that 10 times 10 was a hundred. 252 00:10:23.070 --> 00:10:24.360 'Cause I could see that 10 of those 253 00:10:24.360 --> 00:10:26.550 strung together objects in the back 254 00:10:26.550 --> 00:10:29.550 made that one flat square in the front. 255 00:10:29.550 --> 00:10:31.020 Couldn't have used those words obviously. 256 00:10:31.020 --> 00:10:32.700 Didn't know multiplication or whatever, 257 00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:34.620 but I got it. 258 00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:37.800 So we are visual learners first, yes. 259 00:10:37.800 --> 00:10:42.510 But yes, kinesthetic, tactile, tangible learning 260 00:10:42.510 --> 00:10:43.980 is also powerful. 261 00:10:43.980 --> 00:10:46.170 And again, interactivity gives you that. 262 00:10:46.170 --> 00:10:48.930 It's not a passive experience, it's an active experience. 263 00:10:48.930 --> 00:10:52.620 I'm selecting the drop downs, I'm clicking the buttons. 264 00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:54.540 So there is power there. 265 00:10:54.540 --> 00:10:57.660 Last but not least, why is shareability? 266 00:10:57.660 --> 00:10:59.520 This is just very straightforward. 267 00:10:59.520 --> 00:11:01.110 This is just the "duh," right? 268 00:11:01.110 --> 00:11:03.510 Like you have to, your stuff has to be shareable. 269 00:11:03.510 --> 00:11:06.360 And obviously you're not always tweeting out your research 270 00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:09.180 or internal communications in a company, 271 00:11:09.180 --> 00:11:11.250 but you're sharing it one way or another. 272 00:11:11.250 --> 00:11:13.680 You create a 12 gigabyte PowerPoint file. 273 00:11:13.680 --> 00:11:15.510 Not very emailable either, right? 274 00:11:15.510 --> 00:11:17.400 So stuff has to be shareable. 275 00:11:17.400 --> 00:11:18.930 This is pretty straightforward. 276 00:11:18.930 --> 00:11:20.130 We can move on. 277 00:11:20.130 --> 00:11:23.340 Basic idea is this, 278 00:11:23.340 --> 00:11:25.860 you need to think about the 4 by 4 Model 279 00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:29.760 as a framework for how to take content, 280 00:11:29.760 --> 00:11:32.850 this pile of stuff you've thought about, 281 00:11:32.850 --> 00:11:37.140 and make it accessible and compelling to your audience. 282 00:11:37.140 --> 00:11:39.810 And the best way to do that is to provide it in layers, 283 00:11:39.810 --> 00:11:43.650 entice people into the right level of depth for them, 284 00:11:43.650 --> 00:11:46.140 and do those four things that I mentioned 285 00:11:46.140 --> 00:11:51.090 to make it really accessible, learnable, memorable 286 00:11:51.090 --> 00:11:53.223 and relevant to your audience.