Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath and Karla Starr. Chip is professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Much to my surprise I looked up my first review of Made to Stick, Dan and Chip’s debut book. I read that book over 15 years ago. That book made such an impression that I have read their books without disappointment. However they recently published independent books and I will share Dan’s book Upstream shortly. His brother Dan is a consultant to Duke University’s Corporate Education program.
Chip presents multiple lessons to make numbers more meaningful to any group you are sharing data with in order to make an impression. This book is really one that should be not only on your shelf but also sharing with colleagues.
An interesting point is Chip’s message that nobody is really a “numbers person” as our brains cannot easily understand the analysis of very large number sets.
The focus is numbers in the billions. However, Chip documents how to understand and communicate the difference between one million and one billion that makes an impact within your organization:
You and a friend each enter a lottery with several large prizes. But there’s a catch: If you win, you must spend $50,000 of your prize money each day until it runs out. You win a million dollars. Your friend wins a billion. How long does it take each of you to spend your lottery windfall? As a millionaire….you go bust after a mere 20 days. If you win on Thanksgiving, you’re out of money more than a week before Christmas. For your billionaire friend….He or she would have a full-time job spending $50,000 a day for 55 years.
pg. 10
This example makes perfect sense in helping many users understand how to begin learning how to communicate their data sets.
Learning to overcome data communications
Due to the increase of online presentations and Zoom meetings since the pandemic, this is now an important book. However the key lesson Chip reveals how we must work on translating numbers into actionable, easy to follow insights. This is most important for colleagues who may struggle in communicating large datasets based upon longstanding data reporting requirements.
I found “recasting numbers into different dimensions” and “making it personal” particularly useful. Even if you didn’t apply anything from this book it would still be a very fun read, but I think this book would be almost universally helpful.
In conclusion, Chip really delivers on revealing insights for anyone to learn how to communicate large data sets effectively.