A practical and fascinating guide from leading data expert Dr Selena Fisk that teaches us how to make informed decisions using the numbers around us so we can work smarter and live better.
Data is everywhere. Smart watches track our steps and heart rate, social media platforms recommend people we might know and products we might like, and map applications suggest when we should leave home depending on the traffic.
From organising your home budget and understanding social media metrics, to running a side hustle or a multi-national, multi-million-dollar organisation, having the mindset 'but I'm not a numbers person' is no longer helpful or accurate.
Data coach and storyteller Dr Selena Fisk believes we can all improve the way we read, use and interpret the data that we're given to make better decisions and enhance our impact.
I'm Not A Numbers Person takes us through the 'why' of data, the types of data we often see and use in life and work, and the key areas of data literacy, which is understanding the data and what it all means, and data visualisation, which is where we make the data look beautiful in tables, graphs or other visuals.
But the most important thing you'll learn will be how to engage in data storytelling, which is finding and using the most important data to make really good decisions for yourself, your team and your organisation.
Whether you're a solopreneur, a small business owner, an emerging leader, or in an executive leadership role, this book is a must-have guide to understanding data and making decisions in the 21st century.
I'm Not A Numbers Person : How to make good decisions in a data-rich world
Description
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Why data?
Evidence versus action
Chapter 2: Thinking about data
Cognitive biases
Grittiness
Evolving intelligence
Seeing the positives
Slow and deliberate thinking
Point-in-time versus longitudinal data
Chapter 3: Types of data
Payroll and financial
Expenses
Social media
Website and Google analytics information
Triangulating data
Part 2
Chapter 4: Data literacy
Quantitative data
Qualitative data
Choosing the right data
Chapter 5: Data visualisation
Reading the visualisations that you have
Developing your own visualisations
Which visualisation is best?
Chapter 6: Data storytelling
Knowing which data to choose for data storytelling
Establishing the trends in the data
So what?
Conclusion
References
Author Description
Dr Selena Fisk is a data expert and consultant who is passionate about helping others sort through the numbers to tell the real stories and lead positive change. She fiercely advocates for a world in which we are all data-informed, not data-driven. Selena has mentored executive, senior, and middle leaders, as well as hundreds of others in data storytelling, which has positively impacted the organisations in which they work. With her background in teaching, she has developed resources to promote data storytelling in schools, including two books and an online self-paced data storytelling course. I m Not A Numbers Person is her third book.