Most dashboards get glanced at. Most numbers get nodded at. Cole Knaflic's chart discipline, narrative arcs over data, and the difference between a chart and a decision.
Most workplace dashboards are a wall of metrics, a few traffic lights, and a chart that's been default-styled by the tool. The board glances at them, nods, and asks the questions they were going to ask anyway. The data hasn't moved a decision because the data wasn't presented as a story — it was presented as a dashboard.
This workshop is built on Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic's Storytelling with Data framework — the most widely-adopted data communication methodology in the UK and US, used by Google, the NHS, and central government. We combine it with chart selection discipline from David McCandless's Information is Beautiful and the narrative arc principles from McKinsey's communications team.
The day is built around your real dashboard or board paper. Delegates bring a current artefact, walk it through the framework in the morning, redesign it in the afternoon with practitioner feedback, then deliver it as a 5-minute narrative — so the change is presentation craft, not theory.
Built on Cole Knaflic's Storytelling with DataEvery TESS workshop is designed backwards from the change you want to see in your team's behaviour. Here's what coaching graduates do differently on the Monday after.
Stop showing everything you measured. The discipline of picking the 3 numbers that matter to this specific audience.
When a bar, when a line, when a slope, when a table — and the chart types you should never use.
Gridlines, legends, axis ticks — the discipline of removing the noise that hides the signal.
A 4-act structure that turns a dashboard into a decision.
The discipline of a board paper — the data leads to a recommendation, not a meeting.
Quarterly review — what's changed, what's not used, what should be killed.
Full-day format shown. The half-day version focuses on the morning blocks with a condensed live round at the end.
Genuinely the first time I've left a coaching course able to do it on Monday. The live rounds with feedback made the difference. My 1:1s have completely changed shape.
Pricing depends on group size, delivery mode (live online vs in-person) and whether we tailor the curriculum to your sector. Closed cohorts start from a few hundred pounds per delegate for half-day workshops and scale from there. Book a 15-minute discovery call and we'll give you a concrete figure within 24 hours.
Data Storytelling is a full-day workshop by design — the two live presentation rounds with practitioner feedback in the afternoon are what changes behaviour. A half-day version focused on chart selection and decluttering (no live rounds) is available as a foundational session.
We're flexible. Most cohorts run with 10–20 delegates, but we regularly deliver for smaller groups of 2–4, particularly for senior teams or specialised sectors. The live coaching rounds work better with even numbers, but we'll make any group work.
Live online is our default and works well for coaching — breakout rooms make the practice rounds work cleanly. We also deliver in-person at your site or a venue you choose, particularly when the cohort already work in the same room.
Typical lead time from a first call to delivery is 2–4 weeks. We can move faster if you need to — the limiting factor is usually your calendar, not ours.
Yes. The frameworks (GROW, TGROW, observable behaviours) stay the same; the examples, exercises and case studies are tailored to your sector, tools and your team's real work. We discuss this on the discovery call and rebrief the practitioner before delivery.
Yes. Every delegate receives a CPD-certified digital certificate on completion. The certificate references the hours of learning and the frameworks covered, so it can be added directly to a CPD record for any chartered or professional body.
We allocate a TESS coaching practitioner based on your sector. All practitioners are independently qualified coaches (ILM Level 5 or equivalent) with active corporate coaching practices. We'll send the named practitioner's bio after the discovery call.
Two ways in. Book a 30-minute discovery call below, or fill out the form and we'll reply within 24 hours with cohort options for your group.