Table of Contents

Presenting Data to Drive Audience Engagement

Get the feeling that you think your data is more important than your audience thinks your data is? Try getting your audience involved in the data presentation.

I find data and numbers and charts and graphs interesting. To an extent. But I can’t sit through 30 minutes of someone presenting data in a dry format. I heard similar comments from a number of co-workers after walking out of our monthly staff meetings.

One person suggested projecting slides so that we could see the data being discussed. We tried that, but the slides were often crammed too full with information and were hard to follow.

Presenting Data with Gamification

I reached deep down into my bag of tricks to see if we could come up with a way to keep people engaged with the statistical review during our monthly all-staff meetings. Presenting data with gamification was worth a try. 

We used Kahoot!, an online gaming tool, to ask a series of trivia questions based upon February’s monthly performance. This served two purposes:

  1. Staff had requested to receive monthly statistical data in advance of the all-staff meeting so that they could digest it and come to the monthly all-staff meeting with questions prepared. By using Kahoot! to quiz staff, we could find out if people were actually reviewing that data.
  2. It got everyone curious and paying attention and trying to answer the questions about our monthly data correctly. Between each trivia question, we paused to allow departmental heads time to explain the stories behind each data point.

Everyone in attendance – both in our Seattle headquarters as well as employees joining from remote offices around the country – were engaged and into the activity. People who didn’t bring smart phones to the meeting partnered up with attendees who had a phone.

Answering questions and waiting to see if their names made the leaderboard after each question added suspense to the statistical presentation.

And the piece de resistance?

The Goblet of Vision!

gamify data presentation with a trophy

The staff member with the highest score is awarded The Goblet of Vision (I worked at an eye bank and had been reading the Harry Potter books with my kids) to display proudly and prominently at their desk until next month’s all-staff meeting, at which time they’ll need to defend their title or the Goblet will travel to the desk of next month’s winner.

Is Gamification Enough for Data Presentation?

They eye bank was a very metrics-driven organization and Kahoot!, for as fun as it may be, also has a serious side. As an organization, we want to be sure everyone has a good grasp of the overall health of the organization, and familiarity with key metrics is one way to measure how good of a grasp people have.

By asking a few high level questions, we can measure how well (or how not-so-well) staff is familiar with key metrics on a monthly basis. Whereas, in the past there was no way to know which staff members knew what about key metrics, Kahoot! saves data collected during the game so that we can now assess whether staff are as familiar as they could be about our core metrics.

Instructor-Led Training Resources

These are some of our favorite resources to support everyone involved with instructor-led training.

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

The Role of Co-facilitators

Co-facilitators play an important role in a training workshop. The most obvious benefit is that when you co-facilitate, you get a break from leading the

18 Instructor-led Training Activities

Engaging, intentional, face-to-face and virtual instructor-led training activities can make the difference between a session that helps learners to apply new skills or knowledge and one that falls flat.

Articles Similar to Presenting Data to Drive Audience Engagement

facilitator competency rubric
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

instructor becomes the pupil with kassy laborie and zovig garboushian
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Turning the Tables: From Trainer to Student

As people who have designed and delivered effective training, Kassy Laborie and Zovig Garboushian know a thing or two about good learning experiences. So what nuggets have they gleaned from a 9-month course that they’re both attending, and that all of us should consider when designing our own programs? Today’s podcast answers that question.

John Crook on role play
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Is this the world’s most effective role play?

When it comes to your training participants, two of the dirtiest, or perhaps scariest, words you can say during a session may be: role play. In today’s podcast, John Crook, Head of Learning at Intersol Global, offers some thoughts on how to make role plays more authentic and robust.

Subscribe to Get Updates from Endurance Learning

Brian Washburn, Author

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll send you the latest updates from our blog. Thanks for following!

activities cookbook

Download the Training Activity Cookbook

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Endurance Learning Activity Cookbook.

Find Your L&D Career Path

Explore the range of careers to understand what role might be a good fit for your L&D career.

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the What’s Possible in L&D Worksheet.

What's possible in L&D

Let's Talk Training!

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll get back to you soon.

Download the Feedback Lesson Plan

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the lesson plan as a PDF.

feedback lesson plan
MS Word Job Aid Template

Download the Microsoft Word Job Aid Template

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the Word version of this template.

Download the Free Lesson Plan Template!

Enter your email below and we’ll send you a Word document that you can start using today!

free lesson plan template
training materials checklist

Download the Training Materials Checklist

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Training Materials Checklist.

Subscribe to Endurance Learning for updates

Get regular updates from the Endurance Learning team.