Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath , Karla Starr

A clear, practical guide to turning cold, clinical data into a story – from bestselling business author Chip Heath.

Across industries from business and technology to medicine and sociology, numbers and data are fundamental to the next big idea. In Making Numbers Count, Chip Heath argues that it’s crucial for us all to be able to interpret and communicate numbers and stats more effectively so that data comes alive. By combining years of research into making ideas stick with a deep understanding of how the brain really works, Heath has discerned six critical principles that will give anyone the tools to communicate numbers with more transparency and meaning. These ideas – including simplicity, concreteness and familiarity – reveal what’s compelling about a number and show how to transform it into its most understandable form. And if we can do this when we’re using numbers, Heath tells us, then the idea of data won’t drive people to panic. We’re not hungry for numbers – there’s an unfathomable amount of information being generated each year – but we are starved for meaning. The ability to communicate and understand numbers has never mattered more.