Strategy and evidence are immensely powerful when working together – but getting this across to others is the key to influencing decisions, negotiation, and, of course, action. 

Numbers, words, pretty pictures and Excel

This course is day two of the ‘strategy and evidence special‘ but can also be taken as a single day course in its own right. See the main page (click here) for practical details.

(Click to email me about possible dates)
The cost is £365 (exc VAT) per delegate. Discounts may be available for non-profits, SMEs and multiple delegates.

Who is this training for?

This training is for anyone who is ready to learn how to take strategic evidence, slice it, analyse simply and present it. Already having a basic understanding of how evidence can transform the way we work, you now want to know how to present and communicate that evidence to create an impact.

What is the aim of the training?

To learn how to appreciate the possibilities of your evidence and then turn it into compelling messages using numbers, words and charts/diagrams. To learn how Excel can be used to do this work.

What will you learn?

  • How to look at the evidence that you have and decide how to shape it to the use you have in mind
  • The ways of treating data to extract the message in numbers or words (or the appropriate mixture of both)
  • Using Excel to organise, summarise, analyse and present evidence
  • Appreciating visual display of evidence and using excel to create charts, diagrams and graphs
  • Sharpening and shaping the message for your audience

Course content

Your evidence – your need: Who is in the room today, what evidence do they have and what would they like to do with it? What are the range of questions being asked and audiences that are being targeted?

Types of evidence: What are the types of evidence that you can use? What are the differences and similarities? How can they work together to create a compelling analysis and a strong message?

Strategic steps to evidence analysis: A step-by-step guide to taking evidence and making use of it so that it fulfils your purpose.

Excel I: Getting your evidence into Excel and organising it: Practical session on how to import or enter evidence into excel and then how to organise and make it usable.

Excel II: Analysis, summaries and presentation : The next steps to making use of the evidence/data you have placed and organised in Excel.

Visual display: Key concepts, tips and tactics for the visual display of evidence. How to do the job quickly and simply in Excel.

Take-away points and tomorrow’s changes

Course detail

Morning sessions

Your evidence – your need

Who is in the room today? Delegates give a brief introduction to themselves and their work.

What evidence do you have and what would you like to do with it? The delegates also give a brief overview of the evidence they have, or are hoping to find or collect and what they are hoping that it will lead to.

What are the range of questions being asked? The beauty of evidence based approaches is that they can be used to answer a great range of questions. This session will tease out these questions and try and understand how they can be best framed to use evidence for good strategic approaches. The questions that are found will be referred back to during the day to make sure that the learning stays relevant and grounded in real work examples.

What audiences are being targeted? Understanding who the final outputs from your work will be aimed at is one of the key inputs to shaping your choice of evidence and the way you analyse and then present it.

Types of evidence

This short session looks at the types of evidence that you can use to understand the differences and similarities in small group work. The groups then come back to discuss and learn how different types of evidence and analysis work together to create a compelling analysis and a strong message.

Strategic steps to evidence analysis

This session looks at the end-to-end process of taking an evidence base and turning it into a usable and powerful message. A step-by-step guide to taking evidence and making use of it is presented and then delegates work in small groups to apply it to a case study or to their own problem.

Excel I: Getting your evidence into Excel and organising it

The first practical session on how to import or enter evidence into excel and then how to organise and make it usable. The session will draw heavily on the delegates examples of the evidence that they are most likely to encounter.

Afternoon sessions

Excel II: Analysis, summaries and presentation

Showing the main ways to use excel to simply and effectively summarise and analyse data as well as present the results ion a clear and compelling way. The session focuses not just on how to do the analysis but how to choose which approach is the most appropriate for a variety of cases.

Visual display

An introduction to the golden rules and key concepts of the visual display of evidence. Tips, tactics and the core uses of Excel to produce visual messages that take evidence to any audience.

Take-away points and tomorrow’s changes

A wrap up session for delegates to decide on the key lessons they have learnt and what they will do differently when they get back to work.

(Click to email me about possible dates)