Representing TIME effectively in your risk presentations
A recent data analytics course inspired me (thanks Nasville Software School) to think about the time dimension of my analysis.
As risk professionals we have all seen risks that seem to ‘sneak up on us’ or risks that grow over time — only to suddenly loom very large and then we look back in time and wonder where we should have done something differently.
The parable of the boiled frog is an excellent teaching metaphor illustrating where gradually creeping events are more invisible to us, versus sudden surprises. See link for more info. Well, with dyamic reporting of time based information — we can bring the element of surprise back — and prompt us to make better decisions.
The human brain is fantastic at spotting changes in information — especially when presented with that data in an eye catching format. Unfortunately in much of the corporate world we are stuck with 2 dimensional presentations that can sometimes struggle to convey all of the information necessary to make decisions.
Lets also take the COVID example. The first 100,000 cases were dramatic, but going from 4 million cases to 5 million barely gets noticed. We’ve started to tune out the data, like the boiled frog!
Thank you data analytics!
Well — here’s the answer — using some excel wizardry and screen capture — here are a couple of dynamic and visual presentations linked to a topic which is top of mind for many of us today.
The first shows the relative rates of COVID spread in US, Europe, Brazil and India. We know the US was affected later than Europe — but this presentation will show you where US and Europe started to diverge. It also gives you a fresh sense of what the acceptable level of COVID cases should be.
https://vimeo.com/user68101420/review/459486315/d71b3fef5f
The second shows the path of cases and fatalities within the US. Here you can see the path of COVID spread across the US — and then unfortunately also the path of fatalities.
https://vimeo.com/user68101420/review/459486813/6bd9c3922e
Tieing the two together we begin to get a sense for the opportunities missed in the way the US reopened.
Back to the concept
How do you convey the time dimension in your presentations on risk? By using techniques such as these we can deliver an lot of information quickly and easily — in a format that our brains like to absorb.
You don’t need to spend lots of money to achieve this….. leveraging some solid excel expertise can get you very far. Our only limit is our imagination and training.
If you need help in delivering the insights from your data in this way, reach out to JF-Insights.com
We are here to help you!
Originally published at http://jf-insights.com on August 24, 2020.
