Find the Story: Turn Data into Meaning

Hosts: Mark Smith, Meg Smith

🔴 For full Show Notes: https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/740

Communication and storytelling turn information into meaning. The episode shows how to frame data as a clear message, tailor to specific audiences, interrupt fear-driven narratives, and use concise stories and quotes to create action. It covers a practical “find the story” prompt, the role of humanities, decision frameworks for tech use, and a simple champions model for scaling change. It closes with community invites and a learning series.

Join the private WhatsApp group for Q&A and community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/E0iyXcUVhpl9um7DuKLYEz

🎙️ What you’ll learn
- Extract a single, audience-ready message from messy data.
- Tailor the same insight for executives, managers, and interns.
- Detect and interrupt fear cycles in media and feeds.
- Use sticky story structures and quotes to drive recall.
- Build champions with simple, memorable selection criteria.

✅Highlights
“What is the single most important story that emerges from this data?”
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
“Play the ball, not the player.”
“I'm getting rid of apps off my phone.”
“Be really intentional and engaged about how you're using technology.”
“Do you think that people are generally doing the best they can with what they have?”

🧰 Mentioned
Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption
SLB (Schlumberger) https://www.slb.com/
Made to Stick (Chip and Dan Heath)https://amzn.to/42q3fqA
Lost Heart Found (book)https://amzn.to/4pRAH3r

Connect with the hosts

Mark Smith:  
Blog: https://www.nz365guy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nz365guy

Meg Smith:  
Blog: https://www.megsmith.nz
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megsmithnz

Subscribe, rate, and share with someone who wants to be future ready. Drop your questions in the comments or the WhatsApp group, and we may feature them in an upcoming episode.

Keywords: communication, storytelling, ai, google, mission, yoda, fear, champions program, power platform, whatsapp, meta, linkedin

Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption

Support the show

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith