One of the deepest needs in man is to make sense of the world, to see order where it may or may not exist.

Evidence of this deep-seated need is all around us. You can see it in how we vote. You can see it in how we think about chaos theory. You can even see it in how the brain processes information.

We humans want order so desperately that we have even created a god in our own image, so we have something we can attribute unexplainable things to. Can’t explain it? No problem. Just shrug your shoulders and say god works in mysterious ways.

This might sound like I am about to get deeply philosophical. I assure you that I am not. I’m not that kind of guy.

But if you know the humans around you desperately want to see order, give it to them. And what better way to give it to them than with a story?

Stories make sense of the world, and that’s why we love them so.

Like images of your living room, stories are not complete, accurate, and up-to-date representations of reality. They are stylized versions of it, just like the images of your living room may well be cached images that are being manipulated by your brain.

(if you’re wondering why I’m talking about living room images, welcome to the list, and please check the email archive)

So the next time you give a presentation, whether internally or to a customer, wrap it in a story. I’m not saying lie, people will see through that in a second. But when you are deciding whether to throw in more data and bullet points, or whether to make your slides incomplete but easy to understand, toss the data overboard. Keep the data in your back pocket just in case they ask for it, but throw it overboard as far as your presentation goes.