2 Introduction

Organizational leaders spend more than 60% of their work hours in meetings or on conference calls (Bandiera, Guiso, Prat, Sadun, 2011). They are constantly being bombarded with facts, stats, and pitches to make some sort of change based on new projections and figures. As a practitioner of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, how do you cut through the noise and successfully gain leadership support for your recommendations? It is wishful thinking that simply presenting research from top journals or showing the employee survey results as a data table will gain buy-in. Instead, a transformation of the raw facts into stimulating but interpretable graphics and relatable stories is required.

Techniques for communicating research findings through data visualizations and storytelling will be discussed in this book. The purpose is to leave the reader with actionable steps that can be taken to relay important information to key stakeholders quickly and honestly. Research from the fields of design and human perception will be introduced and incorporated into best practices for practitioners of I-O Psychology to follow.