#178 Making SMARTER Decisions with Lori Silverman, author of Business Storytelling for Dummies

We don’t think about every decision we make. Some decisions are easy and intuitive, others can be riddled with doubt. In a business setting, decision-making is often crucial, and with that comes pressure to ensure we’re making the right decisions in the best way possible. We can often accompany decision-making with context, providing a narrative for how we might approach a decision, citing what data and insights have had significant input into our choices. But how do we approach storytelling and decision-making to breed success? There’s probably no better person to guide us through the ins and outs of decision-making than the co-author of Business Storytelling For Dummies.

Lori L. Silverman is the owner of Partners for Progress, a management consulting firm. As a business strategist, she has consulted with organizations in fifteen industries including financial services, insurance, manufacturing and petroleum companies, government entities, and professional associations. As a keynote speaker, Lori has positively impacted the lives of thousands of people. She has appeared on over fifty radio and television shows to speak about using stories in the workplace and is the co-author of Critical SHIFT and Stories Trainers Tell. 

She’s a pioneer in the business storytelling field, author of five books, and is known worldwide for her work in collaborative data-informed decision-making.

In the episode, Richie and Lori cover common problems in business decision-making, connecting decision-making to business processes, analytics and decision-making, integrating data practitioners and decision-makers, the role of data visualization and narrative storytelling, the SMARTER decision-making methodology, the importance of intuition, challenges faced when applying decision-making methodologies and much more. 

Links Mentioned in the Show

• Business Storytelling For Dummies by Karen Dietz and Lori Silverman
• Connect with Lori on Linkedin
• Level Up with Lori
• Books by Lori
• The SMARTER Framework for Data-Informed Decision Making
• Monetizing Data Through Informed, Collaborative Decision Making
• The Increasingly Vital Role of Business Storytelling in Leadership
• Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini
• [Skill Track] Data Storytelling