I'm not a numbers person

Book excerpt: Life in the 21st century dictates that you need to know your numbers and use them to improve your decision-making and enhance your impact. From organizing the home budget, tracking health, understanding social media metrics, to running multi-national, multi-million-dollar organizations, it is no longer acceptable to claim 'but I'm not a numbers person' and believe that it is someone else's job. Data is everywhere. Smart watches track our steps, heart rate, and blood-oxygen levels, social media platforms recommend people we might know and products we might like, and map applications on our phones suggest when we should leave home, taking into consideration where our next appointment is and what the traffic is like. Dr. Selena Fisk believes that the data-informed can use the numbers in conjunction with an understanding of contexts, people, and different situations, to lead change and make shifts in what they do. This book steps through the 'why' of data and the types of data we often see and use through three key areas: data literacy, data visualization, and data storytelling.