Data Interpretation is one of the three sections of the CAT Exam – the entrance test for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management. Most MBAs are adept at making sense of even the most complicated graphs or badly presented data.

However, its rare to come across people who can make a slide or graph in a way that is not ugly, is easy to understand, and is inspiring and memorable. 

Its the same story with the second section too – Reading Comprehension, where its rare to find people who can create an impactful headline or write an email which touches your heart.

Making a beautiful slide or writing an inspiring paragraph is not a higher order skill of data interpretation or reading comprehension – if it were, we would have probably tested students on it. The issue is that right from school, we label this work as ‘creative’, and perhaps relegate these to the “arts”. 

Learning the principles of say composition in art/photography or exposition in creative writing is a good start. And if you demand from yourself that there’s at least one piece of your work which is nothing short of a ‘work of art’ every year, you will do very well. 

Photo by Hayffield L on Unsplash