Beyond the Numbers: Storytelling as a Finance Superpower | Ep. 10

Olivia

Welcome back to FP&A Done Right, season two. I’m Olivia—freshly caffeinated, slightly nervous as always, and joined by my partner in all things numbers and narratives—Ryan! Ryan, fancy explaining today’s superpower?

Ryan

Absolutely. And yes, I’m still riding high from our recent “spreadsheets to smart insights” chat, but this episode feels almost personal to me. Today, we’re going deep on storytelling—in finance. I know, it sounds a little counterintuitive, right? But it might just be the thing that turns a good finance team into a great one.

Olivia

Honestly, if you’d told me ten years ago I’d be talking about telling stories as a fundamental part of reporting to the board, I would’ve laughed you right out of the meeting room. But the more experience I got, the more I realised: data’s only half the battle. You have to bridge from numbers to action, or no-one listens—or they nod politely and promptly ignore you. Storytelling is what gets decisions made.

Ryan

It’s wild, right? There’s something about a narrative that just… sticks. Like, I could show the execs this gorgeous dashboard with every KPI sourced, five decimal places, ready to go. But unless I explain what’s at stake—what the data really means for them? It’s just digital wallpaper. And honestly, I learned that the hard way. Wanna hear my origin story?

Olivia

You know I do.

Ryan

So picture this: twenty-something me, sweating through my suit, presenting revenue forecasts to the board—old-school, tough crowd, everyone’s crossing their arms. I’m rattling off numbers, flipping through slides, thinking I’m nailing it, right? Then the CFO goes, "But what’s the point, Ryan?" Ouch. I froze. I realised right then—facts without a story just vanish.

Olivia

That hits, Ryan. I mean, we’ve heard similar themes in past episodes—like when we talked about finance moving from gatekeeping to guiding strategy. Storytelling is that missing link: it takes every analysis, every scenario and makes it something people actually care about. It’s how you build trust with executives and stakeholders. They need to know not just what the numbers are, but what they mean for the business—and for them personally.

Ryan

Totally. That trust thing—it’s huge. If execs feel like you’re hiding behind spreadsheets, they’ll start questioning every assumption you make. But if you share a narrative—okay, here’s where we are, here’s what could happen if we keep heading this way, here’s the risk, here’s the reward—that’s when they start to buy in. And they act on it. Not just nodding along, but actually changing course if needed.

Olivia

Spot on. And one more thing—storytelling isn’t spin. It’s not sugar-coating weak results. It’s about connecting the dots for people who aren’t in the financial weeds. Whether you’re pitching a board, rallying your team, or convincing operations leads to back a new hiring plan, it’s stories—not just stats—that turn skepticism into action.

Ryan

So Olivia, let’s talk about the nuts and bolts. What actually makes a good finance story—besides that bit of magic?

Olivia

Right, let’s break it down. The best stories have structure: beginning, middle, end. For finance, that usually means context or the problem, analysis—your data and findings—and finally, the recommendation. But it gets deeper. You need to read the room. Is your audience the board, commercial leads, frontline managers? Adjust the level of detail, the visuals, even your language. I always think of it like game night: pick the right story, or you’ll lose your players in round one!

Ryan

Completely. And data visualisation? Non-negotiable these days. Dashboards, simple charts, even color—yes, my color-coded grocery lists finally make sense—help people see patterns, not just raw numbers. In my last big project, when I paired scenario planning charts with an actual story—like, “What happens if sales drop by 10% next quarter?”—suddenly everyone was engaged. They were tossing out ideas. That’s when you know it’s working.

Olivia

Exactly. I still remember a tense board review a few years back—classic situation, lots of pushback on expanding headcount. Instead of leading with a spreadsheet, I kicked off with a “what-if” dashboard—literally, what happens to client turnover, revenue, staff wellbeing if we hold vs. if we hire. But then, crucially, I grounded that in a story: a real example of a burned-out account manager who almost walked. Suddenly, the board didn’t just see a cost; they saw the risk—and the opportunity. We got buy-in, not just compliance.

Ryan

Love that. And honestly, the tools have totally changed the game. Platforms like Workday Adaptive Planning make it so much quicker to pull live scenarios, model the effects of a new plan, and visualise it all—all without being buried in manual number crunching. So you spend more time crafting the story, less time cleaning up formulas. Or, uh, finding out a link’s broken in cell F293 again.

Ryan

All right, let’s get practical. Because, well, stories are great, but nothing beats a real example. So Olivia, did you see that construction firm case? They had textbook cash flow chaos—multiple projects, unpredictable vendor payments, and a jumble of legacy software. Revelwood came in with Workday Adaptive Planning, connected the dots, and built real-time narrative dashboards. Suddenly, the team wasn’t flying blind anymore. They could see the impact of every decision—by project, by payment type, down to milestone payments. It shifted their whole approach from reactive to strategic.

Olivia

And it’s not just a one-industry wonder. Look at that logistics company. They ditched the “gut feel” and Excel nightmare, set up their first proper FP&A team, and used storytelling around live forecasts to sell new strategies internally. And an entertainment complex organization in the US, they use narrative dashboards to slice results by activity and location, letting them act, not just report.

Ryan

There’s a pattern here. The best results come from a few key practices: get everyone on the same “source of truth”—the same data platform. Automate the routine, so analysts spend time explaining, not copying and pasting. Invest in explainable AI so stakeholders can trust the insight, not wonder if some mysterious black box dreamed up a forecast. The more transparent and collaborative you make the process, the stronger your story will land.

Olivia

And don’t forget—stakeholder engagement starts early. The more you understand what, say, operations or marketing really want from a forecast, the more tailored your narrative can be. Validate assumptions, share those “aha” moments out loud, and never underestimate the power of a clear visual to bring a point home. Honestly, sometimes a single well-timed trend line can win the room faster than a twenty-slide appendix.

Ryan

Yeah, and for our listeners—if you want to build your FP&A storytelling muscle, start with the basics: structure your story, automate your data handling, visualise your findings, and involve stakeholders early. Leverage platforms that help you do this, but remember: the narrative is yours. Don’t cede that to the machine.