Today’s world is characterized by information overload and attention deficit. The amount of data being created, processed, and hence available is exploding. More data was created in the last 2 years than was created since the beginning of humankind. 

Research shows that the human retina can transmit data to the brain about 60,000 times faster than it can transmit simple text! On top of processing visuals faster, people retain visual information at more than three times the rate of text alone.

According to Google's Chief Economist, Dr. Hal Varian, "The ability to take data—to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it— that’s going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades."

To paraphrase the concept of Occam's razor, simpler explanations are generally better than more complex explanations. In a sense, the answer is in the question, "How do we make the complex easier to understand?" Keep the explanations simple.

A twenty nine year old newly minted FP&A manager for an NYSE listed public company sat in utter bewilderment across CEO and CFO, as the CFO said to CEO, “the most important position in his department is FP&A”.

The FP&A professional’s part in leadership is vital and important to the decision-making process and direction of your business.  Make it your mission to provide the most relevant data to your “customers.”  Explain in non-finance terms, the results, implications, and impact of decisions.  This is your area to own, so be cool, calm and collected, and communicate with confidence!