“We need to be a data-driven association,” a CEO might say. OK, great. Why?

I don’t ask that because I question the importance of data to a successful organization—it certainly is. But it’s worth taking the time to consider what that data is being gathered for, used for, and why. Numbers in themselves aren’t meaningful; they only have an impact when they fuel intelligent decision-making, and when leaders can articulate the reasons for that decision.

At the Sloan MIT Management Review, Jiaxi Zhu explores the importance of going beyond the numbers when it comes to data, and how data feeds into organizational storytelling. Zhu, head of analytics in Google’s Small and Medium Business division, explains how all of the team’s data-gathering mattered little if executives couldn’t apply it to real-world needs. “Executives were overwhelmed by the complexity and skeptical of black-box insights they could not contextualize,” Zhu writes of one analytics report. 

The model Zhu presents shows how organizations need to do more than just gather data; they need ensure that everybody agrees on the definitions of what’s being measured, consider the data’s relevance to the organization, and develop the capacity to explain the meaning of the decision in a story that both uses that data and resonates with stakeholders. “Business analytics projects often don’t lead to action when findings are disconnected from the realities of decision-making,” Zhu writes. “Even the most accurate and interpretable models generate results that are of limited value if they don’t reflect what realistically can be changed.”

I like this approach because it moves “storytelling” into something deeper and more meaningful than just branding, or marketing, or a reiteration of mission-statement buzzwords. It’s delivering the why to members, staff, and stakeholders.

A recent McKinley & Company report, “The CEO’s Role as Chief Storyteller,” underscores that point. More than just using story to serve as a brand ambassador for the association, a successful CEO leverages the information they have, and the decisions they’ve made with it, to articulate an organization’s vision. 

According to the report, that can build goodwill and engagement throughout an organization, but especially with staffers who are charged with executing the leader’s vision. “CEOs who are deliberate about their approach to stakeholder engagement can not only boost their own personal effectiveness but also create more accountability and cohesion across the senior management team,” the report reads. “Such intentionality can help to reveal those areas in which the CEO needs to be directly involved and areas in which the CEO can empower others in the C-suite to manage critical relationships.”

The difference between an association that just gathers data and one that builds a story around is distinct; one treats members as widgets, the other as humans with needs the association can fulfill. Recently, the CEO of the clothing retailer Gap, Inc., admitted he was missing the mark on that front—they’d gathered plenty of data that allowed them to sell to customers but lost a compelling message to inspire them. “ “Somewhere along the way, we lost the art of that brand-merchant storytelling and became a retailer that sold stuff. So we had to go in and edit,” he said. A willingness to write (and edit) that story is as crucial as any survey or market-intelligence effort you pursue.