As a relatively young organization, the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools has enjoyed meteoric growth since it was founded in 2014. Its membership has recently grown 30 percent year over year, which the ATLIS board takes as good news. But that figure doesn’t explain everything going on with the organization, and Executive Director Christina Lewellen makes a point of sharing the story behind the numbers.
“It’s easy enough to say we’re a young organization so that growth is to be expected, but it’s not that simple,” she says. “We’ve put very intentional efforts around our outreach and membership growth initiatives. We’ve added a membership support team that’s focused on white-glove service to current and prospective members. I’ve been traveling the country. Being able to connect those dots for board members is really important.”
Building storytelling into the presentation of data is important at a time when people can be more skeptical about that data and crave context. Numbers alone won’t explain what constitutes a success or a setback for an association, says Jeffrey Cufaude, a longtime facilitation expert and former association executive. “People now seem to be more set in their ways in terms of the filters or mental models through which they’re viewing data,” he says. “I’ve seen either an unwillingness or difficulty in accepting or appreciating a story that doesn’t align with the story that they’re telling themselves about the data.”
In the context of a board discussion, then, “storytelling” might require surfacing particular assumptions that people are carrying around the importance and meaning of a data point. When someone disputes data, Cufaude says, “I ask, ‘Can others comment on their experience?’ I’m immediately going to try to broaden out the perspectives on the story or stories that data can tell to see if what this one person is asserting is representative of the group.”
