# Informing vs Entertaining By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-02-09 There is tension between informing decision-making and entertaining decision-makers. Legend has it that those occupying the c-suite are focused on organizational efficiency and reducing operational expenses. When it comes to the organization in the abstract this might be accurate. When it comes to themselves and their interactions with the organization the data are ambiguous. This can be observed directly in how decision-makers consume analytic information in the form of a presentation. Often the information is consumed and understood, but they are bored rather than entertained. Increasingly the focus is on incorporating dynamic data visualizations. If one is examining data from the beginning of recorded history to now, watching the data progress can be both entertaining and help capture the magnitude of shifts being discussed. However, two points are worth pointing out. Dynamic data visualizations work primarily when the data being presented represent a relatively long duration with a significant, order of magnitude or larger, shift in the scale of the data. If one is examining slight fluctuations in data over the course of a decade or two, the dynamic data visualization would contain movement but would lack drama. Entertainment has its place. Dynamic data visualizations can be amazing. Just because one enjoys when dynamic data visualizations are entertaining to watch does not mean the data being analyzed lend themselves to this form. Analysts could spend company resources to develop a boring, dynamic data visualization, boring because the data do not contain significant variation not because the analyst didn’t do it right, that results in the same information being conveyed, no more entertainment value, at a higher cost. Perhaps part of the problem facing organizations is that those in power can simply direct whatever they want no matter how absurd. #### Related Items [[Decision-making]] [[Data Visualizations]] [[C-Suite]] [[Organizational Analytics]] [[Entertainment]]