Your Data is Telling a Story

When examining your numbers from “Numbers Don’t Lie”, we slow down and look between the lines of the data for the story it’s telling. This is where patterns emerge: the decisions that paid off, the habits that quietly held growth back, and the moments that defined the year.

Moving from numbers to meaningful moments

The premise this activity is simple: use data, feedback, and lived experience to identify your most impactful moments from the past year—across marketing, operations, sales, and leadership. The aim is not to judge, but to understand it well enough that you can make cleaner, more confident choices for the year ahead.

Step 1: Choose 3–5 “anchor moments”

Start by looking back at your Day 1 “Year in Numbers” summary and pick out the key moments in the year (spike up or down in your numbers). Reference against your calendar, emails, notes to determine the root cause of the changes.

These might include:

• A campaign or launch that drove a noticeable spike in revenue or enquiries.

• A process change that dramatically reduced time, cost, or stress.

• A major deal won (or lost) that changed the trajectory of the year.

• A period where the team felt stretched or energised in a new way.

Capture each as a short, factual headline only, such as “Launched new retainer offer in May” or “Switched to new project tool in Q3.” Keep this list visible for the rest of the session.

Step 2: Build a simple “moment snapshot” worksheet

For each anchor moment, use a one-page worksheet with the same set of prompts. For example:

• What was the situation before this moment?

• What decision or change did we make?

• What happened next (in numbers)?

• What happened next (in experience)? – energy, stress, culture, client response.

• What made this work (or not work)? – timing, messaging, people, process.

• What did this moment reveal about our strengths and gaps?

Complete these quickly and honestly. This is not meant to be a case study for investors or your board; it is a working document for better decision-making.

Step 3: Layer in data and feedback

Once the story of each moment is outlined, bring in supporting evidence:

• For marketing or sales moments: look at leads, conversions, pipeline changes, and revenue around that time.

• For operational changes: consider delivery times, error rates, capacity, and client satisfaction scores.

• For customer-facing shifts: review testimonials, complaints, survey responses, or informal feedback that surfaced.

Add the most relevant numbers and notes into each worksheet. The goal is to validate how things felt with how they actually performed, and to avoid relying only on memory or focusing only on the recent events.

Step 4: Guided journal prompts

Now move into deeper reflection using journal prompts. Pick 3–4 prompts and write for 5–10 minutes on each:

• “Which moment had the biggest positive impact on the business, and what, specifically, made it work?”

• “Which decision do I wish I had made earlier in the year?”

• “Where did we overcomplicate things, when a simpler path would have been enough?”

• “What did our best clients consistently respond well to: speed, depth, personal attention, innovation, something else?”

• “When did I feel most like the leader I want to be—and what conditions made that possible?”

• “What one pattern keeps reappearing in our challenges (bottlenecks, communication gaps, unclear ownership, etc.)?”

Encourage a neutral, curious tone. This is about noticing, not blaming.

Step 5: Create Your SOS lists

With worksheets and journal notes in front of them, summarise Day 2 into three short lists:

• Successes to carry forward:

• 3–5 behaviours, decisions, or approaches that clearly worked and are worth repeating or scaling.

• Opportunities for improvement:

• 3–5 areas where a change in approach could unlock more growth, ease, or profitability.

• Stopping activities immediately:

• 3–5 areas that are time and/or morale sucks that have no impact on business growth.  

For the successes and opportunities, you just need to identify them. These do not need solutions yet. They simply need to be visible, grounded in evidence, and written in plain language.

Step 6: Close with an executive snapshot

Capture the key insights. This "Executive Snapshot" closes this review in a practical, leader-friendly format. This one-pager can be shared with a team or kept as a personal decision-making guide for the rest of the programme.

Section 1 - Headline for the Year

·      One sentence: "If I had to describe this year in a single line, it would be…"

·      One sentence: "The biggest shift compared to last year was…"

Section 2 - Top 3 Impact Moments

For each of your 3 most impactful moments, bullet:

·      What happened.

·      Why it mattered (impact on revenue, clients, team, or operations).

·      What this suggests we should do more of / less of.

·      Section 3 - Strengths To Leverage

·      List 3-5 strengths the year revealed (e.g., "fast to execute," "clients value our depth," "strong upsell from existing clients").

·      Next to each, add: "How we can double down on this next year."

Section 4 - Friction And Gaps

·      List 3-5 recurring sources of friction (bottlenecks, delays, confusion, capacity issues).

·      Next to each, add: "What would need to change for this to improve?"

Section 5 - Draft Priorities For Planning

·      3 bullets: "Areas to protect and scale next year."

·      3 bullets: "Areas that need redesign or simplification."

·      1 bullet: "Big question I want answered in the planning days."