Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge & Selection

I am a member of an Employee Association and in this role we have to develop social responsibility  projects, however, it is required to have the authorization of the board of directors; In 2012 I  presented a project to support a low-income school and as part of the choice of the case to be  developed, a presentation must be generated to the Board of Directors for approval of the  investment. In these processes the challenge arises of selling the idea to the board of directors and  it is necessary to manage to transfer the situation that children live in these places where there is a  lot of vulnerability.

As they are projects of Social responsibility, there is a total focus on humans and they seek to be  able to materialize the reality they live day by day in order to improve themselves and keep studying.  In these cases, Storytelling becomes a key tool to be able to transmit in a pure way the need of the  main actors, the boys and girls. Due to this reality select this tool in reflection. As can be deduced,  each boy and girl has a story to tell.

Application

As I detailed previously, each year the board of directors selects 3 cases to help as part of its social  responsibility program, in 2012 I presented the Case of the Special School of "San Rafael" which is  located in a high-risk area and serves low-income children. During the process I proceeded to visit  the School on 3 occasions to be able to talk with different responsible people in the place and in  turn with some families and students. The objective was to collect first-hand the information and  data necessary to document the needs and to be able to tell the story of why we should support  this project. During these interviews, apply different techniques to be able to document as much as  possible through photographic records, documentation of expenses, profiles of the students and  their families.

Once all the information had been gathered, I proceeded to prepare a report and an executive  presentation for the selection process. When I proceeded with the presentation, I managed to  capture in it all the existing need in the School, but at the same time give visibility to the potential  of the children and the positive footprint that the Association could make with the selection and  help to this project. Although the project, looking at the data, was supported, nothing would have  been achieved if by telling its story it failed to touch the emotional part of the board of directors.  For this project I researched marketing strategies and I had my first approach with storytelling and  its impact. The end was achieved and the case was selected as part of the 3 of the year 2012.

Insight & Approach

When thinking about this case, I can now visualize how, from an idea, it can be possible to make a  difference if we go beyond the normal models, in this specific case wanting to transform the  presentation of the case into something closer, more human that would allow me tell the stories of  children, led me to a broader investigation to include existing techniques such as Storytelling. Today  thanks to this course I have an even clearer idea of the subject and that together with other tools

such as Visualization, Process Mapping and Learning launch, they have enormous potential that can  help us solve problems that are more complex or as indicated throughout the course they  sometimes seem like mysteries.

The scope of Storytellig is very broad and has an enormous focus on the people in which we can  contribute to have a better life, this opens up a sea of possibilities for innovative ideas to solve a  need or what we conventionally see as a problem.

With the objective of improving my repertoire, I am learning from varied topics, improving my skills  and Design Thinking is an innovative way of looking at things and can be that answer to many of the  complex problems that traditional methodologies cannot solve.

