Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge

I am a member of a military installation safety office who has recently transferred from one base to  another.  The individual I’m replacing retired several months ago and many of the internal processes and  tasks within the work center are noticeably out of date or have not properly disseminated across the base.   My challenge will be to update these processes, make connections with unit safety representatives across  the base, and ensure they are properly trained, using the correct information, and teaching that  information to their areas of responsibility.  The primary challenge in this situation was to find how to  relay the important information in ways that highlighted its importance and made the members internalize  or care about it so that they’ll do the same when teaching others rather than simply going through the  motions of yet another boring military briefing.    Selection

While I used a mix of different tools over the course of overhauling these programs, the primary asset I  employed was the Storytelling method.  This design process tool uses telling a story and opening a  dialogue to get buy-in from the listener—particularly by seeking to create a personal or emotional  connection to the story being told or the components of it.    Application

When deciding how to implement this method the first choice I made was to move many of the trainings  and courses to be in-person to best facilitate the Storytelling tool.  I modified the slideshow focus less on  providing large quantities of text to read and instead postured them to be bullet points to jumpstart  conversation.  It was also important to occasional have question prompts that could be directed to  individual audience members or asked opening to spur on group discussions.  I sought to provide  opportunities for the members being trained to relate their own stories and experiences to the overarching  story I was telling throughout the presentations.    Insight & Approach

I found the application of this tool to be an interesting one and feel I learned—and am still learning—a lot  from the experience.  One of the key insights was seeking a continuous process improvement rather than  applying the tool once and assuming the challenge to be complete.  Each class course I administered was  another chance to modify my approach slightly and seek feedback from the audience to find what was and  was not working as intended.  Furthermore, one of the things I learned about the Storytelling Method was  that each time it was implemented, the story being told would change slightly:  I’d begin incorporating the  stories that people from previous classes had told into my overarching story for the course and I’d find  better ways to explain what I was discussing.  I think these things really helped me better cater the story  to the audience each time based on their reactions and feedback and also helped me have more tools in  my proverbial tool box each time I was to present the information to people.

