Storytelling

Challenge and Selection:

The main challenge for me in design thinking is a methodology for solving problems that focuses on asking  questions and listening, with empathy, to the needs of individuals and groups. Storytelling is an “essential  human activity” for sharing experiences, explaining values, and deciding on solutions through vivid verbal  and visual accounts. The main aspect in empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person  is experiencing from within their frame of reference. That is the main challenge for me.

Storytelling helps explain the interconnections among people in situations and settings, teaching broad  lessons that engage real human beings. Listening engages people; and  empathy is an essential and  fundamental component in the process.

Application:

I started the process by becoming a dedicated observer of everybody and everything that my environment  comprises. I pay careful attention to the closest people around me – my family, friends and colleagues. I  learn each and every trait of their body language, how they express their feelings and emotions, and what  can cause a change in their behaviour. Observe all other people and the nature as well, and try to find a trait  which makes them unique and worth learning. I turn my “me” perception into a “we” perception. I become  in possession of my own feelings and emotions, but I can learn what and how other people feel. Thus, I’m  able to explore feelings and emotions which I may never have the chance to personally experience. I try to  understand or feel what they feel and do not.

I compared it with anything I have already gone through in my life. It is not the same as we are not the  same, and our life path is always different. Thirdly, I become a great listener. I listened carefully to  everything the people around me talk about, and I don’t even think to simulate a presence in the  conversation. I stay fully concentrated on how they express themselves, what occupies their minds and how  they feel about it. If it’s necessary to take part as a speaker, then ask questions only directly related to the  topic. I’m fully aware of who I’m and how I’m positioned in the world around me. I’m able to skillfully  manage my own feelings and emotions. Still, being an empathetic person is not a must; it’s a choice to help  you rise above the trivial and selfish whims of the ego. That’s a way to feel united with your higher self  and the Universe as well.

Insight and Approach:

So, I learned that stories take on a variety of forms: digital storytelling, visual storytelling, storyboards,  scenario generation, storytelling through videos, skits or plays, animation, talk and image, text or image.  These forms open up possibilities for many analytical approaches including, thematic, content, discourse  (use of language), and structural. The trends and patterns derived from these analyses, in turn, form the  bases of additional qualitative and quantitative data collection that value human needs as the authentic  foundation of research-based challenges, opportunities and solutions.

Next time, I will use empathy effectively, I will put aside my own viewpoint and see things from the other  person's perspective. Then, I can recognize behavior that appears at first sight to be over emotional,  stubborn, or unreasonable as simply a reaction based on a person's prior knowledge and experiences.

