Reflection Assignment:  Storytelling

Challenge:  Working for a start up government organization that is trying to build a learning and  development infrastructure for training at all levels across all content.  But really trying to change the  culture of the government to be more agile and able to respond to changing market needs with an eye  towards being the “best government in the world”.

Selection:  I chose storytelling because, as a tradition, it is deeply embedded in the local culture.  It is  easy to adapt to the audience and can be used to tap into the emotional drivers of my stakeholders.

Application:  I very specifically applied the tool in my strategic planning.  We had identified specific  issues that needed to be explained and generate support among various stakeholder groups.  By making  it clear precise issues, target audience, and desired outcomes we were able to create a story template  that the team could learn, personalize, and use authentically in the individual  meetings/events/workshops we had.  It was also presented in such a way that the participants could use  the story/information back in their environment thereby spreading the messaging.

Outcomes & Insights:  While this wasn’t the only tool we used, it was extremely effective getting the  basic ideas out into the larger audience.  We knew we were successful when I started hearing the story  being told back to me by stakeholders who participated in the process.  In future we would likely deploy  to a larger audience and have targeted “props” that individuals could take away and remind them.  We  are also going to deploy story telling training to a wider audience so it can be used in greater numbers as  our target audience is in 50,000+.

