PEER-GRADED ASSIGNMENT: REFLECTION (STORYTELLING)

Challenge

I work in Corporate Strategy in a mid-sized bank, and part of the day-to-day responsibilities of my

job requires me and my team to source for, analyse, and present large amounts of data which is

spooled from several external and internal sources. The information gained from this data is

intended to drive business decisions amongst staff at all levels of the organization, and by

extension, guide the bank down the path towards the attainment of pre-determined performance

metrics. This, in summary, means that we have to generate numerous reports curated for staff at

various levels of clearance—and quite often—intellectual capability.

Unfortunately, we came to discover that, while the reports we generated and shared did drive

considerable discussions among all the parties concerned, they hardly ever translated into any

real action on the part of management and staff alike. Even when they did lead to organizational

action, the moves taken could just as often lead down an entirely unforeseen (on our part) and

unintended tangent as lead down one which we had judged to be the best for the business.

Needless to say, this was not the best situation for the bank to be in. In fact, it was not a desirable

situation at all.

My team and I were rather flummoxed by this state of affairs, particularly in light of the fact that it

meant that we were investing a lot of time and resources on projects that were not yielding

tangible results. In the eyes of Management, we were underperforming. We were certain that the

underlying problem was not a paucity of reports, as we were producing, on average, five reports

a week which was above the assigned target for the team. We had seen these reports sent out and

had also sat in on a number of meetings where these reports were discussed, often heatedly, so

we could also rule out the possibility of the receivers not receiving, or being unaware of, the

reports. In order to get to the root of things, we decided to employ the principles of design thinking

to solve the problem, which would also involve engaging all the stakeholders involved.

Selection & Application

The first step was the stakeholder engagement, which we executed in a face-to-face meeting with

the Heads of various departments. This engagement revealed that, while the reports were being

received regularly, the barrage of numbers and charts often left too much room open for multiple

interpretations, and this meant that receivers would then have to spend large amounts of time

debating the meaning(s) of the presentation, hence the many opinions that then led to the

protracted discussions that would in turn stall action. It was a simple lack of clarity of meaning.

When this became clear, we decided to employ the design thinking tool of storytelling as we were

going to have to work to generate a single story that would be more in line with our—and the

businesses’—goals and corporate vision. We believed storytelling would be right tool because it

would drive engagement, interest, and would compel the right kind of action more easily. With

this in mind, we undertook to include summary slides, which would explain, in succinct, clear

language, the major takeaways (particularly as regards performance and other items of interest).

The attached text could take the form of “Deposits grew by XX% over the period due to xxx” and

this would save the time that would have been spent in arguing about why the deposits went up

in the first place. This was an effective application of the storytelling tool, as we were telling stories

about what the data was saying.

Insight

This was the right approach to take, as almost immediately we began to see improvements in the

reactions of receivers. First of all, meeting times shortened considerably, and it became much

easier to guide staff down courses of action that were in line with the bank’s corporate vision and

strategy. We began to see results that were more in line with our aspirations, as the addition of a

single, crafted story made for easier and more unified understanding and freed up time that could

then be used for other, more fulfilling, activities. It was a win-win situation for all.

Approach

This design thinking course made my team and I see and approach our problem in a different way,

as our original method had been too formulaic and insufficient for the needs it was to meet. Now,

instead of just rushing to send out charts and figures, we take the time to plan properly and think

of stories that would galvanize staff and drive corporate action.

