Reflection - Storytelling

Challenge and Selection

I am a member of WEMA BANK, a global Non Profit Organisation which aims to make the world a better place using Entrepreneurial action. We target the forgotten and underprivileged parts of the society. In undertaking such projects the most utilitarian approach is an empathetic one. Thus, the design tool of Storytelling often comes handy and opens up more human centred and probability driven avenues. When something as crucial and intimate as mean of livelihood is concerned we need to put the people and their experiences front and center. Storytelling makes it evident that we are familiar with their problems by taking the listener along on their journey. It creates a psychological bond and assists us in reading between the lines. The insights and intricacies provided by this further helps us in building the right strategy for dealing with the problems these people face.

Application

One of the projects that we undertook in the organisation, Premera Blue Cross, focused on the women dwelling in a nearby slum area. We realised that the people residing their lacked even the basic necessities such as books, clothes, etc. Owing to a dynamic intercollegiate collaboration we were able to accumulate a good amount of resources for a distribution drive in that area. But, during the early stage of the drive we realised that the participation by the people in the drive wasn’t as active as we expected. Despite the fact that they evidently required those things and everything we offered to them was in good shape something deterred them from accepting it. I decided to take on a more personal approach to understand the reason behind their demeanour and along with some team members went from house to house to talk to the residents. I sat with them and shared a personal account about how my father too had a humble beginning but worked his way to the goal after some help from his teachers. Now that the gap was bridged they shared their side of the story and what bothered them.

Insight

They realised that I was acquainted with their position they opened up about how they too wished to work sustainably for a living rather than hoarding items for free through donation drives. It was clear from the multiple conversations that their principles did not allow them to take those things for free and they longed for an alternative approach that would mentally put them at ease. I deduced that if and only if they give us something in return for the goods would they achieve a sense of accomplishment, a belief that they have earned what they received. Since money was definitely not the option due to their financial condition we decided to harness the creativity and spirit of the unemployed women of these households. We offered to teach them how to stitch bags from discarded pieces of cloth. We set-up a small business for them in which they could stitch those cloth bags and provided them with a supply chain for selling them at a good rate and gain profit. Thereby giving them what they needed, a sustainable means of livelihood.

Approach

This episode greatly impacted us in how we handled projects and challenges fro them on. Rather than a typically analytical and safe approach we decided to keep the needs of the stakeholders at the highest priority and built our idea around it. We surfaced our assumptions based on the comprehensive customer data available through Storytelling instead of what we felt was right for them. The insights gained and the knowledge shared by the people being affected the most by the project is one of the most important tool for innovation.

