Wollega University Business and Technology Incubation Center: Company General Use

Example Reflection – Storytelling Challenge & Selection

Often in the business world, rigid data such as PowerPoint and absolute numbers are the major concerns  in determining the wants and needs. This usually leads to neglecting a major accessible data that requires  nothing but an open heart, a conversation.

You'll notice that storytelling involves considerable planning and preparation. That's because thinking  hard about what you're saying puts you on the right wavelength, which is connecting with the audience.  In the medical field, especially cancer research, storytelling is one major approach to bridge the gap  between the scientific and non-scientific audiences. It is often the best way to identify discoveries,  problems and needs to stakeholders; donors and even patients themselves.

The language of emotions can leave a stronger impact on the audience that can leave them thinking for  days. As soon as your story becomes human and interesting, the hypothesis becomes a reality that can  lead to a bigger research, more donations and higher number of trials and hopes.

Application

It is hard for donors to accept that lung cancer is not a self-caused disease because of a bad habit  (smoking), making it the least form of cancer that gets funded by the world. This was a challenge I faced  and accepted. I was on my last year of my MSc in Cancer Biology. My research focused on gender  disparities in lung cancer, and how women often form a tumor in their lungs even if they were not exposed  to tobacco. Previous data were published showing that women rates of developing lung cancer are  exceeding breast and ovarian cases combined. However, this observation was met with little to no interest  in the donor’s world. This could be discouraging at first, but I believed that there is always a way to draw  attention to this newly observed cancer trend.

I was so passionate about my research and I wanted to have non-scientific donors to become more  interested in my project so we could receive an appropriate funding that would open doors for better  therapies and diagnostic tools. In 2012, I was invited to speak at a conference where many of the audience  have no medical background. I decided that storytelling is going to be my main approach to explain my  thesis and get everyone on board. I opened up my presentation with a personal story, a story that pushed  me further in this research to find answers to my question: “Is Lung Cancer a Women’s Cancer?”.

I opened up my presentation with a video of my 28 years old CrossFit coach and best friend yelling in my  ears “You can do it, ONE MORE PUSH!”. Followed by her pictures walking with an oxygen tank fighting her  way for survival with lung cancer after being dismissed at the ER many times since she lacked the typical  predictors of lung cancer (old, smoker... etc), which lead her cancer to metastasize through her body due  to late intervention.

I was able to present her case clearly through telling a story to a room full of audience. The story was met  with tears and many questions of why, what and when. This story has opened up a discussion drawing the  room to understand the observing trend of a healthy young women with no smoking history are more  vulnerable to present a tumor in their lungs than other individuals.

Wollega University Business and Technology Incubation Center: Company General Use

Insight & Approach

This simple approach helped us receive half million dollar of donations and a better public attention to  this silent disease. Not only I was able to redefine lung cancer as a probable non-smoking disease, I was  able to influence policy makers to review their current methods used to scrutinize patients at the ER, and  not dismissing them from further investigation (i.e. CT scans) based on their age or lifestyle.

Humans have empathy and can project themselves into the story, sharing feelings with the characters,  and often want to know if the characters would act the same way they would. By sharing the story of my  friend, who is young and healthy, a lot were able to reflect and see a different face of the most dismissed  cancer in the research world. This simple approach has given the audience a face to the cause.

Storytelling approach has made its impact in the cancer world. Projects such as Stand Up to Cancer is  based on patients narrate their conditions to draw attention to a research. It also created a community  were providers can reach patients and their family to start a conversation, support and suggest new  diagnostic methods. Understanding the elements of effective storytelling and why they work is the first  step to learning the art of storytelling in business. It is that personal element that you need to highlight in  any business to humanize any project. This experience has encouraged me to present more stories to raise  attention to cases which were neglected, an personalize them to the public so it can become more  relatable and understandable. Depending on what my goal is, my story should dictate the audience’s  reaction. The element of drama has drawn attention to make a change, while an optimistic story will help  me in future to spread hope and positivity among the patients and their families.

