Reflection: Storytelling

Challenge  My challenge is that I want to convince two of my friends to share an apartment with me after  graduation. My two best friends and I are all moving to Washington, DC, after we finish our last  semester of college this May. While this seems easy at first, there are several obstacles within the  situation. Since all three of us are from the area, we each have other friends who also want to live  with us. There are also other options for housing in the area besides apartments, such as sharing a  house or living with our parents. Finally, we will all be making starkly different salaries, so  finding an apartment that works for all three of our individual budgets may be difficult.    Selection  The tool I have selected is storytelling, which is comprised of three main elements, according to  the final video (“Storytelling Tool”) in the Week 2 section. First, it is crucial to know your  audience and how they might perceive and react to information. Next, the story must have a clear  sequence of events and flow well from beginning to middle to end. Finally, it is imperative to  have moments of reflection throughout the storytelling process. I have chosen this tool because  my challenge is ultimately to convince a group of people to do something, and this tool seemed  the best suited for persuasion tactics. It is also a tool that is very tailored to the specific situation  and audience of the problem.    Application  To apply this tool, I met with my friends to discuss possible options for our living situation. I  knew my audience up front (my two friends) and their preferences: Anna absolutely wants to live  away from home, she makes a larger salary (so she is willing to splurge on a larger apartment),  and she is open to living with other friends but does not have anyone specifically in mind.  Meanwhile, Taryn makes a smaller salary, so she is willing to live at home for a bit if necessary,  and would be open to finding a house instead of an apartment that is cheaper. I laid out all of our  preferences as the “beginning” of our story and explained the reasons as to why an apartment  with just the three of us was superior. In doing this, I paused every so often to ask their input to  confirm we were all on the same page. I had researched a few specific apartments and  neighborhoods that met all three of our budgets and preferences, and I ended the story by  emphasizing that we all share the same interests: to enter the working world successfully and  have a beautiful yet affordable apartment to support us in that journey. Overall, the tool was used  extremely effectively, and my goal was achieved — we will all be living together in an  apartment starting in August!    Insight  Some insight I gained from my challenge is that these problems, especially ones that are solved  with design thinking, are frequently changing. Even though I had done my research on both my  friends and possible apartments up front, I encountered difficulties along the way. I had waited  about a week from researching the apartments to sharing them with my friends, and in that  period, many of them had already been leased. Additionally, my friends’ preferences had  changed a bit too, as they had more friends who had accepted jobs in the area and were asking  for roommates. Along these lines, I understood the importance of the moments of reflection of

the storytelling tool — if I had rushed through my speech and had not given them time to share  these changes with me, then my story would have been much more ineffective.    Approach  If I was to approach this problem again, I would try the mind mapping tool because it is effective  in breaking down the problem and eliminating prior bias or judgment. I had preconceived  notions that an apartment with only the three of us was the best option, but truthfully, I had not  given much thought to having more roommates, living in a house, etc. Using a mind map would  have allowed us to consider all possibilities and then use process of elimination, rather than  focusing on convincing a group of people on what I already thought was best. This tool focuses  on the “what is” and “what if” stages of design thinking, which would be extremely helpful in  finding the living situation that provides the most value to all of us.

1. Challenge (visualization, storytelling, mind mapping, learning launch): Describe your

challenge, including all relevant information.

2. Selection: In your own words, briefly describe the tool you selected (e.g., what it is and

why you selected it for your challenge -- including any appropriate video lecture  references).

3. Application: Describe how you applied the tool you selected to your challenge (e.g., what

you did and how the tool was applied effectively or ineffectively).

4. Insight: Describe the insight you gained from applying the tool you selected to your

challenge (e.g., how an insight affected your thinking about the challenge and about  design thinking more broadly).

5. Approach: Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool

you selected or a different one -- and the reason(s) why.

