Storytelling as an Effective Design Tool

Challenge & Selection

Completing bachelors and masters with good teaching experience, I understood the necessity  to update myself with new concepts related to my field ie., Management. This led me to pursue  my 2nd MBA (Imagineering) from the Netherlands – master’s in Business Innovation from  Experience Perspective. This was the first time I came to know about Design Thinking and  different design tools like Storytelling, visualization, world café, gamification, Lego etc. I was  enthusiastic when learned and was excited to practice. As part of study assignment, I was given  a project in one of the municipalities in Belgium.

The challenge here was the inactive city centre, where many entrepreneurs were shutting down  their business and the centre was soon to be life less with very less shopping and activity  around. The municipality tried some strategies to fix, but no positive results were seen. This  project was assigned to us through our professor and had a chance to practice the concepts  practically. In the creative sessions with the stakeholders (municipality, businessmen,  customers, suppliers, shop keepers, citizens), I used Storytelling as one of the design tools and  found it useful and effective to unlock the complexities in sharing their feelings with others, to  understand, discuss and solve the problems.

Application

As the first step in Design Thinking, before I begin, I searched in internet about the  municipality, city and city centre and tried collecting some needed data. As a next step, I visited  the city as a visitor and tried to observe the place, people, resources etc. This gave me  information to see and understand the problem. As mentioned in Design Thinking for Growth,  I understood that the problem in the city was complex and there is necessity to use Design  Thinking. During the interaction with an employee of municipality, I noticed that there is a  communication gap between the stake holders, which led me to the first step - (What is?). As  a facilitator, it is important to ensure a healthy and positive environment in the creative sessions  so that the participants will participate and move towards solving the problem, else the  discussion will lead to blaming others, with negative vibrations resulting in conflicts.

To start with, I downloaded and printed papers with quotes on “Appreciation” and arranged  through out the way to the session room, so that the stakeholders, will read while entering the  room. This was planned with an intention to create a positive environment. After an ice breaker  (to make the stakeholders comfortable and know each other), I requested each participant to  pick up a picture and think about why they have selected that picture for 3 minutes. The pictures  I selected were the sceneries, buildings and old monuments and important structures of the city,  where all the people living and working there can have an emotional connection. Then the  actual practice of story telling was seen. Each participant started talking for 15 mins. about  what made he/she to select a picture and the stories behind them. While sharing their stories, a  civilian who was 75 years shared the story of a historic monument, which was build when he

was a child and told the story and importance of the structure, an entrepreneur shared an  experience with a customer which made him happy, a shop keeper shared his attachment with  the street and centre, another citizen spoke about her memories and connection with the place.  This was possible by posing some questions to trigger the positive activity in their brains. The  questions were 1. What made you select that picture. 2. What kind of attachment and memories  you associate with the place. 3. What kind of memories you would like to share with your next  generations. 4. What are the special uniqueness in your city. When each participant was sharing  their stories, I noted down their view, also noting their emotional connection and what positive  they can see. After which, I have used thematic analysis to frame the themes and connections.  The results were used as the start-up points for the next creative sessions.

Insight & Approach

These questions made the participants to initiate the thought process, triggering the emotional  connections attached with the place from their sub-conscious brain. All the participants shared  their true stories and felt that emotional attachment with the place, realising the trueness and  opportunities of the place. The process of storytelling helped the participants to evoke their  memories, to discuss and understanding the actual problem that the place has many vibrations  and opportunities with uniqueness compared to other cities. They realized that all the  stakeholders are worthy and talented, but there was a communication gap between the  stakeholders and felt the necessity to create a collaborative Value to solve the present issue.  They also decided that, these sessions are more needed and to continue. The same story like in  the – “Rethinking Subsidized Meals for the Elderly at The Good Kitchen”, that collaboration  is needed, and co-creation will create value to everyone, which is acceptable, practicable and  implementable with satisfaction and the ease to improve the present.

This is the power of Storytelling.

When people are connected emotionally, it touches the heart, when heart is touched, it becomes  passion and passion drives people to success. This experience has taught me the importance of  storytelling, its usage and effectiveness – Share the knowledge and Care the success. I used  this approach in other projects and seen good results, also decided to use this in my future  projects. Storytelling, an effective design tool to unlock complexities.

