Reflection- Storytelling

Challenge and Selection

Storytelling is an amazing tool for design thinking and I use it all the situations. I’m the head  of the HR dept of my company. I work with different kinds of people with different attitude  and different characters. Each one of them has his/her own unique sense of knowledge and  understanding. I often interact with my colleagues, sub-ordinates and my seniors. We share  our stories and keep our conversations intact. In my department I treat everyone equally and  do not consider myself as a head but as a colleague. As we are working as a team there will  be brainstorming and other planning processes so I personally need everyone’s viewpoints  and opinions. However, as per my observation there are a group of people who do not interact  or give their ideas but just come to the office, work and leave on time. So, I decided to get  their opinions and feedback with the help of storytelling.

Application

Once, I had a coffee session with those selected introvert employees and personally asked  them the reason for their lack of participation. They replied by saying that they feel inferior  and their interests do not match with other employees. I smiled and decided to tell them a  story. I told them that back in my college days even I was an introvert like them and did not  like to mingle with anyone. I added by saying that I did not indulge in any form of informal  communication. One fine day our beloved HR faculty assigned us in groups for a group  assignment. Initially I did not speak anything, later I thought of giving a point and for my  surprise, that point was valid and considered by everyone. One of them asked me my name, I  burst out with laughter and jokingly asked “I am in this class for 2 years and now you are  asking my name?”. We all had a good laugh and a great discussion and even after the group  assignment we were good friends.

Insight and Approach

So, by this story I made those employees realise that its them who has to make the first step.  Afterall we are all humans and we have our own creativity, sense of humour and  understanding. I told them that if we work among ourselves, we are never going to have a  good social life. In our next brainstorming sessions those employees gave their opinions and  it was innovative and approved by all and most of them made new friends. Hence, Informal  communication is necessary in every field for more creative ideas and design thinking.

This course has helped me to see this tool in a new way. With this tool I became a successful  leader for my department and I am grateful for it.

