Challenge

The challenge I, as an author, faced was not organizational neither  business-related, but rather a genuine aspect with my family at our  house. To be more specific, the challenge resides in having limited  area of cars parking lot. And the mission is to persuade my family  members to dedicate a shaded parking lot area for me only instead of  the whole family to share, where someone who jumps in first, will  reserve it until decides to drive away. The pressing need for a shaded  area lies in the fact that I live in an equatorial and significantly hot  country, resulting in my vehicle being unbearable to hop-in and drive  during the afternoon. Another factor leading to magnifying the  challenge, is that my parents had the desire to build on a family with  greater number of children than usual (extended family). It is  composed of total of fifteen members including my parents, brothers,  sisters, nephews, and nieces, rendering the situation more difficult for  catching up with a free parking lot. However, I was the only person  using the parking lot and living in the house at the same time. Adding  to this, each relative used to pay a visit to our house once a week, but  with the extended family members situation, the status of our parking  lot was merely always full.

Selection

After understanding the problem, looking into the matter from  different angles, and taking the time in observing my family members  tendency of accepting an opposing opinion, I decided to go with the  Storytelling module for showing them the importance of my case, and  how I am in a greater need for a shaded car parking more than my  relatives. My storytelling approach will be structured on the bases of  logic and empathy to manifest my needs and ascertain their consent  and support.

Application

As a reminder, the whole family used to adapt the approach of sharing  the parking lot with me (resident of the house) and those living in  independent residences when visiting our home, neglecting several  unarticulated circumstances/factors deferring from one member to  another, such as employed/unemployed status, actual need for a  shaded parking area, and frequency of car utilization on the minimum.  For me to show logically and empathetically my need for a shaded  parking lot, I selected to picture this situation as a business challenge  for them to grasp quicker. In this case, our house was considered as an  insurance company, my relatives were the customers, and I was an  insurance-providing employee. I started by explaining to them that  their side, parking lots availed for everyone, is more likely to be the  mentality of caring for the customer and employee comfort at the  same time, while my side is to care for the employee comfort more  than that of a customer when visiting our sight for requesting business  services. I continued by explaining that your side is weak due to  several reasons. Firstly, the practice of looking at customers as a one  whole entity is inefficient way of judgement as each customer asking  for insurance renewal, for example, would only come once a year.  Whereas the employee is obligated to report to work every day, and  therefore he/she is in a greater need to for securing a shaded parking  area. Translating this example back to our challenge reality, my  relatives would only come once a week, whereas I live in this house ,  and thus use the shaded parking lot every day. Secondly, customers  will only spend little time inside of the company, in other words, their  cars will not be parked so long under the harsh weather without any  shading. On the other hand, the employee is expected to stay at  his/her post for more than six hours a day. Scaling this example to our  situation, since I am an employed person and living in this very  house, I use my car everyday and it is necessary to procure a parking  for it to be drivable the next morning, whilst my relatives are more  likely to come in for just a few minutes, as well as at nighttime.

Insight & Approach

After I shared the story with my family members, I made them fully  aware that asking for absolute equality is not necessarily a face of  implementing justice. I backed-up my claim with the idea of  handicapped parking lots, and how it resembles justice in the form of  inequality. Eventually, the story was justifying enough, and it truly  proved to me and them that capturing and fantasizing challenges in  the forms of everyday life aspects helps us better understand our  problems and the way we should tackle them.

Storytelling module, when applicable, is more effective way to handle  challenges without running up into time or money consuming  approach.

