Reflection- Storytelling

Challenge & Selection    Story telling is an awesome tool that many people use on a daily basis, as do I. I used to work a  retail job at a local Winn-Dixie where I would interact with customers and my co-workers to  help fulfill the needs of customers on a daily basis. I worked with a diverse group of people,  from all walks of life, and this meant that they all dealt with a variety of issues. We would all  share stories throughout the workday to combat boredom and increase workflow. I would often  use stories to bridge the gap between our understanding and to better connect with them. This  would help us work harder and faster, and it fostered a sense of community between us—it  brought us closer together. We would lift each other up with stories to help ease the stress of our  personal issues, so we did not let those affect our work productivity. Often times this would not  be very effective, but more often than not it was. I would say that the challenge would be using  an appropriate story to convey ones meaning to accomplish a goal, whether that goal is to get  someone on the same page as you or to see things as you do.

Application    I recall one week the work load was very strenuous, and everyone was very tired and stressed  out. We had a massive delivery, so the stockers had their work cut out for them. The store was  packed with customers, and there were pallets on the floor so there was not much space to walk  around. It was a stressful environment, and people, employees and customers alike, were trying  their best to do what they had to do without getting in the way of others. I remember one lady  who worked there with us was acting very distressed at the start of the week, and she was  obviously distraught. I did not work in the same department with her, but you could tell when we  crossed paths that she was dealing with something. I remember overhearing the managers talking  about her productivity, and how she was slacking, and how this was negatively affecting her co- workers’ productivity as they were having to pick up a lot of her workload. This was mid-week,  maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. This is when I decided to go and chat with her and see if I could  console her and find out what was wrong. I found out after talking with her for a short time that  her dog had died; it had been hit by a car and she found it on the side of the road after it was  missing for a day or two. She started to cry and explained how no one had asked her what was  wrong all week and I was the first to talk to her about the source of her distress. She said how she  loved that dog more than anything and how it was her only companion, and how all she could  think about was how much she missed him and how she was so sad to go home to not have him  there.    Insight and Approach    Before I talked to her, I will admit that I was not pleased with her attitude and how she was not  working as hard as everyone, but after finding this out, I was filled with compassion. Once she  had told me her story, I told her that I felt her pain. This is when I opened up with my story about  when I was a child I watched a truck driver hit my dog and how I watched my dog take his last  breath, as the driver continued on without stopping. I told her that that dog was the best dog I had

ever had to that day, and how I still think about him and how great of a companion he was. She  calmed down and wiped her tears, and I could tell that this had helped. I then told her about how  to cope with the loss, and that it was much better to think of and hold close the good memories  we had with our dogs, than to think about the loss and pain of not having them anymore. I told  her that all we could do was give them a good life, and that it wasn’t her fault that her dog was  hit. She thanked me, and after this her work improved and I could tell she was keeping the good  memories close, and that this helped her tremendously.    I would say that this use of storytelling was very useful in helping my co-worker ease the burden  of her sadness, and it did help her focus more on her work.    After taking this course, I have been able to think about this tool in a different light. Usually I  would tell stories to pass the time, and while I did use it to connect with my co-worker and solve  a problem in the workplace that one time, usually I do not open up with people and use stories to  solve problems.     I think in the future when certain workplace problems or problems with life in general show up, I  will use foresight to ascertain certain stories that will fit best with a specific problem to help me  solve it. Everyone in life has a plethora of stories to tell, but for me, recalling the right story to  tell or use is a bit of a challenge. This is because I have trouble finding a story with a theme that  fits with and helps solves a particular problem. It just so happens that with my co-worker and I  were very alike in that time due to my past experience.

