Example Reflection : Storytelling

Challenge :  I’am the head actuarial department at NSIA Participations – holding of insurances companies based in  west africa. My Job consists in creating insurance products for all local market covered by my  organisation.  In my country – Cote d’Ivoire- only 10% of population had an insurance product and the  other 90% are uninsured and they  consider insurance product as a luxury.. However, to  realize the full  potential of insurance and particularly to increase our market share it was important for us to understand  why the large part of the population are not interested in insurance products or what kind of insurance  product could we propose them. So, the top management  charged me (as project leader) and some of  my colleagues to rethink our products and their distribution channels in line with the specific features  of local markets.  My colleagues was disappointed and thought that we would fail. The reason was all  our competitors failed by  trying to propose insurance product to people who work in informal sector  (the 90% who are not assured). My challenge was to motivate my colleague and lead the project to  success.    Selection  I have used storytelling tool to achieve my objective.  For me, storytelling is the art of producing an  existing story, or rather to master the art of creating. It is one othe the best way to connect us with our  audience and share feelings with him. Storytelling is also one the oldest way to deliver a message – or  to explain things or problems. Our parents used storytelling tool to give us advice even if we don’t call  it exactly that. For all these reasons I was sure that storytelling was the best tool which could help me to  motivate my colleagues and convince them to participate actively to the project.    Application

To lead the project, i decided to plane three meetings each week. At the first meeting, i told we all know  that  Insurance is a peculiar concept. Because it consists in paying a defined sum today to cover a risk  that may or may not materialize in the future, However, i think, insurance has always existed in some  form and today’s version is a product of tools developed by many traditional societies to create  “confidence” among people, private organizations etc. In this case, we must create confidence among  the other 90% of the population and we should also  know exactly what kind of product they need.    I used storytelling to share with them my feelings about the project. I told them a story that build my  confidence in the project. I told them that last year, i was in a village for vacation. I noticed that each  evening, a man named Leroy collected money from  the sellers, traders and farmers of the village.  The amount of the sum collected per person per day  was 1.5 $. Each person could pay his membership  fees daily weekly or monthly. When i discussed with Sullivan Leroy,  he explained me that each six month  he reimburse to each member 90% of his total membership fees and the other 10% is used to face  risks  that could occur in the village. For me, Leroy had create a micro insurance product even he didn’t  call it exactly that. So if Sullivan Leroy can create that kind of product for farmers or sellers, we can do the  same thing with rural population. I also told them the story of Muhammed Yunus who was awarded the  Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and  microfinance. We looked some videos of what Yunus did.  Because a story with no surprise is sometimes  boring, at the end of my story  I presented them Sullivan Leroy whom I had invited.. All of my colleagues  really appreciated Sullivan Leroy participation to the meeting. He shared his experience with us and was  opened to assist us in this project.  At the end of the meeting, we had the feelings that nothing could stop  us.

Insight  Storytelling allowed me to motivate my colleague and to show them that our challenge was not  impossible. At the end of Sullivan Leroy’s speech, they all realised that we could create micro insurance  products for rural population. They also realised that our challenge was not so different from Muhammad  Yunus’s challenge who succeed. We were so motivated that we had  interview  two hundred persons  about micro insurance products. We also challenged  our traditional channel dstribution.  Broadly, techniques of design thinking were very useful during the different interviews. Design thinking  permitted us to have an insight into why 90% of the population were not interest in our insurance  products which were too expensive. We also noticed that 98% of rural population don’t have a bank  account. In addition, the fact that insurance premium shall be paid periodically (monthly- quartely –  annually etc.) was also an obstacle. Because they don’t have periodic income. They are not salary. In  conclusion we realised that we used to create products we wanted to sell them instead of create products  people really need.

Approach

Storytelling is a very useful tool to be connected to your audience. It can be used to movate, to explain  things and so one and forth. But in some cases, others design thinking tools seem more appropriate.  During our interview, i  used visualisation tool to explain to the interviewers the concept of insurance  and showed them an insurance policy. Visualisation permitted to reinforce their understanding of the  insurance. In conclusion, it is very important to master at least two design thinking tools for a better  communication with your audience.

