Reflection - Storytelling

Challenge

My challenge is to make my company’s service of acoustics consultancy chargeable at rates  30% to 40% higher than the market rate in Singapore. Currently, my company is grouped  similarly to other acoustics consultancy firms who charge much lower prices than us. The  incumbents have been in the market for >20 years. They are able to charge lower because of  the following reasons:

● Their cost basis is lower

● The customer does not know how to judge acoustic consultancy service levels.

● There is limited regulation to maintain good acoustics within buildings so the number of  jobs is limited causing high price competition.

● Since there is limited regulation, acoustics consultancy is often seen as a minor service  in the building industry. It is analogous to a cleaning service with the caveat that no one  wants to pay for it since it is not a “requirement”.

● It is often the first thing cut from construction budgets due to its perceived minor  importance.

Selection

Tool Selected: Storytelling    Why did I choose storytelling? Simple. Because a good story lasts a long time, if not forever.  The story is also immeasurable in its value and is easily passed from individual to individual. It  utilizes the medium of language which is becoming increasingly important due to our reliance on  search engines such as Google, which are language based.    One other reason why I selected it is because I believe I have a weakness in telling stories. It is  an avenue of growth for myself. In my view, I am not always able to tell a story from the point of  view of my audience. Empathy is difficult for me, sometimes.    I would also like to explore the balance in a story - how much of it is told in things that the  audience understands/knows and how much of it is a magical surprise. I believe stories that are  good always surprise you. They have an “aha” moment that deliver insight. They should also  make you reflect deeply about your view of the world. Choosing storytelling allows me to hone  my skills.

Another reason why I chose storytelling is because I believe in the power of good questions.  Good questions can move people to change the world. Our organization is driven by  collaboration and having the right conversations with our customers is very important.  Storytelling with its ability to spark questions and conversation is key to this.    The stories created by the storytelling tool will also be very useful for our people, not just our  leaders. Our people at all levels will be able to carry our stories with them. They will be able to  recount them to not just our customers, but to their friends, family, neighbours and even  strangers.

Application

The tool of storytelling was used to get people within our organization to understand why we  lose deals due to client budgets and how we can deal with our competitors.

I prepared for the usage of the tool by calling an all-hands meeting with everyone in our  organization. I started the story by framing the challenge using an analogy describing our  current work as “a cleaning service that no one wants”. Using this tension, I guided people on a  path and discussion. Eventually, we pivoted from our old story of being an “Acoustic consultant  that creates the best sounding spaces” to a “Design collective that collaboratively creates artistic  sound projects that wow”. I felt that the former was written in the words of a “problem fixer”. The  latter was written in words that our customers care about.    Through this reframing, we realized that our customers are interested in spending money but  they were not interested in paying the old story of “Creating the best sounding spaces”. They  were interested in paying things that were unique and sparked their imagination.

Our whole team has been galvanized by our new story. Increasingly, the team is collaborating to  create mini-experiments and prototyping novel new solutions. We have started taking a wider  view of what we do and even began working on product design for sound. There is excitement  building within the team.

Our marketing department is also excited by the idea of collaboration for sound projects and is  increasingly working this into their digital campaigns. They are crafting stories with customer  lingo in their tweets and shares.    In terms of non-successes, on another occasion, I had a slight hiccup selling parts of the Design  Thinking methodology to our team. I proposed the tool of “Learning Launch” as a tool to guide  one of launch our events but this was summarily ignored by everyone involved. I believe this  was due to a couple of reasons:

- People don’t get why we want to do a “Learning Launch”

- The method used was not strong. I posted the Coursera lecture video for the Learning  Launch tool on our organization’s chat channel on a weekend.

- I did not proposed a clear path from beginning to end.

- People had other ideas about what is important for the event.

Insight

The insight that I gained from the tool is that you are only as good as your story. The story  should also be broadcasted loud and clear in all mediums. You should also be able to back up  the story you are telling.    The other insight I gained is about how to tell a good story. A story requires both internal and  external stakeholder buy in. It should be backed by real data and real things. It should have a  clear path and not leave questions hanging.    In terms of the insight about Storytelling & Design Thinking, I believe storytelling will remain the  easiest starting point for me to get people involved in a design thinking exercise. This is  because storytelling is not technical and people have been doing it for thousands of years. It is  the perfect jumping off point to a more methodical collaboration method.

Approach

If I was to apply the storytelling tool again, I would start first by discovering more about my  stakeholders. I would try to understand better by collecting some data/stories from them. This  would inform my stories and the language I would use to move them. I would also be thoughtful  about my delivery and tell a better story that is clearly mapped out with a clear path from  beginning to end.

