Example Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge

At the beginning of 2010, I was transferred to one of the bank’s branches in which I work as  the branch manager. After assuming my duties and acting my role as a branch manager from  the previous branch manager, I was surprised that some of the deposits belonging to the  branch’s customers would be broken and withdrawn during the first quarter of the year, which  negatively affects the total deposits in the branch and thus the branch’s profits decrease  compared to the previous year. From here, the challenge began to face this decline, with the  participation of all branch employees, whether employees of operations, sales, marketing and  customer service.

Selection

In facing such a challenge, I adopted one of the design thinking tools, namely Storytelling.  Storytelling is a powerful communication tool that enables us as a human being to understand  more about our emotional experiences. This makes it an efficient method to use during the  design process.

Storytelling helps explain the interconnections among people in situations and settings,  teaching broad lessons that engage real human beings. Listening engages people; and empathy  is an essential and fundamental component in the process.

Storytelling is a methodology for solving problems that focuses on asking questions and  listening, with empathy, to the needs of individuals and groups. Storytelling is an “essential  human activity” for sharing experiences, explaining the values, and deciding on solutions  through vivid verbal and visual accounts.

Application

I held several meetings with all the new branch employees, whether individual meetings or in  groups (meetings of teams and employees of each department in the branch), to find out the all  related issues to the challenge, and I began to tell many stories of many successes for me in  previous branches.

A story was presented to overcome one of the most difficult challenges as a branch manager.  The bank’s top management decided to make a full renovation of the branch, and then the  branch’s employees were transferred to work through nearby branches. How was the  coordination with all employees to focus on attracting the largest number of new customers  and then focus on the most profitable products for the branch with the lowest cost in order to  cover the fixed costs of full renovation of the branch during a period of seven continuous  months.

I also narrated one of the success stories when I took over the management of one of the newest  branches and how we cooperated in the branch to achieve a breakeven point within a time and  period less than expected from the bank top management to achieve such an achievement.

All this was done with the branch employees by listing and asking many questions during our  meetings, and listening to their opinions and comments on what we dealt with in terms of  stories and details of each step in the confrontations of each previous challenge, and taking into  consideration all their valuable suggestions, which are a roadmap for all of us in facing the  challenges.

Insight

Such stories and surviving experiences inspired the branch’s employees and seemed to feel that  they could overcome any difficulties or challenges they might face to achieve such a goal,  which is the ability to achieve and attract what is required from customers ’deposits and then  increase the branch’s profits/liabilities again. I saw the interest and enthusiasm of all the branch  employees to provide constructive ideas in achieving the branch's goal. Each employee has set  a target and is committed to the amount of deposits required to be achieved, and each of them  has increased this number according to the required value so that each employee has a share of  the required deposits value according to what he can achieve.

When collected the total of their promises, I found that they are higher than the required value,  after feeling a passion for success and achieving higher than required. Indeed, after the end of  the year, we achieved higher than the target required with the participation of all branch  employees, and we were able to add another success story and experience that they are proud  to tell later.

Approach

This Storytelling as a design thinking tool was used to increase the passion of the entire branch  staff to create a success story for another challenge like the previous examples. From my point  of view, I believe that in order to increase the results and the successes we have achieved in  this challenge, we can integrate another tool that can be relied upon to create a state of the most  effective participation of all parties associated with this challenge, namely Mind Mapping as a  design thinking tool.

This is in order to benefit from the advantages of each of them through the participation of  team members fully in presenting innovations and new ideas from their point of view, to be a  reliable roadmap with their capabilities because they are the ones who will implement and  apply to achieve the highest results and outcomes.

