Example Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge and Selection

I am a Training Consultant who delivers behavioral training and thus deal with a lot of people who  struggle with opening up and expressing their emotions. Now the kind of clients or people I am talking  about are basically well-educated, well-experienced in their domain but the only thing that at times  becomes an obstacle for them is ‘speaking up’. While I was their facilitator for the ‘Communication &  Public Speaking’ session, I decided to show a new perspective of this whole topic to them which would  make it more experiential and interactive. For this particular challenge, I selected the ‘Storytelling’  approach and helped the participants learn better.

Application

Now, my way of approaching these participants was to initiate a story and actually take them to a world  of visualization. For this activity, I decided to get few resources ready which included canvas boards,  papers, paint and brushes. When I showed the resources to the participants, most of them straightaway  refused to paint saying they haven’t done it before. I was glad there were a handful of them, probably  the ones who liked painting, who were interested in the activity. I didn’t compel them initially and began  with the activity. I started narrating a story of a little girl who had prepared for an elocution competition  and went up to the stage to speak in school. Unfortunately, as she was very nervous she forgot few lines  and ended up going blank on stage. That silence that day in the auditorium still haunts her and thus she  never takes up opportunities to speak and express herself. When she grew up, she had friends who  motivated her to speak and she finally gained strength to speak. Today she is a great speaker and a well- known personality. When I was narrating this story, there was one participant who had actually painted  this whole story. He had shown a little girl who was afraid and ended up crying and on the right side  how she overcame her fear and became a great speaker. He portrayed that girl’s journey on a canvas  and everyone around him were impressed. In no time, all the participants who actually refused to paint  got excited to be a part of this activity. We slowly had participants coming onstage and speaking their  own story of struggle, their challenges and how they keep trying to overcome it. The whole story was  being visualized by the class and it was being beautifully pictured on the canvas.

Insight & Approach

For me, well, for any Trainer it is a moment of joy to see transformation happen ripple by ripple. With  almost none of them wanting to be a part of this activity and having an audience who struggled to  speak, I very soon ended up having an interactive and fun session. The whole essence of this activity was  narrating a story which they could relate and also helping them visualize the scene and paint it. Now, it  didn’t matter how beautiful the painting was, but it did matter how well they could convert their  visualization onto the canvas. I see this tool as a very powerful tool to help people realize their  challenges, help them build a Learning Mindset and see opportunities rather than constraints. I believe  this tool has the power to attract people with different mindsets to take the next step and ace at their  goals.

Since, I understood what magic this tool can do, I have decided to use it the most and keep the learning  from the presentation minimal in my training. I have realized it is how you make the people feel and

now really teach or preach them. And storytelling is no doubt a great tool to help people feel and  visualize the scenarios and relate it to their personal challenges and struggles.

