Storytelling

Challenge & Selection         Storytelling is a great tool that I use frequently. I work in the marketing department of a big firm.  I also work in a social responsibility project. With this project, I gain the opportunity to help all  people from the young to the elderly, and a chance to work with them. Most of these people  encounters many difficulties in their lives and they need support, inspiration and awareness to  overcome these difficulties. Therefore; I took place in such project to inspire, raise awareness and to  support them. Many of the young complain and have various problems about education. I spend a  lot of time with the young for them to overcome these problems and I tell stories from my life that I  hope them to shape their lives. The elderly become happy to speak with me when I share my stories  with them and they share their stories, then we argue about how to overcome the difficulties. I  struggle to make this social responsibility project even more beneficial and grow and spread by  combining the light in the eyes of the young and the experience of the old with stories from my life  and telling new stories.    Application          I have a story about using storytelling. After some problems occurred in some parts of the firm I  worked, our firm couldn’t achieve the progress we wanted. The board manager decided to set a  meeting and he said in the meeting that he considers to fire the employees in the departments that  are failing so the firm could continue to develop. And there I was thinking that it would be better to  talk to everybody one by one and understand the problem. For this reason I decided to tell a story  about the social responsibility project I had been working in. The parents of a group of students  started to worry when the students’ grades had decreased. At first, the parents got angry with their  children, then they thought that the problem is the teachers and the other students. But they skipped  a point. None of them asked their children why was the situation like that. Some of the students  were friends of mine that I worked with in the social responsibility project. After I talked to them it  was understood that this problem showed up in result of the pressure of the families to the students.      Insight & Approach          The conference room buried in silence at this part of the story. Then I proceeded with the rest of  the story. After the families had understood the situation, not only they started to communicate with  their children much better, but also their expectations differed. And the students could use their full  potential since they no longer felt pressure. Thus both the students gained their self confidence back  because their grades started to increase, and the families were happy with this situation. This story  of mine had a big impact on the board of management and the board manager. And alterations were  made in firm regulations. Hence the employees were happier and more productive for they felt  pressure no more, also the manager was happier because this condition caused the firm to grow  faster.

A story changed so many things and resulted in many great things. This course contributed me to  see the storytelling as a tool. From now on, by using this tool more effectively to present my ideas, I  can tell new stories and continue to enlighten people with these ideas.         At first, I didn’t think that this tool would be so efficient but I got a promotion thanks to the new  perspectives this course had given me. I thank this course for everything it has contributed to me.

