Storytelling

Challenge & Selection  Storytelling is about creating emotions and values, connecting with people through things that are  meaningful. Storytelling is a great tool to work within a company. Storytelling is an even better  tool to work on a business that work with people from different backgrounds and goals. I work in  an English school for international students from all over the world. These students came to the  United States to improve their English for different purposes. Most of them, have struggles and  deal with a different challenge almost every day. They are not simple customers to work with, not  because of their behaviors, but because it is very hard to find standards and common sense to  understand their real needs and expectations.   The reason why I chose storytelling to work with in this assignment, is because storytelling really  helps our management group during brainstorming sessions and to come up with decisions that  benefit our audience. Other than that, storytelling also helped me during my time working directly  with students in our admissions office. I used to hear them, understand them and share stories that  could somehow be useful to them and inspire. Besides knowing how important is to listen and talk  to our customers, I also had the advantage of being an international student myself in the past. To  be able to share my experiences with them, in most of the time, opened their minds to a brighter  future. Because of the experience with our students/customers, it helped me to bring new  perspectives during our meetings. At some point, other managers would not understand why  something should be a certain way, but after telling them a few stories, it made sense to them.     Application  During my time working with admissions and students’ services, I spoke to a student that had no  motivation and was thinking about giving up of her studies. She claimed that the dollar got very  expensive comparted to her own currency and that she had no hope to improve her English and  achieve a master’s degree (her primary goal). After spending some time hearing her out, I decided  to open up and share my own personal story. I explained to her that I came from the same country  as she did, studied in the same language school, and then under similar circumstances than her, I  finished my master’s degree in a good university. After showing her the way and my personal  experience, the student finished her studies, graduated from our school and got accepted with a  scholarship to a very good university. After years, she stopped by my work and told me how our  conversation changed her life.  Storytelling was also used in a very important meeting with our CEO to review and update our  prices and policies. Apparently, our CEO came to the meeting with a mindset, not willing to give  up of her ideas. After hearing everything she had to say, I suggested something else and she totally  ignored my idea. Once again, I tried to make a point, but this time, bringing a real person story and  how this person would react if the new set of rules would apply. After that, the company’s CEO  gave up of the original idea and we came together with a solution.     Insight and Approach  After taking this course, it made me realize how important is storytelling and how involuntarily I  was already using it in my job. I feel confident of using this tool and I wish that all people could  understand how important it is. Having more knowledge of this tool, will allow me to share my  insights with colleagues and not only show them the way towards a better decision, but also make  them apply for their daily work. To understand the cause of our daily challenges, allow us moments

of reflection, create energy and passion among our team, and make them understand that there is  always a way to solve our issues, it is important to use this amazing tool called storytelling.   I have never been a creative person, but guess what? Great ideas come out of storytelling.

