Example Reflection-Storytelling

Challenge & Selection

I am a Professor teaching in an engineering college located in the outskirts of a city. There  are around 26 villages in the vicinity of the college and the university aims to help the  villagers as a part of Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) activities.  Empowering women in  developing countries is the need of the hour. Being a member of Social Activities Club, I visit  these villages and interact with the local villagers and educate them in varied skills and  conduct sessions on topics related to well-being and health. During these visits; it was  observed that women in the villages belonged to poor families. They generally handle all the  household responsibilities and were economically dependent on their better half. The  income generated in the households did not suffice leading to poor quality of life. Women  had to take care of kids and stay at home and were not well educated; which made it  difficult for them to regularly go out to earn and increase their family income. So,  empowering them right from their home became my goal. Thus, it was necessary to come  up with an idea wherein these women would earn while not having to leave their homes.  With additional income they will be able to take better care of their family, children’s needs  as well as fulfil their personal nutritional requirement.

The challenge in front of me was to help these women become economically independent;  thereby turning rural area ladies into entrepreneurs. I selected storytelling as the tool to  inspire and motivate them with stories of women empowerment. Story telling helps to  connect and appeal the emotions of people, thus it is a very compelling tool used in the  Design thinking process. This tool was selected to help them visualize a state of economic  independence and prosperity. Small scale infrastructure ventures are expedient for women  from rural areas; where income can be generated from the household.     As a part of CSR activities, the social activities club of the college provided solar dryer to  women in a village and the women were motivated because of this storytelling technique to  make use of food processing systems. By incorporating the oldest agricultural technique-  solar drying technology was used to preserve food-items (onions, garlic, peanuts, tomatoes,  fish etc.) as these are extensively used in the local cuisine. Solar energy can be extensively  used to preserve vegetables, fruits and other crops. Solar food dryers are superb way to  preserve food items as it increases the products shelf life by drying it.      Agricultural sector is immensely benefitted by the use of this simple technology; as it is easy  to use, flexible, cost-effective and concrete. This helps in enriching the value of life by  reducing the wasted produce thereby improving the quality of the product. This technique  will be especially beneficial in the mentioned villages without high humidity during the  harvest season. This would also help in bettering the economic conditions of the society as  well as nation. Therefore, it was necessary to make this information and technology easily  accessible to women from rural areas. Training was given to them about how to use it,  maintain it to generate income as well as change the nutritive form of the developing  nations.

Application    Storytelling as is well said by Jose Delgado Global Leadership Development Director, Mars,  INC. in his video, “Every great brand has a story and that story connects to the emotions, the  characters, the values of the people, that live that product everyday”. One day when I was  attending a national conference on Women empowerment in developing nations; I narrated  the story of these women from the village who work from home by making use of this solar  technology and cater to the local market needs. I explained a small data to the audience;  which made the entire story quite compelling. This helped me in arousing energy, passion  and excitement amongst the audience.    The audience seemed to be quite impressed with the concept and the fact that in spite of  poor education; these women were empowered. After the presentation a well known super  market owner approached me to discuss this initiative further. The women sold good quality  products at local rate unlike industry people who sold the same products at a very  expensive rate. The super-market owner conveyed that he would like to support me in this  great cause by shelfing these dried items in all his stores in the state. Thus, this story  immediately established a connection.    Insight & Approach

My story created a huge impact on the super market owner and he decided to approach  these women and purchase their products. The women also made fried onions. There is a  great demand for fried onions in Indian cuisine, as it is used in Indian gravy preparation and  working women in cities find it difficult to go home from work and invest their time and  energy in preparing an elaborate dinner having gravy made from fried onion. If they get  ready -made fried onions; the product would bring ease in cooking. With the increase in the  urban women working class; there is an ever-rising demand for these items. I narrated this  concept of selling fried onions in a story form and the super market owner realized that  there was a growing demand in customers for fried onions; which was partially available in  the market for sale. Thus, an idea converted to an opportunity for business and innovation.  This innovation would simplify urban life and generate employment for rural women leading  to their prosperity at the same time.

By applying the storytelling technique, I could empower rural women at a much larger scale.  After noticing the effectiveness of this tool in one village, it can also be used in villages in  varied states to empower women and different brands can be targeted to promote the  product. This course helped me comprehend the power of a gripping story leading to a great  cause. In future I will use design thinking for innovation in a systematic manner by following  the four steps; starting with “What is?, What if?, What Wows? and What Works?” taught in  this course. Henceforth, I will use this technique more effectively and extensively to present  my ideas.

