Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge & Selection  As a current student, I was often very annoyed when I was presenting because I could not successfully bring the  attention to my presentations, both from my professors and classmates. I assumed that in most of the cases I  made a great job and felt sad because I could not share efficiently what I have done, due to the fact that all the  students were presenting something on the same topic, hence, that the hour and a half session was very  repetitive and monotone.   Nevertheless, I quickly realized that it was more enjoyable for my professors, my classmates, and I when I could  personalize it to my own perception or experience, and ultimately use a storytelling tool. As a matter of fact,  relying on storytelling is very effective and proves my understanding of the topic covered, while adding a creative  touch. I realized that as soon as I starts to use such tool, both my professors and classmates are more focus on  what I am saying, and getting the attention helps me to improve my presentation skills at that same moment.     Application  I had once a course called “Aid, Development and Entrepreneurship” in which in a group of 5, we had to  elaborate a social business idea to implement in an assigned country, which was in our case Singapore. It was a  really interesting and intensive course, that all my class liked a lot. All groups had to present on that same day,  and the goal was to present like if we were in front of investors who could invest in only one social business.  Hence, the competition was fierce. With my group, we decided to use that storytelling tool all along our  presentation in order to keep our audience focused and differentiate it through making it more personal.  The social issue we found to solve through a social business idea was the creation of an organization, in  partnership with a university in Singapore, which would give access to a minimal education to Asian (mainly from  the Philippines) maids in Singapore in order to empower them. We started by contrasting the fact that Singapore  is known to be such an amazing city, but that 15% of its population workforce are maids, who did not and do  not have the same amazing opportunities as their neighbours in that small city-state. In addition, we explained  our audience what a typical day-off looks like for them, and how we could help them opening the door to a  better quality of life, always with suspense, along with coming impactful data. For instance, we explained them  how the maids could inevitably benefit from this association, as well as their families, their employers, and the  Singaporean economy as a whole.   As a good storytelling tool application does not terminate without an end which is not about the initial story, we  took the example of a similar social business already implemented in Hong-Kong. Indeed, we used the  testimonies of the segmented population to illustrate how it has helped them in many ways in their daily lives,  which gave space for reflection of the audience, in that case potential investors that had to elect the most  efficient and impactful social business project.     Insight & approach  Using this storytelling tool, with stunning facts, accurate data and creative recommendations, while letting space  to reflections all along our presentation gave us a huge credibility. We indeed got the “prize” of the investors  giving us the money, or in other words got the maximum grade ;-). It was a really interesting experience in which  we really succeed to catch the attention of our professor and classmates through leading them to an  inspirational opportunity, that we all connect with and rely on thanks to common values: investors of social  business all have the same passion: having a positive impact on the world.

