Student Name: Rania Mohammed

Tool: Story Telling

Challenge Description:

As the leader of a coordination team of 5 persons which has been recently demotivated and  demoralised by dramatic staff reductions in the office which affected several of their  colleagues/friends. I needed to find a way to address managing change with my team  members. Several team members were re-evaluating in a very negative way whether they  too could be affected at any time by change. The attitude of some team members became  that of putting in only the minimum effort for tasks which required excellence and a general  lethargic attitude which did not demonstrate focus and greatly affected productivity. I  recognised an urgent need to re-inspire the team to not only secure their commitment to a  range of upcoming joint actions which would require high energy and beyond the call of  duty time commitments, but also to reinforce to the team that managing change in their  professional and personal lives are important for success as development professionals and  as human beings. I needed a powerful tool that would put the human nature of my team  front  and  centre.  This  video  helped  me  to  present  my  story  well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj-hdQMa3uA

I choose Story Telling as the tool to explain to the team that change and transformation are  constants in life which we should be open to exploring and adjusting to over time. I decided  to make an emotional investment in my team and shared the story of my own family  overcoming challenges and innovating to overcome poverty as an example of why their  contribution to development work is important and the impact it can potentially have on  those who need it most.

Selection: I selected the tool of storytelling as a tool to ignite passion, unite the team  around common goals and connect emotionally with my team by assuring them that our  values were not different in the changing situation, our perspectives may just have been  influenced by their experience with constant stability in their case and frequent  adjustments/instabilities in my own life experiences. I choose this tool to explain that I had  also found some of the changes demoralising, however, the realities of the organizations  financial constraints necessitated them. I assured the team that as a team leader, I was not  disconnected from the events which affected them, however, since I had encourtered  change and the need to transform very often in my own life, to keep focussed to succeed,  my lens on seeing the change needed to be slightly different. I used the tool since it allowed  me to use reflection on how what seems like a negative set of events can sometime provide  opportunities for replenishing the organization with new skill sets needed as country and  organization priorities change. I reassured the team that each of their experiences, skills and  knowledge were indispensable to the success and impact of our joint work.

Application: I applied the tool by using my reflection as an emotional connector.   Used the  story telling approach to show how everyone’s inputs and how coordinated interventions  such as scholarships for advanced study from one development agency helped my older  sister and I to obtain multiple masters degrees, business grants to poor families from  another agency and mentors from the private sector paved the way for several of my family  members to establish what are now thriving indigenous/creative businesses. To explain how  unplanned Change can be, I have shared how the unexpected/unplanned event such as the  death of a mother did not derail the lives of 7 children she left behind, because their father  focused simultaneously on investing in education, business, connected them to successful  mentors and in essence had a multi-dimensional approach to building resilient lives for his  children. In the same way, I have explained the planned changes in the office were needed,  the commitment required from each UN staff member to give of his/her best every day to  make an impact for those most vulnerable should always come first. I used explanation of  multiple challenges in my personal story to explain the complex dimensions of our work as a  team and why every hand on deck was necessary for the new ways we would work in. I used  the example of business innovation using indigenous materials as a case for how to innovate  for the complex times ahead for our unit, even on a limited budget. I used the story telling  to show how with out of the box thinking and willingness to face change and have an  impact, it is possible to find solutions to difficult development challenges. In building  suspense about the challenges of my family experience, I told the stories of dramatic exam  fees due and my father receiving his salary on the same date as the due date and avoiding  the calamity of not being able to make payment on time. I spark innovation for our team  processes I also reflected on my sister using my grandmother’s recipe to start a successful  milk shake business.

Insight Description: By challenging myself to tell a story which connected me to the team,  allowed me to first connect with my own emotions about change, to reflect on my  perspectives on my own experiences and how with strategy and with being open to new  opportunities created sometimes by negative events, one can change the course of a  business, an institution/organization and of lives. In telling my story, several team members  opened-up about their own stories and how it affected their inability to adjust quickly to  change. From those personal stories, I was able to identify creative new skills which could be  harnessed for team innovation in the office and I gained a better understanding of why my  colleagues responded they way they did to what some thought was a disaster. Sharing of  perspectives allowed us to all explore our roles in the team going forward and to identify  the new skills, partnerships and training needed to adjust and to excel in a changing  environment. It strengthened the team work tremendously.

Approach: I would use the same tool of storytelling because it is compelling and it allowed  me to get the team to pay attention. I think my colleagues were looking to be inspired and  the story engaged them. I gave the team some data, I located the most powerful part of my  story which was managing and surviving and thriving through unplanned changes time and

time again. I shared strategies for addressing complexity by sharing a related story that gave  my approach life and made the need for pulling together in difficult times understandable.

