Storytelling: an emotional bridge.

Challenge    I have a background in developing new technologies working in a multidisciplinary team of  engineers and scientists. Innovation has always been my greatest interest and I firmly believe  that, if exploited in the right way, it can contribute to helping people. The challenge I want to  talk about arises when my father, owner of a small hydraulic assistance company, tells me that  he has had a progressive decline in the company's income in recent years. So, after talking about  it in more depth, it emerges that the competition in the sector has become more fierce and  moreover he periodically finds himself having to manage many requests for intervention  compared to what his employees can manage, but nevertheless, due to the difficult period, he  cannot afford to hire other workers. At this point, wanting to help him understand the  difficulties in more detail, I analyzed the processes in providing the service and I noticed that  the main cause of the effort in managing the offer stemmed from a poor organization of taking  charge of reservations and routes. that his employees did in going to customers' homes.              Poor efficiency in managing these routes caused a waste of time and money on fuel with heavy  cost implications. So, I proposed to him to install a new management system that would allow  the automatic optimization of working paths commonly adopted by logistics companies. In  addition, I suggested to him to lighten the burden of the secretaries in the busiest periods and  at the same time optimize most of the bookings from customers through an online platform  where it would also have been possible to enter the main causes of the problem and predict the  time of intervention in view of obtaining further route optimization. Although my solution  demonstrates that he can fully satisfy his need, including data and projections, and that there is  clearly a need to implement the proposed change, he is extremely skeptical of adopting new  automated technologies that decrease face-to-face interaction with customers. In particular,  being a worker with more than 30 years of experience in the sector claims to have always  achieved good results by doing things in the usual way.    Selection    So, I choose to use storytelling by telling him a story of an entrepreneur in the restaurant  business who has faced a problem like his by adopting some technological innovations to get  out of a difficult situation. My attempt, in fact, is to make him understand with a simple and  effective communication tool on the one hand that others have already needed to bring  technological innovation in a small company to get out of a crisis, and on the other hand, show  tangible proof of the result obtained.    Application    I tell him, therefore, the story of a small restaurant focused on simple and home cooking that  aimed at the highest quality ingredients, much appreciated by families and customers of a range  between 40 and 60 years of age. Over time the competition increased, and he found himself  difficult to manage the relationship between the price, the costs of the raw materials of choice

and the finite number of place settings available. Not wanting to reduce the quality of the food,  the owner chose to eliminate the table service by providing customers with an electronic device  that managed the orders and indicated when customers had to go to collect the dish.                      This management allowed him without the need to change the staff to revolutionize the spatial  management of the tables by increasing the covers, reducing the time and cost of the table  service and also opening up to younger customers as they are intrigued by the new delivery  system of the service and increasingly sensitive to the quality of the food. It was thus possible  to show how the restaurant could maintain the quality standard, cut costs and increase the  market with a simple technological innovation. The new digital way for customers to relate to  the restaurant during the ordering and service phase offered comfort such as to increase the  perception of value from the customer side and to increase the satisfaction of the company's  workers, translating into an increase in the overall value of the 'company.    Insight    At this point, I took my father to visit the restaurant and after seeing and understanding the  result obtained, he identified himself in that restaurateur and it was possible to open up to a  more conscious debate on the possibilities of inserting a new technology for customer  management that has led to a positive revolution in the management of its business. It was  clear, therefore, that the problem was not only incorporate management but also in his fear of  adopting such a profound change with respect to habits in the work strategy.                                              In particular, thanks to storytelling, I managed to make people perceive not only the importance  of the chosen adoption of a technological service but a broader and empathic vision of the long- term potential to revolutionize his company today and the approach to the world of work.                      The storytelling, in this case, has allowed me to be able to connect two very different working  worlds by comparing them and treating them with communication that would allow us to grasp  the strengths and one to the advantage of the other. It was a clear advantage to be able to tell  the story of a company that had already done the great and, at times fearful, step to innovate.  In fact, storytelling not only allowed me to identify a clear technical advantage but also to  connect for a moment the two companies and the two owners, also highlighting the motivation  that led the first out of the crisis and that I knew would also inspire the other.    Approach    I think that going back, I should have started talking about my idea already in the form of  storytelling because it would have greatly improved my ability to express my point of view,  probably with many more examples. I also noticed that the more visual elements, images,  videos are inserted, even if only shown with the smartphone, the greater the empathy that you  can reach with your interlocutor, without obviously falling into the traditional and detached  presentation of slides. In conclusion, I think the effectiveness of storytelling can be even greater  if trained with a lot of practice and I believe it is essential to be able to deepen this aspect in the  future.

