Reflection

Storytelling

Challenge

Selected as the Event Head of a Special Children Play, I was given the challenge of designing a play  that could be performed by Special Children and, at the same time, conveyed a powerful and an  important message to the audience.

However, as the Event Head, before moving on to the actual script of the play, I had to communicate  everything to my team first. This initial step was extremely crucial to making sure that the event was  a success and we were able to achieve our goal. So, the question was, how to inform the team about  the vision I had for this event while also making sure that I had their 100% attention and was able to  inspire them to give their best.

Selection

Without a doubt, storytelling is one the most valuable skill that one can have. It helps you in  networking, convey your ideas in an interesting way that captures your audience, and helps you in  communication as well. You can use storytelling to inspire people, make them understand you  better, and you can give value to your experiences as well. Storytelling is basically a skill that you can  use to market and brand yourself.

As much of a great tool it is, I have got to admit that I am not the best storyteller. If anything, I would  go as far to say that I am not even on a beginner level of the art of storytelling. Hence, I decided to  use this opportunity to further enhance my skill level when it comes to storytelling by choosing the  mentioned for my reflection.

Application

Before holding the first official meeting of the entire team, I made sure that the script of our play  was ready. The day of the meeting, after going through introductions, it was time to tell them about  my vision of the play. Instead of just passing copies of the script and asking the team members to  read them by themselves, I decided that I am going to tell the script myself, except not the way  scripts are read out loud, but rather telling it like a story.

Insight & Approach

The storytelling method helped a lot in team building and formation. Instead of each member  reading the script on his own, they were all listening to the Event Head attentively. This also helped  me to keep them motivated and make sure that everyone was on the same page. As we learned  during the course that storytelling is a great way to grab your people’s attention, so using this  approach also helped in achieving that. Through storytelling I was able to increase the attention of  my team, and hence increase their commitment and productivity as a result.

