Reflection Assignment - Storytelling

Challenge

As an HR Catalyst managing the OD activities broadly, I recently joined a well-reputed firm and

upon employee engagement surveys and organizational health diagnoses, I figured out that we

need to make a holistic change in the organization culture to regain the firm’s competitive

advantage and sustain the operational effectiveness, Hence I requested a meeting with the

Leadership Team to propose transforming the work process/ workflows and implementing the

state-of-the-art technologies such as Oracle or SAP to increase the efficiency and effectiveness

of the SLAs within the allocated budget for better future and innovation.

I have met the stakeholders (IT) and discussed the process of changing the organization

successfully in light of different contexts and considered taking practical steps by asking what

are we doing, how can we do better, and how can we effectively implement the change. I

started using the Intervention Strategy Model by evaluating the current systems and scenarios

of planning which requires a balance between thinking and doing.

The Leadership team gave us the green signal to start immediately within a specific timeframe

and particular budget which was a big challenge that we have to beat it. I have assigned the

OD team (Change Agents) to commence the culture change process by first know the basics of

design thinking as an effective approach to obtain the best outcomes out of the change

process, thus we asked “What is” the current situation, and “What if” we tried the possible

solutions to approach and fix the problem.

Selection

The OD Team has gone through the effective Design Thinking tools which could be storytelling,

learning launching, mind mapping or visualization and preferred to start with storytelling since

it’s the most suitable tool for changing organizational cultures. Storytelling or what so-called

Narratives must be credible, novel and compelling.  This Design Thinking tool will help us shape

the organizational culture and have deep-understanding of the organization’s specific need and

contexts. Storytelling is an important Design Thinking tool that would help the OD Team to

convey the change messages/ narratives with a logic and emotional connection to achieve the

large purpose, it creates the cause of changing the culture which will have great positive impact

on the most important asset of the organization; the human capital.

Application

As an HR Professional, I believe that changing organizational will never take place unless and

until you empower, inspire and engage people, all people, they are the stakeholders in change

process.  Thus, I had to assess my mindset and to what extent it’s open to understand the

problem holistically, understanding people’s needs since the entire process is human-centered

and learning from the entire experience by balancing between thinking and doing, which

ultimately require taking immediate action for change. We, OD, have decided to select and

assign Change Champions from each and every department across the firm to support our

storytelling approach in changing the cultures in addition to the admired managers who have

referent power and whom are liked and respected by all employees to reinforce the changing

process and help people adopt and embrace the change as a necessity to advance our culture. I

consider this phase is the “What wows”!

We designed clear sequence of events and used stories about personal and professional

experiences, we shared knowledge and opened up to brainstorm that best possible solutions to

our firm, we asked all people to be involved and share their opinions through the internal

communication under the slogan of “Your Voice Really Matters to Us”, allowing all people to

generate thoughts and ideas by sharing them into formed groups.  We started to listen

attentively to all people and we made also circled groupthink to empower the self-directed

teams and promised to provide team-based rewards to increase team-based activities, we used

the employee’s feedback by analyzing it carefully to get closer to their interests and real needs.

We encouraged all participants to use mind mapping techniques after brainstorming sessions to

organize their thoughts in the way the brain can digest, we asked questions and answered

questions using multiple lenses to analyze problems to reframe them to produce novel and

compelling situations and vision that others can buy into to come up with well-work-out

strategy.

This is what I was personally learnt to be a wise manager to act by making a stand, so that the

situation is changed into an event of focus, which allows those whom we manage or influence

to read into the situation a novel, credible and compelling story. Storytelling was really an

immersive tool when it’s compelling and creating energy, passion and excitement that

supported the strategy and made it accessible and will support also in different HR strategies

since it’s all about people.

Insight

The OD team members, Change Champions, as well as the departmental heads have

successfully adopted and embraced the storytelling approach of design thinking and mastered

its complementary and necessary skills such as listening skills, communication skills to inspire

the employees in different departments across the firm to adapt with the organizational culture

change process, this helped all of us to identify the gaps and define the assumptions. All

employees have been really empowered and inspired when we heard them and engage them

from the early commencement of the entire process to the extent that they have a compelling,

novel and credible story about the workplace and covey this story to the potential and new

employees. This has also great impact on the employee well-being!

The Employer Value Proposition (EVP) has been significantly developed as well as the Employer

Branding Strategy resulted in excellent employee identification to the firm and increased the

psychological contract and organizational commitment and citizenship during the changing

practice and even after the project, which has facilitated implementing the new technologies to

automate the process workflows and take the entire firm to the next advanced level.

Approach

The Storytelling approach of Design Thinking was very successful and yield the best possible

results. Indeed, it was the “What works” since such projects require collaboration, teamwork,

strong vision, credibility and transparency.  All stakeholders were one spirit working towards

one objective, this has been happened because we gave them a sufficient room to enable them

to express themselves and speak up, in return, we have listened to them to accommodate their

needs and link between their objectives and the organizational strategic objectives.  Working in

groups has improved the relationship between managers and subordinates, get closer to them

to understand their pains and problems.  Design Thinking approach has supported the

managers to find possible solutions to the employees and the business.


Reflection Assignment - Storytelling Challenge As an HR Catalyst managing the OD activities broadly , I recently joined a well - reputed firm and upon employee engagement surveys and organizational health diagnoses , I figured out that we need to make a holistic change in the organization culture to regain the firm ’s competitive advantage and sustain the operational effectiveness , Hence I requested a meeting with the Leadership Team to propose transforming the work process/ workflows and implementing the state - of - the - art technologies such as Oracle or SAP to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the SLAs within the allocated budget for better future and innovation . I have met the stakeholders ( IT ) and discussed the process of changing the organization successfully in light of different contexts and considered taking practical steps by asking what are we doing , how can we do better , and how can we effectively implement the change . I started using the Intervention Strategy Model by evaluating the current systems and scenarios of planning which requires a balance between thinking and doing . The Leadership team gave us the green signal to start immediately within a specific timeframe and particular budget which was a big challenge that we have to beat it . I have assigned the OD team ( Change Agents ) to commence the culture change process by first know the basics of design thinking as an effective approach to obtain the best outcomes out of the change process , thus we asked “ What is ” the current situation , and “ What if ” we tried the possible solutions to approach and fix the problem . Selection The OD Team has gone through the effective Design Thinking tools which could be storytelling , learning launching , mind mapping or visualization and preferred to start with storytelling since it ’s the most suitable tool for changing organizational cultures . Storytelling or what so - called Narratives must be credible , novel and compelling . This Design Thinking tool will help us shape the organizational culture and have deep - understanding of the organization ’s specific need and contexts . Storytelling is an important Design Thinking tool that would help the OD Team to convey the change messages/ narratives with a logic and emotional connection to achieve the large purpose , it creates the cause of changing the culture which will have great positive impact on the most important asset of the organization ; the human capital . Application As an HR Professional , I believe that changing organizational will never take place unless and until you empower , inspire and engage people , all people , they are the stakeholders in change process . Thus , I had to assess my mindset and to what extent it ’s open to understand the problem holistically , understanding people ’s needs since the entire process is human - centered and learning from the entire experience by balancing between thinking and doing , which ultimately require taking immediate action for change . We , OD , have decided to select and assign Change Champions from each and every department across the firm to support our storytelling approach in changing the cultures in addition to the admired managers who have referent power and whom are liked and respected by all employees to reinforce the changing process and help people adopt and embrace the change as a necessity to advance our culture . I consider this phase is the “ What wows ” ! We designed clear sequence of events and used stories about personal and professional experiences , we shared knowledge and opened up to brainstorm that best possible solutions to our firm , we asked all people to be involved and share their opinions through the internal communication under the slogan of “ Your Voice Really Matters to Us ” , allowing all people to generate thoughts and ideas by sharing them into formed groups . We started to listen attentively to all people and we made also circled groupthink to empower the self - directed teams and promised to provide team - based rewards to increase team - based activities , we used the employee ’s feedback by analyzing it carefully to get closer to their interests and real needs . We encouraged all participants to use mind mapping techniques after brainstorming sessions to organize their thoughts in the way the brain can digest , we asked questions and answered questions using multiple lenses to analyze problems to reframe them to produce novel and compelling situations and vision that others can buy into to come up with well - work - out strategy . This is what I was personally learnt to be a wise manager to act by making a stand , so that the situation is changed into an event of focus , which allows those whom we manage or influence to read into the situation a novel , credible and compelling story . Storytelling was really an immersive tool when it ’s compelling and creating energy , passion and excitement that supported the strategy and made it accessible and will support also in different HR strategies since it ’s all about people . Insight The OD team members , Change Champions , as well as the departmental heads have successfully adopted and embraced the storytelling approach of design thinking and mastered its complementary and necessary skills such as listening skills , communication skills to inspire the employees in different departments across the firm to adapt with the organizational culture change process , this helped all of us to identify the gaps and define the assumptions . All employees have been really empowered and inspired when we heard them and engage them from the early commencement of the entire process to the extent that they have a compelling , novel and credible story about the workplace and covey this story to the potential and new employees . This has also great impact on the employee well - being ! The Employer Value Proposition ( EVP ) has been significantly developed as well as the Employer Branding Strategy resulted in excellent employee identification to the firm and increased the psychological contract and organizational commitment and citizenship during the changing practice and even after the project , which has facilitated implementing the new technologies to automate the process workflows and take the entire firm to the next advanced level . Approach The Storytelling approach of Design Thinking was very successful and yield the best possible results . Indeed , it was the “ What works ” since such projects require collaboration , teamwork , strong vision , credibility and transparency . All stakeholders were one spirit working towards one objective , this has been happened because we gave them a sufficient room to enable them to express themselves and speak up , in return , we have listened to them to accommodate their needs and link between their objectives and the organizational strategic objectives . Working in groups has improved the relationship between managers and subordinates , get closer to them to understand their pains and problems . Design Thinking approach has supported the managers to find possible solutions to the employees and the business .