Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge & Selection

Most of the successful businesses nowadays have already proven that traditional

management tool is not sufficient, the capability for an organization to manage the  “unknowable” by implementing new strategic management approaches e.g. Learning  Launch, Storytelling, Mind-mapping etc. is deemed critical to an organization’s long- term development. Among all the design thinking tools discussed in the lessons, most  of them are new to me. “Storytelling” is an excellent tool which I believe could be the  most applicable to my own situation as it can assist me putting insights and intuitions

into series of discussion topics. Quite often I need to deal with clients from variety of  industry verticals and they usually raise service requests that are too complex to be  understood by different stakeholders. The ability to relay complex information in a  specific context to various groups of audiences has been a real challenge to my work.  Storytelling, in such case, will be a compelling tool that can help me communicate  effectively as it is not just about a list of things we have to do, it is about  the “connection” that we give to people about a piece of information that we are  trying to share (Ref. Week 2 Lecture).

Application

To share about my own experience in applying “Storytelling”. I used to work in an IT

application departments and in the past when I came across to conducting technical  workshops for colleagues, I once encountered a situation where people just sat down  and listen without asking questions or trying to challenge the validity of the  presentation content. When I back to office and discussed with my manager, we both  agreed that apart from the content validity itself, the audiences might not be able to  understand the underlying benefits and values of launching the new applications in  supporting their day-to-day operations. In an attempt to prove our assumption was

correct, we conducted the second workshop and started with asking questions like:  “why do you come here today?”, “how do you feel from the first workshop?” and  “what is your expected takeaway from today’s workshop?” etc. And we also modified  the training approach by adding some real-case scenarios (i.e. stories) that would have  been encountered during daily operations and by linking the problems and challenges  back to the specific function that the new application could possibly address by asking  them to perform some demo practices with the aid of laptops and tablets. The  scenario-based training approach offered the audiences to feel like they were actually  encountering a real life problem and how best they could tackle it with the support of

the newly implemented systems during the workshop.

Insight & Approach

After attending this course, I started to understand people in workplaces might not be

inspired by reasons, rules or directives alone, but their underlying norms and values,  from which they cannot make sense of future events that they have not encountered  nor anticipated. That explain why when sometimes I met senior executives finishing  their speech by asking questions like: "So how do you feel right now?”, “If it is not what  you think, but how you do feel?". The audience would then start to feel a little  confused half way through and wondered how it would come together through  reflecting from what had been occurred in the past. In the event people wonder there

have been discrepancies from current practice, storytelling has been so compelling  that can allow me to communicate the rationale behind so effectively in order to  trigger motions and feelings from the audiences, by wrapping up with open-end  questions. I will continue to make use this tool in designing my future workshops and  present the most compelling stories I earned from the past.


Reflection – Storytelling Challenge & Selection Most of the successful businesses nowadays have already proven that traditional management tool is not sufficient , the capability for an organization to manage the “ unknowable ” by implementing new strategic management approaches e.g. Learning Launch , Storytelling , Mind - mapping etc . is deemed critical to an organization ’s long- term development . Among all the design thinking tools discussed in the lessons , most of them are new to me . “ Storytelling ” is an excellent tool which I believe could be the most applicable to my own situation as it can assist me putting insights and intuitions into series of discussion topics . Quite often I need to deal with clients from variety of industry verticals and they usually raise service requests that are too complex to be understood by different stakeholders . The ability to relay complex information in a specific context to various groups of audiences has been a real challenge to my work . Storytelling , in such case , will be a compelling tool that can help me communicate effectively as it is not just about a list of things we have to do , it is about the “ connection ” that we give to people about a piece of information that we are trying to share ( Ref . Week 2 Lecture ) . Application To share about my own experience in applying “ Storytelling ” . I used to work in an IT application departments and in the past when I came across to conducting technical workshops for colleagues , I once encountered a situation where people just sat down and listen without asking questions or trying to challenge the validity of the presentation content . When I back to office and discussed with my manager , we both agreed that apart from the content validity itself , the audiences might not be able to understand the underlying benefits and values of launching the new applications in supporting their day - to - day operations . In an attempt to prove our assumption was correct , we conducted the second workshop and started with asking questions like : “ why do you come here today ? ” , “ how do you feel from the first workshop ? ” and “ what is your expected takeaway from today ’s workshop ? ” etc . And we also modified the training approach by adding some real - case scenarios ( i.e. stories ) that would have been encountered during daily operations and by linking the problems and challenges back to the specific function that the new application could possibly address by asking them to perform some demo practices with the aid of laptops and tablets . The scenario - based training approach offered the audiences to feel like they were actually encountering a real life problem and how best they could tackle it with the support of the newly implemented systems during the workshop . Insight & Approach After attending this course , I started to understand people in workplaces might not be inspired by reasons , rules or directives alone , but their underlying norms and values , from which they can not make sense of future events that they have not encountered nor anticipated . That explain why when sometimes I met senior executives finishing their speech by asking questions like : " So how do you feel right now ? ” , “ If it is not what you think , but how you do feel ? " . The audience would then start to feel a little confused half way through and wondered how it would come together through reflecting from what had been occurred in the past . In the event people wonder there have been discrepancies from current practice , storytelling has been so compelling that can allow me to communicate the rationale behind so effectively in order to trigger motions and feelings from the audiences , by wrapping up with open - end questions . I will continue to make use this tool in designing my future workshops and present the most compelling stories I earned from the past .