Storytelling: a great way to motivate

•  Challenge

I am a business student and I enrolled in my first internship experience few months ago, I  was asked to be the leader in a group of other interns to realise a project which aimed   at identifying and contacting prospective customers and convincing them to use the  company’s products. The goal set by my supervisor was two hundred new customers by the  end of the internship. Many days have elapsed, the deadline was getting close and still more  than a hundred customers to identify. Like I expected them to, my team mates were getting  increasingly discouraged, unmotivated and were thinking of giving up. As bad energy spread  gradually in the group I had to react and overcome this challenge.

•  Selection

Since our young age we were told stories such as the one about the fox and the grapes that  contained morals, and it always seemed to be an efficient way to engrave those morals in  our minds. Furthermore, storytelling is a tool that makes transferring a message more fluent  and more effective by narrating  special events that carries a moral. Storytelling is also about  inviting people into a dialogue and making them interact and engage. Moreover this tool was  particularly of a good use in this challenge because my team mates didn’t need to hear the  usual  motivational speech that they have already heard many times before, but they needed  to be inspired and start being active in the discussion so we could find a solution, and what  better way to do this than storytelling ?

•  Application

I am in reunion room, I need to think of a way that I can persuade my team mates by and I  need it quickly, they have to be convinced that we are able to reach our goal, and here  comes the memory of a story that I read in the internet a long time ago and that followed me  to this conference room. So I start narrating this story,  wich is about a marine biologist that  did an experiment with a shark, the first day the biologist puts in the tank bait fishes and as  expected the shark ate them all. The second day the searcher separates the tank in two  sections by installing fibreglass and puts the bait fishes in the opposite section of where the  shark was. After many attacks, the shark always bounced off the fibreglass until he finally  gave up, got tired and stopped trying. The marine biologist then removed the fibreglass but  the shark didn’t attack simply because it was accustomed to believe in the existence of an  obstacle. The moral here is no matter how many times we fail and believe that we will never   succeed there is no real barrier. In fact the only obstacle is our mind, so we should never  give up because what if success is just one try away?

•  Insight & approach

This worked really well, my team mates instantly cached my message and responded to it  exactly the way I expected them to. They needed enthusiasm, inspiration and motivation and  this story captures those efficiently. We actually came up with good ideas that morning, used  them and ended up surpassing the two hundred customers goal by nearly fifty more clients.

Since that day I knew that one could always convince, persuade, explain, demonstrate and  get away with a good, context appropriate story. But now, after benefiting from this course I

will surely think of and read more stories that could be helpful. Besides the other tools  presented in this course can all be as helpful as storytelling, and I would also add that I am  very excited to use them all and develop a proper mindset for design thinking.


Storytelling : a great way to motivate • Challenge I am a business student and I enrolled in my first internship experience few months ago , I was asked to be the leader in a group of other interns to realise a project which aimed at identifying and contacting prospective customers and convincing them to use the company ’s products . The goal set by my supervisor was two hundred new customers by the end of the internship . Many days have elapsed , the deadline was getting close and still more than a hundred customers to identify . Like I expected them to , my team mates were getting increasingly discouraged , unmotivated and were thinking of giving up . As bad energy spread gradually in the group I had to react and overcome this challenge . • Selection Since our young age we were told stories such as the one about the fox and the grapes that contained morals , and it always seemed to be an efficient way to engrave those morals in our minds . Furthermore , storytelling is a tool that makes transferring a message more fluent and more effective by narrating special events that carries a moral . Storytelling is also about inviting people into a dialogue and making them interact and engage . Moreover this tool was particularly of a good use in this challenge because my team mates did n’t need to hear the usual motivational speech that they have already heard many times before , but they needed to be inspired and start being active in the discussion so we could find a solution , and what better way to do this than storytelling ? • Application I am in reunion room , I need to think of a way that I can persuade my team mates by and I need it quickly , they have to be convinced that we are able to reach our goal , and here comes the memory of a story that I read in the internet a long time ago and that followed me to this conference room . So I start narrating this story , wich is about a marine biologist that did an experiment with a shark , the first day the biologist puts in the tank bait fishes and as expected the shark ate them all . The second day the searcher separates the tank in two sections by installing fibreglass and puts the bait fishes in the opposite section of where the shark was . After many attacks , the shark always bounced off the fibreglass until he finally gave up , got tired and stopped trying . The marine biologist then removed the fibreglass but the shark did n’t attack simply because it was accustomed to believe in the existence of an obstacle . The moral here is no matter how many times we fail and believe that we will never succeed there is no real barrier . In fact the only obstacle is our mind , so we should never give up because what if success is just one try away ? • Insight & approach This worked really well , my team mates instantly cached my message and responded to it exactly the way I expected them to . They needed enthusiasm , inspiration and motivation and this story captures those efficiently . We actually came up with good ideas that morning , used them and ended up surpassing the two hundred customers goal by nearly fifty more clients . Since that day I knew that one could always convince , persuade , explain , demonstrate and get away with a good , context appropriate story . But now , after benefiting from this course I will surely think of and read more stories that could be helpful . Besides the other tools presented in this course can all be as helpful as storytelling , and I would also add that I am very excited to use them all and develop a proper mindset for design thinking .