Storytelling

Challenges and Selection

Storytelling helped me in the previous work where I worked as a LifeStar! Facilitator and Employment  coach. My tasks were to empower young women who have dropped out from schools; some were  victims of sexual harassment, rape, family abuse and HIV orphans. As you can understand empowering  this group of people was not easy because their lives were in vain.  I used storytelling, dividing them into  small groups and conduct a storytelling session helped them to identify their potential and discovered  their ability to use their strength to start a small business or secure a new job. My story opened up their  thoughts and they find that they also have stories to share. Each member of the group was supposed to  tell us a story and other member could help her in identifying her strength and weakness, they also  provide constructive feedback on how each participant can work on her weaknesses, as well as use her  strength. My participants were so happy and they liked storytelling a lot. Currently I use storytelling in  problem identification in research project with my students. I use this to help them identify problem  that need to be worked on. I also use storytelling in my professional development, sharing stories with  my elder in my career, it helps me a lot in to visualize the best way to go in a certain circumstance.

Application

I have testimonies about using storytelling, even Jesus himself used the same approach in teaching His  disciples. I used this method when I wanted to help one of my colleagues who wanted to start a  business of smart agriculture, I told him of a story of one friend who started a business of agriculture in  the eastern province of my country, she wanted to grow pepper, then due to her limited time she  invested a lot of many in irrigation. After six months she harvested 1 ton of pepper, but the revenue she  got from her investment was small. As I was narrating this story the friend sked me a lot of question  about irrigation. I told him that irrigation can be automatized. It turned out that He decided to invest In  irrigation instead of agriculture because he later found that he can gain pretty much money from  irrigation than In agriculture

Insight & Approach

It is wonderful, because the story opened up his eyes, and through the talk we had we found out that he  can get sponsorship from development fund. I told him how my brother got a fund in development fund  because he has been able to identify a problem that farmers are facing and developed a business plan  which he submitted applying for fund. The Development fund gave him 4 million and 30% of the fund  was a supporting fund whereas the remaining 70% was a loan to be paid back in 4 years at low interest.  As I speak now the story we share open up the mind of my colleague who wanted to invest in irrigation.  Since then I have developed a culture of storytelling with my friend and from there we discuss what we  learned from the story. This is a useful tool to use in design thinking when you are still defining the  problem, or designing the solution as a product or a service, or developing the suitable solution before  you deploy it to the market


Storytelling Challenges and Selection Storytelling helped me in the previous work where I worked as a LifeStar ! Facilitator and Employment coach . My tasks were to empower young women who have dropped out from schools ; some were victims of sexual harassment , rape , family abuse and HIV orphans . As you can understand empowering this group of people was not easy because their lives were in vain . I used storytelling , dividing them into small groups and conduct a storytelling session helped them to identify their potential and discovered their ability to use their strength to start a small business or secure a new job . My story opened up their thoughts and they find that they also have stories to share . Each member of the group was supposed to tell us a story and other member could help her in identifying her strength and weakness , they also provide constructive feedback on how each participant can work on her weaknesses , as well as use her strength . My participants were so happy and they liked storytelling a lot . Currently I use storytelling in problem identification in research project with my students . I use this to help them identify problem that need to be worked on . I also use storytelling in my professional development , sharing stories with my elder in my career , it helps me a lot in to visualize the best way to go in a certain circumstance . Application I have testimonies about using storytelling , even Jesus himself used the same approach in teaching His disciples . I used this method when I wanted to help one of my colleagues who wanted to start a business of smart agriculture , I told him of a story of one friend who started a business of agriculture in the eastern province of my country , she wanted to grow pepper , then due to her limited time she invested a lot of many in irrigation . After six months she harvested 1 ton of pepper , but the revenue she got from her investment was small . As I was narrating this story the friend sked me a lot of question about irrigation . I told him that irrigation can be automatized . It turned out that He decided to invest In irrigation instead of agriculture because he later found that he can gain pretty much money from irrigation than In agriculture Insight & Approach It is wonderful , because the story opened up his eyes , and through the talk we had we found out that he can get sponsorship from development fund . I told him how my brother got a fund in development fund because he has been able to identify a problem that farmers are facing and developed a business plan which he submitted applying for fund . The Development fund gave him 4 million and 30 % of the fund was a supporting fund whereas the remaining 70 % was a loan to be paid back in 4 years at low interest . As I speak now the story we share open up the mind of my colleague who wanted to invest in irrigation . Since then I have developed a culture of storytelling with my friend and from there we discuss what we learned from the story . This is a useful tool to use in design thinking when you are still defining the problem , or designing the solution as a product or a service , or developing the suitable solution before you deploy it to the market