Reflection – Storytelling 

 Challenge   I work in Change Management for a large government organization that provides compensation benefits   for workplace injuries .   We are an organization with a generally older , long - serving workforce but also a   very culturally diverse workforce , as our main office is in a very diverse city .   Recently , because of a legal   obligation , we had to implement a plan to be able to record customer ’s pronoun preferences .   This both   required design thinking in the best way to record customer ’s preferred pronouns in our case   management software , but also how we would approach the topics of Gender Identity and Gender   Inclusivity in our work .   This was a challenge because it would require our older and culturally diverse   workforce to have an understanding and sensitivity to issues of gender identity and gender inclusivity .   Some of our staff may be from a generation or culture where these topics are not understood or talked   about . 

 Selection   When looking at the challenge , we decided that we needed to capture our employees ’ attention and   have them emotionally connect to the plight of someone who may not have a typical gender identity .   Thus , we decided to use storytelling . We needed to tell the story of why customer ’s ability to have their   preferred pronouns recorded and for our staff to be sensitive to their gender identity and expression   was instrumental in having a positive customer experience .   We wanted this storytelling to result in a   behavior change of recording and using the customer ’s preferred pronouns and being sensitive to issues   of gender identity . 

 Application   To capture our staff ’s attention and to help them build a connection with customers who may have   diverse gender identities , we told the story of one customer ’s journey with our organization .   This   customer had a gender identity that did not match their sex - at - birth ( and their legal identity   documents ) .   We described in detail how every time they called our organization as part of their benefits   claim they were called ‘ Sir ’ or ‘ Mister ’ , even though they identified as female .   We described how this   made them feel increasingly angry and hesitant to interact with our staff .   Then we described how it   impacted and delayed their return - to - work which affected the length of time we were paying benefits   and therefore impacting our costs . 

 This approach proved to be very effective in rolling out this initiative to our staff .   In post- implementation feedback we had data that indicated that staff understood why the initiative was being   implemented and also measured very high levels of commitment to follow process and be sensitive to   diverse gender identity .   It also drove engagement with a corporate intranet blog post related to the   initiative . 

 Insight   The approach of storytelling that I selected was not because I understood design thinking , it just seemed   at a gut level the best way to have employees connect with a topic that may not impact them but is   deeply impactful to some of our customers .   The outcome of using storytelling in this initiative   reinforced to me how effective it is in creating successful change and anchoring a behavioral change to   the emotional experience of a customer .   Now that I have taken this course I understand why   storytelling is such an effective tool in design thinking .   Like the video on storytelling indicated it is   something that can unite and ignite people .   It can create lasting adoption of change .   I am even more   resolved after this course to incorporate the practice of storytelling into my change management   activities . 

 Approach   One approach that would have made storytelling even more effect in this initiative would have been to   conduct ethnographic research with customers who had diverse gender identities .   Understanding their   customer journeys and their day - to - day lives could have informed storytelling to make it even more   impactful and powerful .   In addition , it could have informed our design of pronoun collection in our case   management software to make that experience better for customers . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection – Storytelling 

 Challenge   I work in Change Management for a large government organization that provides compensation benefits   for workplace injuries .   We are an organization with a generally older , long - serving workforce but also a   very culturally diverse workforce , as our main office is in a very diverse city .   Recently , because of a legal   obligation , we had to implement a plan to be able to record customer ’s pronoun preferences .   This both   required design thinking in the best way to record customer ’s preferred pronouns in our case   management software , but also how we would approach the topics of Gender Identity and Gender   Inclusivity in our work .   This was a challenge because it would require our older and culturally diverse   workforce to have an understanding and sensitivity to issues of gender identity and gender inclusivity .   Some of our staff may be from a generation or culture where these topics are not understood or talked   about . 

 Selection   When looking at the challenge , we decided that we needed to capture our employees ’ attention and   have them emotionally connect to the plight of someone who may not have a typical gender identity .   Thus , we decided to use storytelling . We needed to tell the story of why customer ’s ability to have their   preferred pronouns recorded and for our staff to be sensitive to their gender identity and expression   was instrumental in having a positive customer experience .   We wanted this storytelling to result in a   behavior change of recording and using the customer ’s preferred pronouns and being sensitive to issues   of gender identity . 

 Application   To capture our staff ’s attention and to help them build a connection with customers who may have   diverse gender identities , we told the story of one customer ’s journey with our organization .   This   customer had a gender identity that did not match their sex - at - birth ( and their legal identity   documents ) .   We described in detail how every time they called our organization as part of their benefits   claim they were called ‘ Sir ’ or ‘ Mister ’ , even though they identified as female .   We described how this   made them feel increasingly angry and hesitant to interact with our staff .   Then we described how it   impacted and delayed their return - to - work which affected the length of time we were paying benefits   and therefore impacting our costs . 

 This approach proved to be very effective in rolling out this initiative to our staff .   In post- implementation feedback we had data that indicated that staff understood why the initiative was being   implemented and also measured very high levels of commitment to follow process and be sensitive to   diverse gender identity .   It also drove engagement with a corporate intranet blog post related to the   initiative . 

 Insight   The approach of storytelling that I selected was not because I understood design thinking , it just seemed   at a gut level the best way to have employees connect with a topic that may not impact them but is   deeply impactful to some of our customers .   The outcome of using storytelling in this initiative   reinforced to me how effective it is in creating successful change and anchoring a behavioral change to   the emotional experience of a customer .   Now that I have taken this course I understand why   storytelling is such an effective tool in design thinking .   Like the video on storytelling indicated it is   something that can unite and ignite people .   It can create lasting adoption of change .   I am even more   resolved after this course to incorporate the practice of storytelling into my change management   activities . 

 Approach   One approach that would have made storytelling even more effect in this initiative would have been to   conduct ethnographic research with customers who had diverse gender identities .   Understanding their   customer journeys and their day - to - day lives could have informed storytelling to make it even more   impactful and powerful .   In addition , it could have informed our design of pronoun collection in our case   management software to make that experience better for customers .
### Output: 