Reflection – Storytelling 

 Challenge 

 A while ago , I accepted the Manager position at an accounting team in charge of doing the tax accounting   for US inbound and outbound assignees . Getting the job required a deep technical expertise of the tax   methodology and accounting structure used by the company . However , when I came on board my   Manager explained me that the team was having execution issues and therefore had low credibility with   the stakeholders due to their lack of technical knowledge . On the positive side , I worked on that same   organization years before and was familiar with the type of work and knew some of the stakeholders . The   leadership challenge was to transform the team into a Center of Excellence by engaging both the team   members and the stakeholders . 

 Selection 

 Storytelling is a powerful tool to capture people attention and engage people on a good discussion .   Similarly to the beginning of a good movie or book , storytelling requires you to demonstrate there ’s   something at stake , this will capture your audience ’s attention right away . Then , you need to start building   upon that opening and make sure to provide sense of direction for the plot , explaining all the obstacles   along the way , maintaining suspense as explained in the video , presenting the story characters and   adding action to the plot in order to generate emotions . Most people will relate more to emotions , rather   than just data , so you have to embed the data within your story . At the end you have to articulate how   your proposal or recommendation could generate a positive outcome to the challenges presented and   explain what the learnings were . 

 This is why I believe storytelling was such a good fit to my challenges , as it was possible to present it in   such a way that I could not just present a business plan to improve the team ’s performance , but to share   with my stakeholders and team members a story of transformation that will capture their attention and   engage them , which makes it a lot easier to implement versus just imposing a plan . 

 Application 

 As I was new to the role , I started by collecting different perspectives on the situation , so I met with my   team members , manager and some stakeholders to understand what led the team to have executions   issues and technical knowledge gaps . Once I heard their stories and connected the dots and started   putting together my own story . 

 Once I collected the data , I realized there were multiple areas that need to be worked , including people   dynamics within the team , processes health , technical knowledge and stakeholder management .   Therefore , I did some research to put together a plan that could tackle these areas , I was able to include   in my proposal tools such as risk assessment , BPM health assessment , 5 dysfunctions theory , case   studies , among others . 

 Now , it was time to start putting together a compelling story to engage my team members , Manager and   stakeholders on implementing the plan . So I started by clearly articulating what was at risk in terms of   dollars and compliance , this helped to get their attention and get everyone to agree we had a problem   and needed to do something about it . 

 Once we reached agreement , I started to explain the reasons and obstacles that led the team to have   knowledge gaps and execution issues , trying to be very visual and creating suspense . Then , when   everyone understood what was driving the issues , it was time to put the characters into action and present   the proposal to fix the issue , the lessons learned to avoid the same situation in the future and the next   steps to be followed . 

 Insight and Approach 

 What I have learned applying this tool is that stories are a really good way to transmit meaning and get   people ’s attention , even if they are data driven like me , the art is embedding the key data points into the   story . This is not easy , so I learned that practice , practice and practice are key to make sure your key   messages are coming across . 

 I also learned , that since stories are engaging it helps the audience to be more open and creative , which   helps to the discussion and provides additional insights to enrich the proposal . 

 Probably one of the key learnings is to know your audience and this includes not only their   communication styles , but also you need to read the environment . In my case there were additional   external factors going on , such as a political pulse between two key stakeholders that made it difficult for   them to reach an agreement , not because of the proposal , but because of this political struggle . So ,   knowing about this type of environmental factors could save a lot of time in the process . Since I had this   experience , next time I would probably dedicate more time to learn about this environmental factors that   could delay the process or cause roadblocks in the way . 


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 

 A while ago , I accepted the Manager position at an accounting team in charge of doing the tax accounting   for US inbound and outbound assignees . Getting the job required a deep technical expertise of the tax   methodology and accounting structure used by the company . However , when I came on board my   Manager explained me that the team was having execution issues and therefore had low credibility with   the stakeholders due to their lack of technical knowledge . On the positive side , I worked on that same   organization years before and was familiar with the type of work and knew some of the stakeholders . The   leadership challenge was to transform the team into a Center of Excellence by engaging both the team   members and the stakeholders . 

 Selection 

 Storytelling is a powerful tool to capture people attention and engage people on a good discussion .   Similarly to the beginning of a good movie or book , storytelling requires you to demonstrate there ’s   something at stake , this will capture your audience ’s attention right away . Then , you need to start building   upon that opening and make sure to provide sense of direction for the plot , explaining all the obstacles   along the way , maintaining suspense as explained in the video , presenting the story characters and   adding action to the plot in order to generate emotions . Most people will relate more to emotions , rather   than just data , so you have to embed the data within your story . At the end you have to articulate how   your proposal or recommendation could generate a positive outcome to the challenges presented and   explain what the learnings were . 

 This is why I believe storytelling was such a good fit to my challenges , as it was possible to present it in   such a way that I could not just present a business plan to improve the team ’s performance , but to share   with my stakeholders and team members a story of transformation that will capture their attention and   engage them , which makes it a lot easier to implement versus just imposing a plan . 

 Application 

 As I was new to the role , I started by collecting different perspectives on the situation , so I met with my   team members , manager and some stakeholders to understand what led the team to have executions   issues and technical knowledge gaps . Once I heard their stories and connected the dots and started   putting together my own story . 

 Once I collected the data , I realized there were multiple areas that need to be worked , including people   dynamics within the team , processes health , technical knowledge and stakeholder management .   Therefore , I did some research to put together a plan that could tackle these areas , I was able to include   in my proposal tools such as risk assessment , BPM health assessment , 5 dysfunctions theory , case   studies , among others . 

 Now , it was time to start putting together a compelling story to engage my team members , Manager and   stakeholders on implementing the plan . So I started by clearly articulating what was at risk in terms of   dollars and compliance , this helped to get their attention and get everyone to agree we had a problem   and needed to do something about it . 

 Once we reached agreement , I started to explain the reasons and obstacles that led the team to have   knowledge gaps and execution issues , trying to be very visual and creating suspense . Then , when   everyone understood what was driving the issues , it was time to put the characters into action and present   the proposal to fix the issue , the lessons learned to avoid the same situation in the future and the next   steps to be followed . 

 Insight and Approach 

 What I have learned applying this tool is that stories are a really good way to transmit meaning and get   people ’s attention , even if they are data driven like me , the art is embedding the key data points into the   story . This is not easy , so I learned that practice , practice and practice are key to make sure your key   messages are coming across . 

 I also learned , that since stories are engaging it helps the audience to be more open and creative , which   helps to the discussion and provides additional insights to enrich the proposal . 

 Probably one of the key learnings is to know your audience and this includes not only their   communication styles , but also you need to read the environment . In my case there were additional   external factors going on , such as a political pulse between two key stakeholders that made it difficult for   them to reach an agreement , not because of the proposal , but because of this political struggle . So ,   knowing about this type of environmental factors could save a lot of time in the process . Since I had this   experience , next time I would probably dedicate more time to learn about this environmental factors that   could delay the process or cause roadblocks in the way .
### Output: 