Reflection – Story telling 

 Challenge 

 I work in a creative agency , where it is important for individual employees to feel empowered and   inspired . But being a large firm , the organisation ’s culture was bureaucratic , process - driven and   hierarchical . This resulted in employees not feeling motivated to take ownership of projects – they   would just follow orders from their superiors . To change this work culture , the organisation set up a   committee that would help identify what changes the organisation needs . 

 I was part of this committee , and in our research , we realised that there were certain rules and   regulations that made employees feel like the organisation does n’t empower them . One such rule   was that employees had to swipe their cards before 10 am every morning . If they did n’t , their leaves   or their pay might get cut , unless their immediate superior intervened . This ‘ Swipe before 10 ’ rule   made many employees indignant because they often stayed late into the night working without   compensation . But it was not easy for the top management to change the rule , because they did n’t   see a problem with it . For them , it was a matter of discipline , albeit enforced . 

 Selection 

 I employed storytelling as a tool to effectively convince the top management that the rule was   contributing to a bad work culture . Storytelling helps convey a message that has logic , in a way that   helps people have an emotional connection with the subjects of the story . I used this tool because I   did n’t want to give the management a list of things to do that they may not believe in ; I wanted to   help them form connections and empathise with employees . 

 Application 

 I wanted to communicate that while the rule in itself could be argued to be fair , it is the way it   makes people feel that ’s problematic . People needed to be trusted for doing their job – the more   you trust them , the more they will stand up to your trust . And the more calculative you become   about their worth , the more calculative they will become about how much they contribute . 

 So I told them the story of an HR policy in another organisation . This organisation allowed   employees to take 20 days off in a year . And all employees would make sure that they take 20 days   off , sometimes more in the case of emergencies . But then the organisation changed the rule to say   that every employee can take as many leaves and he/ she sees fit . Surprisingly , this resulted in a   decrease in the average number of leaves employees took in a year . This shows that people   contribute more to an organisation that respects their choices and trusts them to make decisions   good for them and the organisation . 

 Insight 

 Hours of reasoning with the top management did n’t help as much as telling them this simple story   did . Storytelling got them to pull back from the task at hand , and look at the issue more objectively   and empathetically by considering other similar situations . I have come to realise that the most   important advantage of design thinking is that it helps people come on the same page faster and   more effectively , so that good decisions get made quicker . 

 Approach 

 Instead of storytelling , I could have used data to convince the top management . I could have   conducted a poll to say that x% of people believe that the ‘ Swipe before 10 ’ rule demotivates them . 

 But this would not have had the same impact . The management would have argued using other data   that showed how people are always on time because of the rule , and how this makes us deliver work   quicker . I could have argued about how employees feel and how that impacts their work using   qualitative data as well , but that would not have cut ice as effectively as storytelling did . Because of   that one conversation , the organisation became more open to knowing about other ideas that we   had as well . 


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 – Story telling 

 Challenge 

 I work in a creative agency , where it is important for individual employees to feel empowered and   inspired . But being a large firm , the organisation ’s culture was bureaucratic , process - driven and   hierarchical . This resulted in employees not feeling motivated to take ownership of projects – they   would just follow orders from their superiors . To change this work culture , the organisation set up a   committee that would help identify what changes the organisation needs . 

 I was part of this committee , and in our research , we realised that there were certain rules and   regulations that made employees feel like the organisation does n’t empower them . One such rule   was that employees had to swipe their cards before 10 am every morning . If they did n’t , their leaves   or their pay might get cut , unless their immediate superior intervened . This ‘ Swipe before 10 ’ rule   made many employees indignant because they often stayed late into the night working without   compensation . But it was not easy for the top management to change the rule , because they did n’t   see a problem with it . For them , it was a matter of discipline , albeit enforced . 

 Selection 

 I employed storytelling as a tool to effectively convince the top management that the rule was   contributing to a bad work culture . Storytelling helps convey a message that has logic , in a way that   helps people have an emotional connection with the subjects of the story . I used this tool because I   did n’t want to give the management a list of things to do that they may not believe in ; I wanted to   help them form connections and empathise with employees . 

 Application 

 I wanted to communicate that while the rule in itself could be argued to be fair , it is the way it   makes people feel that ’s problematic . People needed to be trusted for doing their job – the more   you trust them , the more they will stand up to your trust . And the more calculative you become   about their worth , the more calculative they will become about how much they contribute . 

 So I told them the story of an HR policy in another organisation . This organisation allowed   employees to take 20 days off in a year . And all employees would make sure that they take 20 days   off , sometimes more in the case of emergencies . But then the organisation changed the rule to say   that every employee can take as many leaves and he/ she sees fit . Surprisingly , this resulted in a   decrease in the average number of leaves employees took in a year . This shows that people   contribute more to an organisation that respects their choices and trusts them to make decisions   good for them and the organisation . 

 Insight 

 Hours of reasoning with the top management did n’t help as much as telling them this simple story   did . Storytelling got them to pull back from the task at hand , and look at the issue more objectively   and empathetically by considering other similar situations . I have come to realise that the most   important advantage of design thinking is that it helps people come on the same page faster and   more effectively , so that good decisions get made quicker . 

 Approach 

 Instead of storytelling , I could have used data to convince the top management . I could have   conducted a poll to say that x% of people believe that the ‘ Swipe before 10 ’ rule demotivates them . 

 But this would not have had the same impact . The management would have argued using other data   that showed how people are always on time because of the rule , and how this makes us deliver work   quicker . I could have argued about how employees feel and how that impacts their work using   qualitative data as well , but that would not have cut ice as effectively as storytelling did . Because of   that one conversation , the organisation became more open to knowing about other ideas that we   had as well .
### Output: 