Reflection – Storytelling 

 Challenge : 

 I work at a small management consulting firm . Our business focus these days is to reduce   the cost of delivery of engagements to be competitive with the larger firms . As of now ,   almost all the offerings are manual ( i.e. the work is based on human - human interactions ) .   Our short - term plan is to a ) reduce the cost of serving the clients , b ) to enhance the quality   of our offerings . To achieve this , we are planning on using solutions based on Artificial   Intelligence ( AI ) . Why did we choose AI ? Our idea is that AI can help us in terms of   Streamlining Internal Processes ( such as Human Resources Management ) , Knowledge   Creation/ Capture ( to reduce learning curves ) and Project Augmentation ( by collating   information quickly ) . 

 The critical question is which use cases we want to address ? The answer to this question   can be gathered by understanding the pain points of our employees and our clients . 

 Selection : 

 I wanted to use story - telling as a tool to generate these ideas and define use - cases . We   organised some workshops for the target groups to gather and share stories about their pain   points . Besides the explicit motivation to gather ideas and to innovate , we have an implicit   motivation to create buy - in from the stakeholders on the need for AI . This will help ensure   that the future stages go smoothly with collaboration from all involved . 

 As explained by Mr Carlos White ( Global Leadership Development Director , Mars ) in the   video in Module 2 , the storytelling will bring the context to the use cases that we need . It will   also help us to formulate possible business models ( and monetisation models ) , instead of   just providing us with the use case . This will make the learning launches more powerful . 

 Application : 

 I gathered two small groups ( 4 - 5 participants each ) - one of our clients and one of our   employees – on different dates . In both sessions , I asked the participants to share a story of   what was their biggest pain point during three time periods - during the last week , last   month , and last year . The clients were advised not to indulge anything confidential , and   focus on generic challenges/ pain points ( as there were other clients in the session , who   could be a competitor ) . The only rule was – that it has to be a form of a story – a title , a   beginning , the meaty middle part , and should end with a lesson/ call - to - action . I gave all   participants 5 minutes to think after explaining the process . Each participant had 2 minutes   to share their story ( though some went longer than that ) . After each story , participants and I   ( the moderator ) would ask questions from the story - teller about how this pain point could be   addressed , and what could have been done differently . Each storyteller had to write a key   message / learning on a post - it note for all to see . 

 The session with clients lasted 48 minutes , while the session with employees lasted over 72   minutes . 

 Insights : 

 Storytelling as a tool was useful due to the following three reasons : 

 a ) It reduced the inhibitions participants had to share their challenges . Instead of just 

 focusing on the pain point , they could contextualise it – thus , shifting the focus from   their failure to the pain point in question . The sessions lasted longer than what I had   expected 

 b ) It helped me to get internal buy - in to proceed to the next stage . Instead of just 

 showing the data on the need for AI to my management ( 2 of them were in the   employee session ) , I could show them the story around the data points . I am hoping   it will help to speed things up . 

 c ) It was not monotonous – the stories were on different scales of emotions – from fun 

 to serious , from personal to professional . It helped to break any ice between the   participants . 

 Approach : 

 I feel storytelling can be easy for all of us as it is a basic aspect of being human . It also did   not involve extensive preparation in terms of logistics which will be required for learning   launches or require people to come prepared for visualisations . As an alternative , I would   have used visualisation to not only “ tell ” the impact of AI , but also “ show ” the impact .   However , I feel the barriers of participants to storytelling approach are much lower –   therefore , it is better to start with this . The next step would be visualisation ; followed by   learning launches ( I might skip mind - maps for this initiative ) . 


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 at a small management consulting firm . Our business focus these days is to reduce   the cost of delivery of engagements to be competitive with the larger firms . As of now ,   almost all the offerings are manual ( i.e. the work is based on human - human interactions ) .   Our short - term plan is to a ) reduce the cost of serving the clients , b ) to enhance the quality   of our offerings . To achieve this , we are planning on using solutions based on Artificial   Intelligence ( AI ) . Why did we choose AI ? Our idea is that AI can help us in terms of   Streamlining Internal Processes ( such as Human Resources Management ) , Knowledge   Creation/ Capture ( to reduce learning curves ) and Project Augmentation ( by collating   information quickly ) . 

 The critical question is which use cases we want to address ? The answer to this question   can be gathered by understanding the pain points of our employees and our clients . 

 Selection : 

 I wanted to use story - telling as a tool to generate these ideas and define use - cases . We   organised some workshops for the target groups to gather and share stories about their pain   points . Besides the explicit motivation to gather ideas and to innovate , we have an implicit   motivation to create buy - in from the stakeholders on the need for AI . This will help ensure   that the future stages go smoothly with collaboration from all involved . 

 As explained by Mr Carlos White ( Global Leadership Development Director , Mars ) in the   video in Module 2 , the storytelling will bring the context to the use cases that we need . It will   also help us to formulate possible business models ( and monetisation models ) , instead of   just providing us with the use case . This will make the learning launches more powerful . 

 Application : 

 I gathered two small groups ( 4 - 5 participants each ) - one of our clients and one of our   employees – on different dates . In both sessions , I asked the participants to share a story of   what was their biggest pain point during three time periods - during the last week , last   month , and last year . The clients were advised not to indulge anything confidential , and   focus on generic challenges/ pain points ( as there were other clients in the session , who   could be a competitor ) . The only rule was – that it has to be a form of a story – a title , a   beginning , the meaty middle part , and should end with a lesson/ call - to - action . I gave all   participants 5 minutes to think after explaining the process . Each participant had 2 minutes   to share their story ( though some went longer than that ) . After each story , participants and I   ( the moderator ) would ask questions from the story - teller about how this pain point could be   addressed , and what could have been done differently . Each storyteller had to write a key   message / learning on a post - it note for all to see . 

 The session with clients lasted 48 minutes , while the session with employees lasted over 72   minutes . 

 Insights : 

 Storytelling as a tool was useful due to the following three reasons : 

 a ) It reduced the inhibitions participants had to share their challenges . Instead of just 

 focusing on the pain point , they could contextualise it – thus , shifting the focus from   their failure to the pain point in question . The sessions lasted longer than what I had   expected 

 b ) It helped me to get internal buy - in to proceed to the next stage . Instead of just 

 showing the data on the need for AI to my management ( 2 of them were in the   employee session ) , I could show them the story around the data points . I am hoping   it will help to speed things up . 

 c ) It was not monotonous – the stories were on different scales of emotions – from fun 

 to serious , from personal to professional . It helped to break any ice between the   participants . 

 Approach : 

 I feel storytelling can be easy for all of us as it is a basic aspect of being human . It also did   not involve extensive preparation in terms of logistics which will be required for learning   launches or require people to come prepared for visualisations . As an alternative , I would   have used visualisation to not only “ tell ” the impact of AI , but also “ show ” the impact .   However , I feel the barriers of participants to storytelling approach are much lower –   therefore , it is better to start with this . The next step would be visualisation ; followed by   learning launches ( I might skip mind - maps for this initiative ) .
### Output: 