Reflection -   Storytelling    by Bomkazi Bezuidenhout – 27 October 2019     Challenge      Working for a large organization that has recently gone through a change in Senior Leadership and the   implementation of a new software application has caused an impact on employee ’s morale , productivity and an   increase in absenteeism .      Our challenge / task as the Human Resource team was to help gain insight into how employees are truly feeling and   look at ways in which we can improve not only the company ’s culture and engagement , but ensure that employees   feel valued and appreciated .      Selection and Application     In collaboration with the company ’s in - house marketing and digital department , we decided to put together a video   that told a very simplistic story of the company ’s strategy , vision and importance of digital transformation .       The purpose of creating a video was to create consistency for all line managers by ensuring that every line manager   delivered the same story when engaging with their staff .     This powerful video was used as a story - telling tool to initiate monthly engagement / café conversation sessions with   their respective teams in order to collectively rebuild / transform the company ’s DNA .     At every engagement session held , the following was noted . 

 1 )   Concern(s)/theme 

 2 )   Agreed action 

 3 )   Execution 

 After 4 months of running these engagement sessions , HR conducted a very brief ADKAR assessment ( Awareness ,   Desire , Knowledge , Ability and Reinforcement ) with staff and line managers to assess and diagnose any gaps .     Insight and Approach     Out of the 3000 employees who have been engaged : -      65 % of employees welcomed the video . They had a better understanding as to the business need in preparing the   workforce for the upcoming digital transformation era and felt very excited and positive about the future and the   possible new opportunities that would exist within the company .       Albeit having a better understanding , there was a great need to invest in the development of people across the   organization .   Focused development for each individual is currently being put in place and there is a huge drive for   continuous learning across the organization being implemented .     15 % of the employees engaged , felt it important to have a home/ work life balance . They felt burnt out as a result of   their perceived need to put in extra hours in fear of losing their jobs .   Various social / connect sessions have been put   in place across teams for social interactions over lunch time and to encourage celebrating internal victories in order   to boost team morale .     20 % of employees felt it important to introduce flexible working hours .   Some departments are already practicing this   within their respective teams . Other departments , however , are currently putting frameworks in place to find ways of   implementing the concept of flexible work across all teams .     The feedback received from the engagement session worked really well .   It provided great insights in implementing   targeted initiatives for the employees . ( as mentioned above )     What has not worked very well is the inconsistent application of flexible working hours across the organization .   This has   created a sense of unfairness across teams . To address this concern , the Human Resource Department and the   Industrial Relations Department is currently putting together an official company “ flexible work from home policy ” .   ( Currently being developed )       I ’m very new to the world of Innovation and this course has really opened up my mind in approaching things   differently . WOW … I had no idea how powerful storytelling could be !   By applying storytelling in our organization , it   allowed management to really connect with their staff .   Employees felt heard , they felt engaged and they realized   that management themselves were going through the same mixed emotions as they were .   One of the line managers   said to this to his team “ Team , we are all “ Explorers ” … so let ’s explore together ” , He gave each of his staff members   an “ Explorer hat ” as a token to remind them that they were all on this change journey together . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Bomkazi Bezuidenhout
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    by Bomkazi Bezuidenhout – 27 October 2019     Challenge      Working for a large organization that has recently gone through a change in Senior Leadership and the   implementation of a new software application has caused an impact on employee ’s morale , productivity and an   increase in absenteeism .      Our challenge / task as the Human Resource team was to help gain insight into how employees are truly feeling and   look at ways in which we can improve not only the company ’s culture and engagement , but ensure that employees   feel valued and appreciated .      Selection and Application     In collaboration with the company ’s in - house marketing and digital department , we decided to put together a video   that told a very simplistic story of the company ’s strategy , vision and importance of digital transformation .       The purpose of creating a video was to create consistency for all line managers by ensuring that every line manager   delivered the same story when engaging with their staff .     This powerful video was used as a story - telling tool to initiate monthly engagement / café conversation sessions with   their respective teams in order to collectively rebuild / transform the company ’s DNA .     At every engagement session held , the following was noted . 

 1 )   Concern(s)/theme 

 2 )   Agreed action 

 3 )   Execution 

 After 4 months of running these engagement sessions , HR conducted a very brief ADKAR assessment ( Awareness ,   Desire , Knowledge , Ability and Reinforcement ) with staff and line managers to assess and diagnose any gaps .     Insight and Approach     Out of the 3000 employees who have been engaged : -      65 % of employees welcomed the video . They had a better understanding as to the business need in preparing the   workforce for the upcoming digital transformation era and felt very excited and positive about the future and the   possible new opportunities that would exist within the company .       Albeit having a better understanding , there was a great need to invest in the development of people across the   organization .   Focused development for each individual is currently being put in place and there is a huge drive for   continuous learning across the organization being implemented .     15 % of the employees engaged , felt it important to have a home/ work life balance . They felt burnt out as a result of   their perceived need to put in extra hours in fear of losing their jobs .   Various social / connect sessions have been put   in place across teams for social interactions over lunch time and to encourage celebrating internal victories in order   to boost team morale .     20 % of employees felt it important to introduce flexible working hours .   Some departments are already practicing this   within their respective teams . Other departments , however , are currently putting frameworks in place to find ways of   implementing the concept of flexible work across all teams .     The feedback received from the engagement session worked really well .   It provided great insights in implementing   targeted initiatives for the employees . ( as mentioned above )     What has not worked very well is the inconsistent application of flexible working hours across the organization .   This has   created a sense of unfairness across teams . To address this concern , the Human Resource Department and the   Industrial Relations Department is currently putting together an official company “ flexible work from home policy ” .   ( Currently being developed )       I ’m very new to the world of Innovation and this course has really opened up my mind in approaching things   differently . WOW … I had no idea how powerful storytelling could be !   By applying storytelling in our organization , it   allowed management to really connect with their staff .   Employees felt heard , they felt engaged and they realized   that management themselves were going through the same mixed emotions as they were .   One of the line managers   said to this to his team “ Team , we are all “ Explorers ” … so let ’s explore together ” , He gave each of his staff members   an “ Explorer hat ” as a token to remind them that they were all on this change journey together .
### Output: 